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Really quick ‘Danish pastries’

When I am thinking of ideas for recipe testing, I lock myself in the kitchen with the television on and a huge pile of ingredients and just experiment. About 1 o’clock one Sunday morning, I was standing in the kitchen and staring at a block of puff pastry that had to be used up. I rifled through the cupboards and fridge and found a small tin of apricots and a little tub of ready-made custard. Within a very short space of time, I had conjured up these ‘Danish pastries’ – a more than acceptable alternative to the ‘proper’ ones and with the added satisfaction that they are so quick to make.

Makes 12 small pastries (V)

1 x 375g packet of puff pastry

Plain flour, for dusting

1 x 220g tin of apricot halves

300g thick custard (for these I use shop-bought)

1 egg, lightly beaten, for the eggwash

Sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F), Gas Mark 7. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface to a square 30cm by 30cm. To make the windmill, or what are sometimes called Imperial stars, cut the pastry into 7.5cm squares and make diagonal cuts from each corner to within 1cm of the centre. Put one or two apricot halves in the centre of the square and spoon over a little ready-made thick vanilla custard, then fold alternate corners of each cut section down to the centre, brushing the tips with beaten egg.

Place them into the fridge for 15 minutes or so until they are firm. Remove them from the fridge, brush them with eggwash and sprinkle with sugar, then place the pastries into the oven. Bake for about 20–25 minutes, or until they are firm, risen and golden brown.

Remove them from the oven and leave to cool.