Quince and cinnamon tart

Serves 4

Use good-quality butter puff pastry for quince and cinnamon tart (Jason Lowe)

Use good-quality butter puff pastry for these tarts – either homemade or ready rolled.

4 quinces, peeled, quartered, with the core cut out
150g sugar
1 stick of cinnamon
Juice of 1 lemon
150-200g puff pastry, rolled to about
one-third of a cm thick

Put the quinces in a saucepan with the sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice. Cover well with water, bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until they are soft and tender. You may need to top up the water during cooking.

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 5. Drain the quinces over a bowl into a colander, then return the liquid to a pan and simmer until it's reduced to a syrupy consistency and thickened. Break up the cinnamon sticks into pieces and add to the syrup.

Slice the quinces, leaving them more or less in the shape of the fruit, then cut the pastry into roughly the shape of the quince, allowing about 1cm of pastry all the way around. Place the pastry on a baking tray and carefully lay the quince on top.

Brush the quince with a little syrup and bake for about 30 minutes or until the pastry is coloured around the edges and cooked. To serve, transfer to warmed serving plates and spoon more syrup on top. Serve with thick cream or ice-cream.