Technical Stages :

• Put the butter and sugar on a pie pan. Put this pan on the stove.
• Mix these two ingredients with a wooden spatula.
• Prepare a brown caramel. Beware not to let it darken too much, your pie would become bitter.
• Peel, seed and cut the apples in slices.
• Put the apple pieces on the cold caramel.
• Squeeze them together.
• If you have some apples left, cut them in smaller pieces and put them on top. Add cinnamon (optional).
• At this stage, to speed up the cooking process, I cover the apples with aluminium foil and cook for a few minutes (5 to 10) on high heat. The apples will soak the melting caramel and they'll be already half cooked.
• Roll out the shortcrust pastry to 3-4 mm thickness, and give it a round shape with a slightly larger diiameter than the pan.
• Cover the apples with the dough.
• Fold the edges inside the pan.
• Bake in a warm oven (180-200°C or 356-392°F) until the crust is completely baked.
• The crust is almost baked and the caramel starts to leak on the sides.
• When finished, take the pie out of the oven.
• Cover the pan with a larger one, and unmold the tatin when still warm. Don't wait or it'll be too late!!!