Can I confess to a food crime? I don’t like desserts, cake yes, but desserts? No thanks. I’ll pour over the food sections of the Sunday papers but as soon as I hit a sweet page I turn straight over to the gardening section and I like gardening even less.
So when I’m planning a meal I’ll spend an age thinking about what starter with which main and completely forget to plan for pud. It’s when I’m unpacking the shopping that I remember. When I fill shelf after shelf with salad, vegetables, cheese and meat but nothing remotely chocolaty, gooey, crumbly or custardy.
In desperation I’ll search the recipe books for something that I have all the ingredients for, cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla pod, check. Delighted that I have everything you need it’s then double despair when I get to the end I read those dreaded words “chill overnight.” Bugger!
So here’s a recipe that has saved me time and time again. The beauty of it is that so long as you keep a block of puff pastry in the freezer the other 3 ingredients are things you’ll already have in. Plus you can prep it in advance and just whack it in the oven after you’ve served the main course.
Pre-heat oven to gas mark 6/210*C
Peel, core and quarter 10 tart apples, Granny Smiths are good, British is better
Smear a 24cm round tart dish (I use a frying pan without the handle) with 60g unsalted butter
Sprinkle 110g golden caster sugar over the butter & arrange the apple quarters in a circular pattern over the top
Put the tin on the hob on a low heat and let the butter & sugar caramelise the apples (about 20mins)
Roll your puff pastry to the thickness of a £1 coin & cut a circle slightly larger than your tin
Place the pastry over the apples tucking it down around the sides
Place in the oven for 20/25 minutes till risen & golden
Once out of the oven let it stand for 2 minutes before tipping upside down to turn out onto a plate
Serve thick wedges with ice cream or creme fraiche
