Madhouse recipe : Cinnamon roll apple tarts

Glancing at the fruit bowl and noticing some apples going slightly wrinkly, I decided to make some apple pies to use them up. I had a roll of ready to use puff pastry in the fridge and I remembered a recipe video I'd seen scrolling through my Facebook feed months ago which gave me the idea for these quick and simple little tarts, which were polished off as soon as I'd put them on the table !

 Cinnamon roll apple tarts

1 roll of ready made puff pastry

2tbsp (or more) of cinnamon

4 apples (I used golden delicious but any would do)

1tbsp salted butter

3tbsp sugar

1tsp vanilla essence (optional)

Roll out the pastry and sprinkle all over with cinnamon. I would have put a lot more than this, both for taste and visual appeal, but Juliette was hovering behind me, reminding me not to put too much because she doesn't like the taste !

Roll it up into a cylinder.

Chop into 1cm slices.

Lay two or three slices in the bottom of each hole in a silicon muffin tin and press them flat to cover the base and sides. Make sure they're nicely sealed at the joins.

Using more cinnamon would give you a much more defined swirly pattern, but you still get the idea. Pop them in the oven at 180°C for 10 minutes while you prepare the apples.

Peel the apples and chop them into small chunks.

Melt the butter in a pan and gently fry the apple until it starts to go golden and soften. Add the sugar (more or less depending on how sweet or tart you want it and also on the variety of apple). Add the vanilla essence, if you want (I had a squeezy bottle of vanilla concentrate to flavour coffee) and add a little water if it starts to burn. Once it's soft enough but not completely mushy, turn off the heat and leave to cool.

Remove the pastry cases from the oven, press down with a fork of your fingers in the centre if necessary and leave to cool.

When everything is lukewarm, spoon the apple into the pastry and serve. They're lovely warm or cold, just on their own or with squirty cream or ice cream for a more decadent treat.

Adding to this month's #KitchenClearout linky as they used up some apples and other odds and ends from the cupboards.