Peach Puff Pastry Tarts

I had some left over puff pastry in the freezer which I made previously for a mille-feuille. So I decided to make something simple such as open-faced fruit puff pastry tarts. At first I was thinking of doing a mixed berry dessert, maybe with blueberries and raspberries but ended up with a peach puff pastry tart instead. Why the switch? That's because I had two sad looking peaches sitting in the fridge, looking somewhat wrinkled and with a couple of brown spots on them. I guess it's an indication of the peaches starting to be too ripe! So I transformed the "ugly ducklings" into 4 delicious peach puffs and we had it over a Sunday afternoon with a cup a coffee. Can't think of a better way to spend a lazy Sunday afternon!

Peach Puff Pastry Tarts
(Serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 peaches, peeled, remove the seed and slice thinly
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp brown sugar
* Mix above together and set aside

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 190C.

2) Roll out the puff pastry (recipe below) thinly about 1/4" and cut out 4 pieces measuring about 5" by 5" square. Using a knife slightly indent a border of about 1". This will allow the outer rim to puff out slightly more, thus creating a dam in the centre. (If you're not in the mood to make the pastry from scratch, you can always buy frozen butter puff pastry which will work just as well)

3) Brush the inner square of the pastry (4" by 4") with your favourite jam spread. (I used raspberry as this was all I had in my fridge).

4) Nicely arrange the peach slices in a straight row, overlapping each other.

5) Sprinkle the stop with almond flakes and bake for about 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown.

6) Serve immediately whilst warm. You can brush the top with some more jam to create a glaze. Accompany the tart with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

Simple Rough Puff Pastry:
(Makes 350g)

Ingredients:

200g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
150g butter
1 tsp lemon juice

1) Mix together the flour and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes and mix the butter into the flour without breaking up the lumps. Mix to a stiff doug with 100ml cold water the lemon juice.

2) On a floured board, roll the dough into rectangle three times as long as it is wide - about 30cm x 10cm.

3) Fold the top third down and bottom third up. Turn the pastry sideways and seal the edges. Continue to roll adn fold four times, leaving the pastry to rest for 15 minutes between each folding and rolling. Wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before using. (Left over pastry can be frozen in the freezer.)