SERVING 4

Puffed pastry is generally not made in the home, but prepared by professional bakers, packed in appropriate amounts and sold frozen at food stores. It is nice to keep a package in the fridge, for making puffed pastry treats is quick and easy and the outcome generally a welcome and pleasant surprise, bringing smiles of appreciation to the faces of everyone present.

Brown-sugar marinated apples
4 apples
Juice from a lemon
6 tbs brown sugar
½ tbs cinnamon

Peel the apples and remove the stems and the flower buds at the ends. Remove the middle of each apple and cut the apples into wedges. Squeeze some lemon juice over the pieces of apple to preserve the color. Put the brown sugar in a bowl, add the cinnamon and mix these together. Then place the apple wedges in with the sugar and cinnamon mixture and toss he apples in the bowl so that the apple pieces are completely covered in the mixture. Put the bowl aside for a while for the apples to marinate a bit.

Preparing the tart
Puffed pastry

Thaw out the puffed pastry and leave it to reach room temperature. Scatter some flour on the kitchen counter, put the pastry onto the flour and roll it out to the thickness of about 5 mm or about ¼ of an inch. Then cut the rolled-out pastry into pieces of about 5 by 3 inches or about 12 by 7 cm and put the pieces on a sheet of parchment paper. Using an ordinary fork, punch holes in the pieces forming a line lengthwise along the middle of each piece of pastry to prevent the dough from rising too much in the middle. Arrange the marinated wedges of apple on top of the pastry, covering the line made by the fork, dust the arrangement with some powdered sugar and put the pastry into an oven preheated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit or 212 degrees centigrade and bake the pastry for 18 to 20 minutes. When the baking is through, drizzle some of the syrup from the marinated apples over the hot pastry and finally dust a little powdered sugar on top.

Serving
This simple, quick and most savory tart looks most inviting on a plate. It is; a fine treat for a quiet family gathering of an evening at home.