Recipe of the week: goat’s cheese, apple and honey tarts

It’s best to use a sweet apple for this recipe to complement the tanginess of the cheese, says James Rich, so opt for a Braeburn or Royal Gala, rather than a Granny Smith or Cox’s. You can either bake this as individual tarts – as I have

done – or as a tray bake, in which case just roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle.

Serves 10 75g unsalted butter 1 onion, thinly sliced ½ a sprig of rosemary, leaves removed and finely chopped a little plain flour, for dusting 2 x 320g packs of ready-made puff-pastry 1 egg, beaten for the cheese topping: 200g goat’s cheese 1 tbsp lemon juice salt and freshly ground black pepper 4 crisp dessert apples, such as Braeburn, peeled, cored and sliced

a pinch of ground allspice 4 tbsp runny honey micro purple basil

• Preheat a fan oven to 180°C and line a large baking sheet with baking parchment.

• Heat a saucepan over a medium heat and melt half the butter. Add the onion and rosemary and fry until the onion begins to brown. Leave to one side.

• Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to about 5mm thick. Using a round, 10cm biscuit (cookie) cutter, cut out 20 rounds. Place ten on the baking sheet and prick all over with a fork.

• Make pastry rings by cutting smaller rounds into the remaining ten pieces of pastry using a 9cm biscuit cutter. Then, take out the centre sections and save for another recipe.

• Brush the whole rounds on the baking sheet with the beaten egg, and then place a pastry

ring on each one. Pop in the freezer for

15 minutes to cool.

• To make the cheese topping, put the goat’s cheese, lemon juice and some salt and pepper into a bowl and mix with a fork. Avoid over-mixing as you want the cheese to still be crumbly.

• Spoon about one tablespoon of the cheese mix onto each piece of pastry, then top with the sliced apple, overlapping slightly. Melt the remaining butter and brush it over the tarts. Sprinkle over the allspice.

• Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. When the tarts are out of the oven, drizzle with the honey and micro purple basil while still warm and serve.

Taken from Apple: Recipes from the Orchard by James Rich, published by Hardie Grant at £20. To buy from The Week Bookshop

for £15.99, call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweek.co.uk/bookshop.