Pastry is life.  Every time I buy a roll of Jus Rol pastry it goes within the day.  Not raw mind you (I’m not that silly… although it does taste nice raw too), but made into anything and everything – savoury, sweet, big, small, as long as it’s tasty.

I used to buy danish pastries a LOT when I first started working.  It didn’t help that I worked in a cafe that had an abundant pre-made supply.  Then I worked as a junior baker and we baked danish pastries from scratch.  Apricot were always my favourite.

This is a pretty basic recipe, no faffing at all, and very delicious.  You could substitute apricot for blueberries, strawberries, cherries, peaches – you name it, it’ll probably work.  As long as you like the fruit, you’ll love it with pastry!

Ingredients

2 x rectangle sheets of puff pastry (mine were approx 15cm x 10cm), room temperature

1 x apricot, peeled and halved (see here for how to easily peel an apricot)

1 x tablespoon apricot jam or marmalade

Optional – handful of slivered almonds

Method

Preheat your oven to 220C (425F).

Arrange a baking tray with parchment paper to cover and place pastry rectangles on paper to warm to room temperature.

Once your pastry is at room temperature, fold the corners into the middle of the pastry, then place your halved apricot in the middle (see below).

Brush pastry with slightly warmed jam/marmalade (5 seconds in the microwave should be plenty).

Sprinkle slivered almonds on top.

Bake in the oven for around 25 minutes, but check so as not to burn.

Serve immediately, or can be kept at room temperature for around 2 days.

Time to make: 10 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking = 30 minutes

On a scale of easy (1) to pull your hair out difficult (5) =  1.5, not much to this recipe, which we like!

#nowplaying Blossoms – Charlemagne