My pantry provides - Peach tart

I am using 'pantry' in the loosest sense of the word, as I haven't got a proper pantry, just a few cupboards and general nooks and crannies that hold stuff that I need to use up. Regular visitors might be aware that I am going to France soon (Did I mention it already? Really?) and that I am buying as little as possible in terms of groceries and instead am making good the stuff that I already have. My aim is to clear the cupboards so that I can fill them up again with lots of lovely French stuff when I return from holiday.

Talking of France, the puff pastry which is the basis of this impromptu tart was bought on my last trip there and was, frankly, a bargain. I should have bought more. Along with some peaches, which I bought cheaply from the supermarket a week or so ago and have been kept in my fridge ever since I was sure that there was a quick, easy and pretty scrumptious pudding betwixt the two. So, educated guesswork began.

This pudding is really simple, especially if you buy the puff pastry. I know you can make it, and I have made it, but, do you know, sometimes life is too short, and if you buy a good quality buttery pastry you will have no cause for complaints. All that time folding and rolling and folding could be spent on other, more pleasurable, activities in my opinion.

Skinning peaches is also dead easy. I haven't shown it here but what I do is make a slight criss cross in the skin at the bottom of the peach, place it into boiling water for about 30 - 40 seconds, then take it out and plunge it into cold water to stop the cooking process, then take it out and peel. The skin slips off with ease. As easy as this tart is, as it happens.

Peach tart

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad twice

Ingredients

One sheet of (all butter) puff pastry

5 - 6 peaches, depending on size (my advice would be skin the peaches as you use them; don't skin them all at once in case you have a significant amount left over).

2 - 3 tbsp of sugar - depending on the sweetness of the peaches

a sprinkle of cinnamon

2 tbsp of warmed apricot jam, for glazing

Method.

Grease a baking tray and place your sheet of puff pastry on it.

Skin your peaches and then cut them into 'segments'. Mine were a little squishy so I did this by cutting around the peach first (hard to describe, but by making an incision from the top of the peach and letting the knife roll around the bottom of the peach, back up to the top of the peach again. Once that was done, I then cut the peach again to the size of segment that I wanted and flicked it out, away from the stone).

Place your peach segments in a uniform pattern on the pastry, ensuring that you leave about 1/2 inch or so around the edge of the pastry.

Once the peach segments are in place, scatter the sugar on the peaches and sprinkle a little cinnamon also. Place the tart in a preheated oven, about 180c, for about 30 minutes, but check every so often. The tart is ready when the pastry is golden and the peaches are yielding and beginning to caramelise a little.

Whilst the tart is warm, carefully brush over the warmed apricot jam (I zapped my jam in the microwave for about 20 seconds or so) over the fruit.

Serve warm with cream or ice cream, and, here's a thing... any leftovers you can have for breakfast. The tart has a danish pastry kinda feel to it when cold. Delicious!