Tarte Tatin

I've long been an admirer of the dish called

tarte tatin

Alas, I've never tasted it

But it's story fascinated me

And so years and years ago I bought a copper

tarte tatin pan.

A girl needs to be prepared

And it sat in the cupboard

Oh, I got it out a couple of times and made potatoes Anna in it

But never a tarte tatin

for which the pan was named!

The story is charming

And how much is true and how much is fantasy

I'm not sure

But it involves the sisters Tatin,

Stephanie and Caroline

who owned a hotel south of Paris

Stephanie was the cook and one day

as she was preparing an apple tart

she left the apples, butter and sugar on the stove

And they caramelized, for she left them on far too long

Realizing that she did not have a bottom crust on her tart

She threw one on top,

put the whole in the oven and baked it!

When pulled from the oven she turned it upside down

And viola!

The tarte tat in was born!

Of course, the hotel guests immediately fell in love

with this new dish

And clamored for more!

And the hotel became famous for this,

their signature dish,

And people came from near and far

to order a slice!

But I did buy a pan

And some apples

And so at Linderhof,

I carefully put the pan on the stove,

the butter and sugar and apples in the pan

And it bubbled merrily away

for 20 minutes

Until the apples were nicely caramelized.

I "threw" the puff pastry on top

And put the whole in the oven

It came out nice and brown and puffy!

And once turned over . . . 

It's caramel apple goodness!

A slice for lunch . . .

(for I had company -- they, like the guests at the Hotel Tatin,

pronounced the dish "wonderful")

And because it was only four for lunch . . .

A slice later for tea!

I'm mad at myself that I've not made it before

It's really simple, it's really good

And we have such nice Missouri apples

here on my part of the prairie.