Tarte Tatin is Definitely NOT Like Apple Pie
One year, Charlotte and Michael went to Paris to celebrate an anniversary, or a birthday, or just the fact that they were still breathing.
“Yeah, we’re breathing, that’s special,” was their stock reply whenever a server liked to inquire whether they were celebrating a “special” occasion. They always got a laugh out of this, but one night, at this one particular restaurant in Paris, the server was more than a bit condescending to them when he asked if they wanted dessert.
As he began to race through the evening’s sweet “conclusions,” Charlotte and Michael just looked at each other. They realized that the server was speaking to them in French but had switched over to English and was waiting for an answer.
“It’s like an apple pie,” he said in a heavy French accent.
Actually, he said “tarte tatin” so very quickly, he probably thought they didn’t understand what he said. Now while Michael didn’t speak any French at all, Charlotte liked to say that she spoke “menu French.” Specifically, she could manage to decipher most of a menu in French, and if she couldn’t actually verbalize what she wanted to eat, she could at least point to the item on the menu. She knew for example that if she ordered “lapin,” she wasn’t going to be served fish but rather rabbit!
However, since Charlotte and Michael didn’t answer the server quickly enough, he started to growl at them. Charlotte and Michael weren’t usually this indecisive, but Michael was thinking about having a cheese plate. He mentioned this to Charlotte and when she mulled it over for a moment, she realized that she didn’t want cheese or even “apple pie” at all. What she really wanted was chocolate mousse!
“Je veux de la mousse au chocolat,” was what Charlotte finally managed to say. She immediately looked down at her plate and thus, didn’t have to witness the server roll his eyes at her incredibly bad French.
When he returned to their table sometime later, he brought them not one, but two desserts. Laid out in front of them were both the chocolate mousse and the “tarte tatin.”
“Merci, Madame,” he said, and walked away actually smiling.
When Charlotte’s fork hit the first bite of that apple tart, well, it was pretty damn good. But she began to think that a French apple tart is definitely not like an apple pie! Why? Well, first of all the crust is different. American pie has a crust not only on the bottom, but on the top, too! The bottom of a tarte tatin is usually made from puff pastry while the top is laden with apples that have been sauteed and then caramelized. That’s when Charlotte began to remember how she made apple pie.
First, she’d put unbleached, all-purpose flour in a mixing bowl and add a couple of tablespoons of either lard or butter. When she was younger, she remembered being told to mix the shortening into the flour with either a fork or two knives until it resembled “peas.” Sometimes though, she was too impatient to do it this way and would just mix everything together in her mixer. Then, once the dough had achieved the requisite “pea” status, she’d slowly add some ice-cold water to the mix until the crust came together in a ball.
Without realizing it, Charlotte finished eating the entire tart by herself because Michael at this point was just looking at her from across the table.
“Do you want mine, too?” he asked her innocently.