Apple Pastries

 There used to be a show on Australian TV called "Surprise Chef". This excitable chef would accost people in supermarkets, force the camera in their face, and then go home with them and put the camera through their pantry and fridge. His aim was to make a gourmet three-course meal for their family with only what he could find there.

Today, I found some gorgeous pink lady apples - the kind that look like they have come straight off a tree and into your basket, ripe, smelling like a glass of apple juice, un-waxed, oddly shaped and un-spectacularly coloured. I had to make an apple pie with no pie pan, and the laziest way possible (children wanted to eat them RIGHT NOW!!!). So I delved into my shelves, and found some condensed milk. "Hmmm...", I thought "Now that will be my challenge ingredient".

So here are the easiest apple pastries ever.

Ingredients:

• 1 400g packet puff pastry (thawed and rolled to 5mm or less)
• about 5 apples, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 small tin of condensed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Cut the pastry into large rectangles or circles, depending on what shape you prefer. (examples in picture)
2. Mix the condensed milk and cinnamon into a paste, then spread like butter on the pastry, then arrange apples and fold the pastry in a pretty way.
3. Bake at 180°C for about 15 minutes, or until golden.

These got gobbled up while still warm, drizzled with the left-over condensed milk. They would have been better with a dollop of double cream and a dusting of cinnamon icing sugar. They refrigerated nicely and went in school lunches (naughty I know) the following day.