Mini Caramelised Apple Tarts

The new season of Bramley cooking apples is upon us and they had some fantastic ones on the market stall last wee, three huge ones for £1. I couldn't resist. I wanted to make a tarte tatin but none of the recipes online took my fancy. I came across notquitenigella's mini apple tarte tatins and it inspired me. 

I used 110g of golden caster sugar and melted it in a pan, sadly not keeping as close an eye on it as I should have been!

I added 110g of butter and then the apples.

I popped them in my tray and placed a disc of puff pastry on top and then popped them into the oven for about 15 minutes.

They came out really well. Not quite as pretty as NQN's but certainly tasty.

 I don't feel that they qualify as tarte tatins so have named them caramelised apple tarts instead.

Vegetarian Club Sandwich & Two Puddings

I went on a course on Wednesday and the description of the day said that there would be refreshments at 9am, 11am, 1pm and 3.15pm. I interpreted this as meaning that there would be constant feeding. I have been on courses before where I was served pastries, egg butties, as much tea and coffee as you like, a two course hot buffet lunch and mints. I had decided that this was going to be the same and so I didn't have breakfast just to make sure I could make the most of it. When I got there I was disappointed to find that refreshments for the most part meant tea and coffee. So I had a couple of herbal teas which kept me going. My tummy started grumbling about half an hour before lunch. We had had to pre-order our lunch from the bar and lounge menu. There was only one vegetarian option which was a club sandwich so I went for that. We had a £16 allocation and that took up only £6.50 so I went for a pudding. I chose the rhubarb and ginger tarte tatin with coffee ice cream and a fruit compote. I still had £3.55 left and the caramel shortbread from the tea menu was £3.45 so I ordered that as well, well I had missed breakfast!

The club sandwich was interesting, it had a very slim cheese layer, lettuce, it supposedly had egg mayonnaise but thankfully I couldn't taste it, it was OK. The vegetable crisps and coleslaw that were served with it were lovely. The rhubarb and ginger tarte tatin was slightly strange if I'm honest. The pastry wasn't very nice and a bit soft. The coffee ice cream didn't go with it at all. The fruit compote was lovely but didn't go with either the tatin or the ice cream. The caramel shortbread was also a desert option and someone messed up and brought me the desert version instead which involved two caramel shortbreads! I wrapped them up in a napkin and took them home for dinner.