Apples + frozen puff pastry dough, thawed + butter + brown sugar = apple tarte Tatin
Most tarte tatin recipes call for between 1/2 to a whole stick of butter. My healthier version only uses enough butter to coat the pan, about 2 teaspoons. And it’s less sugary, using only 1/4 cup sugar instead of the usual 1 cup. What’s even better—it’s supereasy to make.
1. Preheat oven to 400°. Peel, core, and slice 2 pounds apples (Cortland, Gala, or Fuji); set aside.
2. Place 1 sheet puff pastry on a piece of wax paper, and roll into a circle the size of your pan; chill in fridge. Put cast-iron or other ovenproof pan on stove. Coat bottom and sides of pan with just enough butter to leave a film. Add 1/4 cup brown sugar. Add apple slices in a concentric circle, starting with outside of pan; make 2 layers of apples. Turn heat to medium-high, and cook for 20 minutes.
3. Transfer to oven, and cook 20 minutes more. Remove and place puff pastry over apples. Bake 30 minutes more or until golden.
4. Remove from oven; cool for 15–20 minutes. Invert pan onto platter, and serve.
Nutrition: Calories 201; Fat 10g (sat 2g, mono 2g, poly 6g); Cholesterol 2mg; Protein 2g; Carbohydrate 26g; Sugars 13g; Fiber 1g; Iron 1mg; Sodium 64mg; Calcium 11mg
Frances A. Largeman-Roth, RD, is Health’s Senior Food and Nutrition Editor.
Comments (9)
Apple Tart
Did someone forget to include the nutrition facts for the Apple Tarte Tatin? As a diabetic, I always want to know how many carbohydrate grams, and how many calories and how much fat my food contains. Apparently your Health website is not overly concerned with diabetics…
since when are butter and brown sugar considered healthy ingedients for a “healthy” diet???
I agree about the carbs. As a diabetic those values are very important to me as well. I do know butter is better than margarine. How would this recipe work with stevia or xylitol as sweetener? I am also lap band patient and am limited as to quantity and quality of food.
I’m guessing the nutrition facts aren’t included, because it depends what sort of pastry dough you buy. IMHO, brown sugar is moderately healthy. If I were going to bake a tart though, I wouldn’t expect it to be extremely healthy. This recipe is a good alternative to traditional tarts.
This recipe uses very little butter and sugar for a dessert. There are inexpensive software programs that allow you to calculate the nutrition analysis for any recipe very easily, if you’re concerned about that. Also, phyllo dough is an alternative to the puff pastry, if you want to cut down further on the fat.
instead of brown sugar can we use a little bit of honey, as u know apple is sweet so there is no need for brown sugar, and for butter which has very high fat in it we can use cholesterol free margarine which has omega 3 in it which is good for health.
Another alternative is to use Splenda Brown Sugar (pkg recommends to use 1/2 the usual amount in the recipe when substituting Splenda brown sugar for baking) and we use regular Benecol a lot for cooking, even baking, instead of butter. Beware: the Light Benecol cannot be used for cooking.
If tempted to use a sugar substitute or honey, keep in mind this recipe is centered around cooking the apple slices in caramel sauce. I don’t think you can make a true caramel without sugar and butter. This recipe cuts down drastically on the amount of sugar and butter, meaning the sauce will contain a much higher proportion of apple juice than caramel.