Tarte Tatin is classified as what type of dish?

Tarte Tatin is classified as a tart.

It is a French upside-down tart in which apples or other fruit are caramelized in butter and sugar before pastry is added and the dish is baked. The finished dessert is inverted before serving, revealing glossy fruit on top of the pastry. It is commonly made with puff pastry or shortcrust pastry.

The dish is associated with sisters Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin, who ran the Hôtel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, in France’s Sologne region. A popular story says Stéphanie accidentally left apples cooking too long, placed pastry over them, and served the result upside down. Historians note that upside-down fruit tarts existed before the sisters and that the famous origin story may be simplified.

Tarte Tatin is sometimes loosely called an apple pie, but “tart” is the more precise classification. Unlike many pies, it is not enclosed beneath a top crust; its pastry forms the base after the dessert is turned out.