91Èȱ¬

Method

1. To make the crème pâtissière, heat the milk in a large saucepan on a medium heat. Stir it regularly, making sure to touch the bottom of the pan with a spatula to stop the milk from burning.

2. Meanwhile, put the egg yolks into a large bowl and add the sugar gradually, whisking well until smooth and lighter in colour. Then add the cornflour and continue to whisk.

3. Once your milk is just under the boiling point, ladle one scoop of hot milk into the yolk mixture and whisk it in the bowl really well. Continue to do this until you have ladled and mixed two-thirds of the milk into the yolk mixture. Now pour all of this back into the pan with the remaining milk and whisk as hard as you can. This is going to take about 10 minutes.

4. Nothing will happen for ages and you will start to lose faith, but after about 5 minutes or so you will see it starting to thicken. Keep going – it will foam up and once the foam has gone you will have a silky-smooth custard. Take it off the heat, add a nice generous pinch of salt and the cold cubed butter. Whisk this until the butter is melted and totally incorporated. Set aside in the fridge covered in cling film to prevent a skin from forming.

5. To make the apple jelly, weigh the apple cores and peel into a saucepan and add the equal weight of water to the pan. Add all the remaining ingredients and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until reduced by half.

6. Strain the purée through a jelly bag until all the liquid is extracted. Then return the juice to the pan and bring back to the boil, until it reaches 104C. This will take around 5–10 minutes, just make sure it's thick and bubbling. Set aside to cool.

7. To make the apple pastries, take the pastry and, with the longest side closest to you, roll this up into a sausage, tightly but without pulling on it. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

8. After 30 minutes, use a sharp knife to cut the pastry sausage into pieces that weigh about 65g/2¼oz each or are roughly the same size.

9. Pour some caster sugar into a big mound and use the palm of your hand to push the pastry coin into the sugar so you are flattening it out (spiral facing you).

10. Use a rolling pin to roll this out into an oval shape, to about the thickness of a pound coin (3mm/â…›in).

11. Spoon a generous tablespoon of crème pâtissière into the centre of this and place three apple slices on top, then finish with some apple purée. Fold it in half, very gently pressing the edges down and pop on a tray for the freezer. Repeat this until you have filled all your pastry.

12. Cover the tray with cling film and let the pastries rest in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before you bake them (but you can keep them in there for up to a month!).

13. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 230C/210 Fan/Gas 7 and line a baking tray with baking paper.

14. Place your pastries on the tray giving them plenty of room. Bake for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 200C/180 Fan/Gas 6 for 10–13 minutes or until they are a dark golden caramel colour.