Recipe by The Boy Who Bakes

1. 300g puff pastry (homemade or shop-bought)
2. To prepare the apples, use a knife to top and tail the apples and then use a peeler to remove the rest of the peel. Cut the apples into quarters and cut out the core. Place the apples into a large bowl and toss together with the lemon juice.
3. In a large saucepan or, preferably, a large high-sided frying pan, add the butter and cook over medium heat until melted and foaming. Add the apples and cook, stirring occasionally until the apples have started to soften. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside until needed.
4. To make the caramel, place a 8-9 inch Non-stick frying pan over medium heat and sprinkle in a third of the sugar. Cook until the sugar has fully melted and has turned golden. Add another third of the sugar and repeat the process.
5. Do this a final time and cook the sugar until it has caramelised to a rich coppery brown. Add the butter and the salt and stir to combine. Turn the heat to low and cook, stirring until the butter has fully melted and you have a smooth caramel sauce. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool.
6. Preheat the oven to 200ºC (180ºC Fan).

7. Working from the outside of the pan, layer up the apples in concentric circles, layering them in the pan so that they slightly overlap.
8. As the apples will shrink slightly as they bake, you want to pack them in as tightly as you can. Roll out the pastry so that it is in a circle slightly larger than your frying pan. If using shop-bought pastry, you can simply unroll it and cut it into a circle that is roughly 10 inches in diameter.
9. Drape the pastry atop the apples and tuck the pastry down the sides of the apples around the edge of the pan, using the end of a spoon to help. Pierce the pastry a few times with a sharp knife before transferring to the oven and baking for about 45 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the caramel is bubbling around the edge of the pastry.
10. Remove the tatin from the oven and set aside for 10-15 minutes before carefully inverting onto a large plate to serve. If you turn the tatin out too quickly, the caramel won't have had a chance to thicken up, and the tarte can lose definition when turned out.
11. Serve whilst still hot, topped with vanilla ice cream.

Tip: if you want to prep this dessert in advance, you can make the tart in advance all the way up to the baking stage, simply refrigerating the assembled dish in the fridge and then baking just before serving.