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QUICK PUFF PASTRY
180 gm Butter
250 gm White Bread Flour or stone ground White Cake Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
200-250 ml Ice Water
FILLING
3 large golden delicious Apples
2 Tablespoons Butter
1 Tablespoon Sugar
4 Tablespoons smooth Apricot Jam, heated
1 Tablespoon Lemons Rind, slivers
250 ml Cream, whipped
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To make pastry, dice butter coarsely. Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Add butter with lemon juice and water. Mix lightly with round bladed knife to make a soft dough, incorporating bits of butter. Turn on to floured surface, knead and roll lightly into a thick strip 30x 10cm, keeping edges straight. Fold up bottom third of pastry, dust off excess flour. Fold down top third of pastry and dust. Turn so that top fold is towards left side, Seal edges lightly and reroll and refold four times in all, giving pastry a half turn each time and chill between rolling if pastry becomes too sticky. (Always roll in one direction and never over the edges of your dough.) Wrap and chill or freeze until ready to use. To prepare filling, peel, core and quarter apples. Slice quarters into thin crescents 4mm thick. Divide puff pastry into six equal parts and roll out each piece to a thickness of one centimetre. With a small saucer, cut out pastry discs 11cm in diameter and place on a baking sheet. With a biscuit cutter 10cm in diameter, press lightly on each round to make an incision on each, about 1 mm deep. This incision allows the edge to rise and form a border around the apples. Overlap thinly sliced apples in the inner circle to form a pretty pattern. Dot each tartlet with small pieces of butter and sprinkle with sugar and 2-3 lemon peel slivers. Cool in refrigerator for 30 minutes, then bake at 200 C for 15-20 minutes. When tartlets are well baked, place under the grill for a few minutes to brown apples and paint immediately with hot apricot jam.
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