Tarte Tatin

The story says Stéphanie Tatin, running a hotel with her sister in the Sologne, forgot to line a tin before adding the apples, covered them with pastry to save the dish and turned it out to a hotel full of hunters who asked for it again. Maxim’s in Paris put it on the menu in the early 20th century and the tarte Tatin became the dessert of every serious French bistro.

It is a dish of caramel more than of pastry: the apples cook slowly in butter and sugar until they are glossy and almost translucent, the pastry goes on top and the whole thing is inverted while hot. Le Flair in Düsseldorf makes it the classic way; Balthazar in New York serves it to a room that never stops; Brasserie Lipp has it on the menu because it has everything on the menu.

At home the tart forgives most things except impatience. Use firm apples, a heavy ovenproof pan, real caramel and good puff pastry; cook the apples long before the pastry goes on, and flip with confidence over the sink. Crème fraîche, not ice cream.