Cheat's Apple Tart

At home, we always make apple tart from scratch. But this weekend my mum experimented with pre-made puff pastry sheets, and it went down a treat! Bonus- it takes far less time!

Although Mum used her tried-and-tested method of stewed the apples with sugar and then folding the pastry over to form a kind of pie crust (and prodded with a fork before baking, to allow the steam release), the recipe on the Greenvale Pastry  packet was much easier, and would give a kick of unexpected flavours.

Here is the recipe as indicated on the packaging, and I think would be well worth a try!

Serves 4-6 people.

• 375g pre-rolled puff pastry
• 5 large eating apples
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 25g butter cut into small pieces
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1tbsp caster sugar
• 3tbsp apricot jam

Preheat oven to 200deg Celcius.

1. Unroll the pastry and trim to about 35cm diameter.
2. Peel, core and thinly slice the apples and toss in the lemon juice, Spread over the pastry to within 2cm of the edges. Curl up the edges slightly to stop the juices running off.
3. Dot the top with butter and sprinkle vanilla and caster sugar.
4. Bake for 15-20mins until the apples are tender and the pastry crisp. 
5. Warm the jam then brush over the apples and pastry edge.
6. Serve hot with ice-cream or cream.

Whether you follow this recipe, use your own family secret, or throw some apples and sugar into a sheet of pastry and see what happens, enjoy! This time of year, apple tart and ice cream is the perfect after-dinner treat!