Chantilly
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Divide the pasty into four. Flour a surface and very thinly role each one out to form a square of about 8 in. Now take a plate that measures approx. 7 ½ inches in diameter, lay it carefully on a square, and cut around it in a circle. Repeat with the other 3 pieces of pastry. Roll up all the off-cuts, put in a plastic bag, and store in the freezer for another time.
Generously prick the surface of each pastry disc and lay on a lightly greased baking sheet (you may have to use two). Put in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, thinly slice the apple halves, put them in a roomy bowl and sprinkle with the lemon juice. Take the pastry discs from the fridge and carefully arrange and cover each one with the apple slices in the form on concentric circles, but >making sure that you leave a gap of about ½ in around the edges. (This allows the pastry to attractively puff up and form a crusted border as it cooks.)
You may find that you do not use all the apple slices, particularly the knobbly end bits of each half. Now, with a pastry brush, coat each tart thoroughly with the butter and replace in the fridge until ready to cook. Once the oven is up to temperature, whip the tarts out of the fridge, dredge with the sugar, and place on the top shelf of the oven. Bake for 20 minutes or so, until the edges of the apples are lightly scorched and the tarts are well puffed around their edges. Serve with very cold vanilla-flavored crème Chantilly.
Note: Depending on the size of your oven, you may not be able to cook all the tarts in one go, on one shelf. If it is convection-assisted then it will probably be OK on two shelves. But in a conventional oven, using two shelves, the topmost tarts are going to cook quicker than the ones underneath. And puff pastry needs a quick, hot heat to cook evenly. Try changing each tray around halfway through the cooking, so that each pair of tarts gets an equal blast on the top shelf.
From Second Helpings of Roast Chicken. Published by Hyperion Books. Copyright © 2008 by Simon Hopkinson. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Hyperion Books.

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