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I had already proposed, at the very beginning of my cooking blog, my recipe for tarte tatin, which I have since also put in my first book (see the recipe HERE). Like many, I was intrigued, then subjugated by the method of William Lamagnère, pastry chef of the Closerie des Lilas, near Montparnasse. I was especially interested in the utensil used to cut the apples and I looked for it for a long time! I showed a screenshot of the video in which Mr. Lamagnère explains how he cuts his apples, to stores in Japan, because he specified that it was a Japanese mandolin. Last year, I went through the kitchenware districts in Osaka and Tokyo and the sellers thought I was crazy. Because finally this “Japanese” madolin, is inspired by the daikon mandolins, but is not sold for the fruits! I ended up buying a daikon debtor anyway!
Then I finally found the same mandolin that our chef uses, on a French website to discover that this mandolin is really French, despite the name of Japanese mandolin. So I bought it too.
Then KitchenAid came out with the same accessory that fits the artisan food processor and I had the solution. I already told you about it in my apple almond and chocolate spiral pie (recipe HERE). So yes, for this recipe, you need this device… I have since sold the daikon cutter, and put the Japanese mandolin (but bought in France) in Brittany at my parents’ house!
Then I finally found the same mandolin that our chef uses, on a French website to discover that this mandolin is really French, despite the name of Japanese mandolin. So I bought it too.
Then KitchenAid came out with the same accessory that fits the artisan food processor and I had the solution. I already told you about it in my apple almond and chocolate spiral pie (recipe HERE). So yes, for this recipe, you need this device… I have since sold the daikon cutter, and put the Japanese mandolin (but bought in France) in Brittany at my parents’ house!
I find the result so delicious that I couldn’t not publish the recipe here. I make it in puff pastry class and the students are always thrilled to discover the pie when they unmold. The apples are caramelized to perfection, melting like crazy. So a big thank you to Mr. Lamagnère for his delicious recipe that I can’t stop making.
Recipe for 6 tarts tatin :
- 9 pink lady apples
- 400g of sugar
- 200g of semi-salted butter
- 2 vanilla pods
- a little olive oil
- half a recipe for inverted puff pastry HERE
First, make your caramel. I only prepare it here dry. Heat a saucepan over moderate heat, then pour in a small amount of sugar (out of 400).
The sugar will start to melt.
When all the sugar has melted, add a little more.
And so on until you have a caramel with all the sugar. Go in small amounts. Always allow the sugar to melt completely before adding more. If you are afraid of a dry caramel, you can start from a syrup, but I advise you in this case to put a little glucose syrup: roughly, 350g of sugar and 50g of glucose syrup with enough water to soak the sugar.
Remove the inside of the vanilla pods. Here I have the vanillin with the butter and then pour it all in at once.
When all the caramel is done, add the butter all at once.
Initially you will have a caramel where the butter is apparent. Lower the heat and mix well to finally obtain a homogeneous caramel.
Pour the caramel into the 6 tatin molds. For this recipe, I used flexipan molds, pro, which I bought online.
Place the pans on a baking sheet. For your information, I am making this recipe in progress, and for ease of unmolding, I separated each mold by cutting the whole thing with scissors!
Here are the pink ladies used!
Peel them.
I already told you about this great tool to cut the apple strips in my apple spiral pie, see the recipe HERE! You can cut a whole apple into a long strip of more than 2 meters.
Once the apples are cut, take a strip of one apple. Start rolling (in the natural rolling direction of the fruit) from the widest side, tightening as much as possible.
Once the apple is rolled up, place it on the wide side of a second apple. Roll up again.
Do the same with a third apple. You must always remain well centered. If pieces break, don’t worry! Just keep rolling, it won’t show in the final result!
After 3 apples accumulated, stop. Cut the whole in half in the thickness.
Then place one half per pan, smooth side down, caramel side up.
Re-roll three apples and cut in half to make two taters. Therefore, 1.5 apples are needed per mold, hence the 9 apples for the 6 molds.
Pour a little olive oil on the apples.
And hop!
Place in oven for 45 minutes at 160°C.
Then let cool for 15 minutes. Roll out your puff pastry.
Cut 12cm circles with a knife (using a pastry ring) (as it will shrink a bit).
Prick the dough
Place a circle of dough on the apples.
Then bake this time at 170°C for 45 minutes again. The dough should be golden brown.
Let cool for an hour before unmolding gently. As I explained earlier, I cut the pies with scissors (which you can’t see here in the photo, because I did it afterwards), which makes it much easier to remove from the mold and doesn’t change the way the pies hold up in the oven.
