Puff pastry is finally being stocked again the stores. Both Pampas and Borgs puff pastry are excellent choices for this dessert, but you can always make your own...
Winter is here tonight, so it is an appropriate time to offer my Spicy Apple Dessert recipe, a relatively simple pastry dish I have been making for about five years with extraordinary success!
The recipe below is in three parts. I recently made three different desserts, one with apple, one with apple using honey as an alternative to brown sugar and the final one was just a punnet of blueberries! The methods is the same, the ingredients vary.
Preheat the oven to 225c. Thaw three sheets of puff pastry on the bench. Peel, core and dice two Granny Smith apples per pasty sheet.
Regular Apple: in a mixing bowl, toss your diced apple, 50 gms of brown sugar, a teaspoon of plain flour, a tspn of ground cinnamon and two tspns of 'Mixed Spice'. Toss it all together until each piece of apple is coated and dry (add a handful of sultanas if you want a really great dessert!). Pour the dried mixture onto a thawed sheet of puff pastry.
Apple with Honey: in a mixing bowl, toss your diced apple, a tspn plain flour, two tspns of Mixed Spice. Toss until coated and dry. Pour the mixture onto a puff pastry sheet and add the honey at this stage. Maybe a couple of tablespoons is a good amount.
Blueberry: simply wash your blueberries and place them onto the pastry sheet. Sprinkle 50 gms of brown sugar on top.
Wrap the pastry sheet over the fruit mixture and seal each end. Turn the envelope over so the seal is on the bottom. Place the envelopes onto a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray. Evenly slice the pastry in with a knife to allow heat to transfer and a texture to form. Coat the envelopes with a beaten egg.
Bake for about 25 mins or until dark golden brown. Let them cook! A little burnt edge here and there is a good sign that your pastries are ready.
Sprinkle with icing sugar (if you choose) and serve with lashings of whipped cream, whipped with with four or five drops of Vanilla Essence.
Enjoy!