French Apple Tart but the easy way out

This is short-cut method to make the apple tart, in fact not really a tart as I am using Pampas frozen puff pastry for the crust. Just one of those days where I have craving for apple tart but too lazy to make the crust from scatch ;)

Ingredients
1 sheet of Pampas frozen puff pastry
1 red Fuji apple (you may need 2 if using smaller apples)
1/4 cup of sugar or lesser
1 tsp cinnamon powder
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp apricot jam
1 tbsp water

Methods
1) Pre-heat oven to 200 degree celsius.

2) Peel the apple, remove the core and stem. Slice thinly and set aside.

Wonderful tool to remove core and stem

3) Line the baking tray with greased baking paper for easy removal later as the juice of cameralised apple tends to overflow.

4) Leave the frozen puff pastry in room temperature for about 5 minutes and place it on the baking paper. Don't leave in room temperature for too long, the pastry will turn sticky and difficult to handle. For this model, rolling of pastry sheet is not required.

Bought this Pampas puff pastry frozen pack from Phoon Huat

5) Arrange the apple slices in rows by overlapping each other leave no gap. I made a mistake by placing too many slices all the way to the edge of the pastry. For this puff pastry, it is best to leave about an inch uncovered with apple slices for the edges to puff up. Hence I figure out row of 3 will be the most ideal.

6) Sprinkle the sugar with cinnamon powder generously over the arranged apple slices. Note that I used less than 1/4 cup as my red Fuji apple is sweet on its own. If you are using green apple, you will need more sugar.

7) Cut the butter into small cubes and place them over the apple slices. Brush the butter on the sides of the pastry as well.

Ready to bake!

8) Place inside oven anf bake for about 45mins or until the apple sliced turned brown. Halfway through the baking, turn the baking tray to the other side.

9) Microwave to melt the apricot jam with water, glaze the apple slices lightly with the melted jam and serve.

Serving the tart warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream

Notes

1) The photo attached is a 4 row apple tart, if you are making a 3 row tart the sides of the puff will look flaky with a better presentation and taste. The photo (pear puff pastry) below shows how it looks like if you leave more space at the sides, they will puff up nice and crisp.

2) Be mindful with the sugar and jam quantity, if you refer to the recipe posted below I have reduced a lot from the originator's recipe.

3) 10 Jul'12 ~ Just realised that the originator used green apples, that explains why their recipe call for so much sugar. Going to try green apple next time.

Recipe modified from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/french-apple-tart-recipe/index.html