One too many mornings

This rich apple tart is great for when friends are feeling down. I fed it to Michelle’s sister when she had the flu, it only took 2 minutes to work it’s magic and she was feeling much better.

• 4 large dessert apples peeled, core and segmented into eights
• 50g butter
• 50g sugar, brown or white whatever takes your fancy or you have at hand.
• 1/2 bar for ready-made puff pastry, because life is too short to make puff pastry.
• 1 tsp of cinnamon, I fresh ground stuff I don’t know if it tastes better, but boy does it smell good
• As much Calvados as you dare, I got a huge bottle of it at Split Airport for next to nothing so I can afford to the generous

Preheat oven to 220C or gas mark 7.

Fry the apples in the butter, adding the sugar and cinnamon all the while. If you have a tartin pan use that. Otherwise any frying pan will do, you’ll just need to transfer the apples to a cake tin. Arrange the apple slices nicely at the bottom of the pan or tin.

Roll out the pastry, place over the apples and trim to slighty larger than the diameter of the pan. Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Turn out and leave for five minutes. (I never can do that part, it smells too good).

Serve with ice cream or creme fraiche