Tarte tartin the easy pampered way

This went down well on Saturday afternoon.  Such a simple recipe and quick, which is the bit that went down particularly well.

Ingredients:

• pre rolled shop bought puff pastry
• two eating apples
• 2oz butter
• 2oz sugar
• lemon, zested and juiced.

Purists will probably say the pastry should be grated over the apples etc - but we need a little more tart for a lot less time.  There's no real skill here, it's the high quality kit that makes it flawless.

Unwrap ready rolled puff pastry and use the upturned saute pan as a guide.  Cut out a round of pastry and leave that to one side.

Peel and slice a couple of eating apples (there is a fantstic corer and wedge cutter - the exact name escapes me as I write; it's in the catalogue.).

Use the microplane zester to zest a lemon and just watch how much zest you get compared with a box grater.  There's no comparision.  (There were lots of 'ooohs...' at that on Saturday.)

So now, with the saute pan on the heat, add 2oz of butter and 2oz of sugar, the lemon zest and the juice of least half the lemon - more if you like the sharpness; personally, I do.  Let that melt and just start to caramalise, but not catch.  Add the apple slices in a cheffy kind of pattern if you like and cook for just a couple of minutes, no more.

Place the cut out puff pastry lid on top and tuck in, sealing the apples.

Now put in the oven at 180 degrees for around 20/25 minutes depending on how coloured you want the pastry to be.

Remember to use oven gloves to take the pan out of the oven.  That 'rubbery' handle can fool us into thinking it's not hot.  It's magnificantly hot.  Plate on top, turn over and there you are.  It wont stick and you will have a fabulous tarte tartin.

I've also tried it with tinned apricots in syrup.  Chefs may well cringe, but it works, tastes great and nothing sticks in my new best friend, the saute pan.