If you grew up in the UK in the 90s, you’ll remember Americana fever. How kids went crazy for exotic treats from across the pond. Almost neon-coloured Sunny-D. Lucky Charms breakfast cereal (who else just picked out and ate the mallow?). And the Pop Tart. Watching Saved by the Bell with a chocolate or jam-filled Pop Tart on a Saturday morning felt like the ultimate treat.
Surprisingly, the sugar-laden pastry started life back in the mid-60s – thought the OG Kellogg’s tart was more of a Plain Jane, without a glossy icing or sprinkles.
We’ve taken inspiration from the old and new in our British-themed version, flavoured just like a traditional apple pie. Loads of sugar, spice and all things nice. It’s probably not a good idea to eat these EVERY day for breakfast, but they’re a pretty cool centrepiece for brunch...maybe with a few apple martinis?
Ingredients (makes 8-10 tarts)
For the pastry:
- 300g plain flour
- 225g unsalted butter, cubed and very cold
- 4 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 120ml ice cold water
For the filling:
- 1 cooking apple
- 4 small to medium eating apples
- 100g caster sugar
- 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
- Pinch ground nutmeg
- Squeeze lemon juice
- 1 tbsp cornflour
To finish:
- 1 egg, beaten
- 75g demerara sugar
- Glace icing
- Sprinkles (optional)
Method
1. Make the pastry first. Add the flour, butter, salt, sugar and cinnamon to a large bowl. Rub quickly with your fingers to make fine breadcrumbs. Then gradually add the ice-cold water to bind into a pliable dough. Knead gently until smooth. Flatten lightly, wrap and chill for 30 to 60 minutes. You could also do this in a food processor.
2. For the filling, peel and core the apples and cut into roughly 2cm pieces. Add to a pan with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and a squeeze of juice. Cook over a low heat until the apples have broken down but there are still chunky pieces. Remove a little of the liquid and combine with the cornflour. Return this to the pan, turn the heat up, and stir to thicken.
3. Allow to cool completely.
4. Cut the pastry in two. On a lightly floured surface, roll each to around 3mm thick and cut out 8-10 rectangles from each half, measuring roughly 9.5cm x 5.5cm - you’ll need to re-roll the dough.
5. Now pop a couple of tablespoons of cold filling on top of one half of the cut out pieces, leaving a good 1.5cm gap around the edge. Brush the edge with beaten egg and place another piece of pastry over the top. Press to seal, and use a fork to close the edges firmly. Trim to neaten. Make a small hole in the top of each tart and brush with egg.
6. Place all your tarts on a tray and chill for 20-30 minutes. You could also open freeze them to bake from frozen later.
7. Crumble the leftover dough into a bowl with the demerara sugar and place in the fridge.
8. When you’re ready to cook, heat the oven to 200C. Place the tarts on lined baking sheets and cook for 20 to 25 minutes until golden. At the same time, crumble the leftover dough and sugar mix onto a line tray and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
9. Allow the tarts and leftover dough crumble to cool completely. Roughly crush the leftover dough into tiny pieces.
10. Glaze each tart with glace icing and sprinkle over the crumble and some sprinkles if you like. Allow to set, then dive in.
