Hello all! Hoping everyone is doing very well, indeed. You may or may not know but it is currently Ramadan! So, Ramadan Mubarak! Ramadan is one of the months in the Islamic calendar which is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, praying, and community. I’m excited to be observing another Ramadan and I’m also excited to share with all of you some of the foods my family will be breaking their fast with this year! Today, I’m sharing with you a delicious Mini Apple Pastry I made. It’s perfect to make in a pinch and you really can’t go wrong with the apple, sugar, cinnamon combo. Let’s get started with the recipe, shall we?
Ingredients:
- 6 puff pastry shells, frozen
- 3 medium apples, peeled, cored, and diced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons white sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, to your taste
- Egg wash, optional
- Coarse sugar, optional
Directions:
Like all good puff pastry recipes the first thing you’ll want to do is preheat your oven to 425F. However, if you’re anything like my family even before that you’ll want to empty your oven of all the extra pots and pans you store in there. I can’t explain why seemingly all Desi families do this, but let’s be honest, it’s a whole lot of empty space just asking to be used. So, really, maybe everyone should be doing this.
While your oven preheats you can direct your attention to those beautiful apples. I’m sometimes amazed by the variety of apples that exist in the world. Honestly, I can’t keep up. For this recipe I used Empire Apples. Did I know that Empire Apples existed before this? No. Have I probably been eating Empire Apples all my life without realizing? Yeah, probably. I will say these apples worked really nicely for this dish. They’re sweet and firm fleshed making them ideal for cooking and I thought they preserved their nice apple-y flavor once cooked down. At the end of the day, though, just use what apples you have!
To prepare your apples peel them, core them, and then finely dice. You don’t want a large chunks of apple because they will be harder to cook down, plus it might feel more intrusive in the pastry. Once cored I cut my apples into 8 slices using an apple slicer. Then I cut each slice in half, lengthwise, before chopping. This gave me nice even, small diced pieces of apple.
Once your apples are chopped your oven will most likely be done heating so you can go ahead and pop the pastry shells into the oven on the middle shelf. As an added touch you can egg wash the tops and sprinkle with a coarse sugar. Let them bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown and puffed or according to your box’s instructions.
While they bake we can cook down these apples. Or should I say…them apples 🤣. Okay, sorry about that. The important thing to note is that we need to have these completely cooked on the stove because they won’t be baked in the oven or anything.
Start by melting your butter in a pan on medium heat. Add the apples in and let them cook down for 2-3 minutes before adding in both the sugars and cinnamon. While the sugars melt continue stirring the apples and watching for most of the moisture to cook out of the pan. Fluctuate between medium and medium-high heat. Once the sugars melt and the apples have become somewhat soft (about 5 minutes) you can add in the cornstarch to help thicken it up a bit. Cook on medium heat until it thicken, about 5 minutes. You can check to see if the sweetness is to your liking and also the firmness of the apples.
Once your filling is done you are just about at the end! Just wait until the puff pastries are done and then you can put everything together. Once they’re baked, let them cool for a few minutes before using a knife to extract the “top” piece off.
Simply fill the shells in with your warm apple filling and top them with the top piece of pastry. Serve them as soon as you can, but they also taste great cooled!
Mini Apple Pastry
Ingredients
- 6 puff pastry shells frozen
- 3 medium apples, peeled, cored, and diced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons white granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, to your taste
- egg wash, optional
- coarse sugar, optional
- powdered sugar, garnish
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425° F.
- While oven preheats, prepare your apples. Peel and core apples.
- Slices apples into about 16 even slices and then chop to dice. They should be small chunks.
- Once oven is heated on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper place your frozen puff pastry shells. Before placing in oven you may, optionally, brush the top of shells with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Place sheet pan on middle shelf of oven and cook for 18-20 minutes until golden brown or according to box's directions.
- While shells bake cook down apples. Start by melting butter in pan on medium heat. Add in chopped apples and cook for 2-3 minutes until slightly softened. Add in brown and white sugar and cinnamon.
- Continue cooking down apples while sugars melt. While consistently stirring cook down for about 5 minutes. To thicken extra moisture released from apples add in cornstarch.
- Continue cooking for about 5 more minutes on medium to low heat until apples are softened and sauce is thickened.
- Once apples are cooked and shells are baked you may begin assembly.
- Start by using a knife to remove tops off pastry shells once they are out of the oven. Fill the opening with warm apple filling.
- Plate them up and dust with powdered as garnish. Serve immediately when warm, but they also taste delicious cooled.
- Enjoy!
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