Apple Puff Pastries with Store-Bought Puff Pastry

Name: Apple Puff Pastries with Store-Bought Puff Pastry
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 8
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Apples 3-4; Ready-made frozen puff pastry (up to 1 kg) 1 pack; Brown cane sugar 4 tbsp; White sugar 2 tbsp; Butter 0.5 tbsp; Cinnamon extras; Egg, sugar, vegetable oil for brushing

I have loved puff pastry since I was a kid. Tasty, slightly crunchy apple puff pastries are a dessert and a treat everyone wants. Back in school, during the long break, I would run to the cafeteria and buy a glass of apple juice and an apple puff pastry dusted with sugar. Mind you, only in season. Usually we bought the so-called “tongues” with sugar – they are delicious.

The base of these pastries is puff pastry. Unlike filo, which is very thin and used for layered bakes like baklava or Bulgarian banitsa, puff pastry is made by rolling out folded dough with butter again and again. The amount of butter is often close to the amount of flour, which makes it very high in calories. You can't really see the layers in the raw dough – it separates into layers as it bakes.

Historians disagree on where and how puff pastry came about. Most likely it appeared in France, possibly in Spain, in the 17th century. It could be made with or without yeast, and any cooking fat was used – butter, or even lard or margarine. The individual layers of fat in the dough don't have to be continuous; that doesn't really matter.

What matters is that the fat used for puff pastry doesn't stay liquid at room temperature, so the dough can be rolled out while keeping its structure. Folding and rolling the dough many times creates a layered “sandwich” without tears. This kind of dough takes some practice, but it's a pleasure to work with.

Almost any grocery store, even a small one, has a freezer with ready-made dough, and the choice is huge. Frozen puff pastry is sold in packs of up to 1 kg, rolled up with a layer of paper or film. All you need to do is thaw it – usually 1-2 hours at room temperature – and it's ready to use.

Making puff pastries from ready-made frozen dough is obviously simple and quick. It's important that the dough hasn't been frozen for too long, so it makes sense to buy it fresh – check the production date. Since it takes a while to thaw, use that time to make the filling and preheat the oven. If you seal the pastry well before baking, you can even use runny fillings – preserves, jams or juicy fruit.

Ingredients

8-12 pastries

Apples 3-4
Ready-made frozen puff pastry (up to 1 kg) 1 pack
Brown cane sugar 4 tbsp
White sugar 2 tbsp
Butter 0.5 tbsp
Cinnamon extras
Egg, sugar, vegetable oil for brushing

Step-by-step recipe

Take the dough out of the freezer and let it thaw at room temperature. By the way, the package often gives a quick microwave defrost setting – give it a try if you're in a hurry. When my daughter and I bake apple puff pastries, we buy large green apples with a sweet-tart flavor. Reinette Simirenko and Granny Smith work great.
Wash the apples, then peel and core them. Cut the flesh into slices about 8-10 mm thick. The pieces should soften during cooking without turning into mush, so don't cut them too thick or too thin. Melt a little butter in a frying pan, add brown and white sugar and ground cinnamon to taste.
Once the butter has mixed with the sugar and it starts to heat up, add the apple slices. Stirring, heat the apples until they start to release juice. The sugar will dissolve quickly. Then turn down the heat and simmer the apples in the sugar until soft and the sugar begins to caramelize.
If there is any liquid left in the pan, drain the apples in a colander. Then spread the apple slices on a large plate to cool. Puff pastry is used slightly chilled, and a hot filling would quickly melt the butter inside the dough. That's why it's best to make apple puff pastries with ingredients at room temperature.
Once the puff pastry has thawed and can be unrolled into a sheet without damage, carefully lay it out on the table. Cut it into squares with a knife. It's worth rolling them out a little with a rolling pin to get rid of small cracks and tears. There's no need to make the pieces any bigger, though.
Lay out the caramelized apple filling, keeping it between the diagonal and one of the corners. This makes it easier to shape the pastries and seal the dough. By the way, the filling has cooled, so you can adjust it by hand if needed without getting burned.
Fold the dough in half along the diagonal. These pastries are often called “envelopes”, which is pretty close to the truth. Next, seal the pastry. Line up the edges of the dough so they match. You can seal it any way you like – we use an ordinary fork. Just press the tines along the edge where the top layer meets the bottom one. You get a pretty patterned edge. Prick each apple pastry with a fork in 3-4 places to let the steam out.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. To keep the apple pastries from sticking, brush the bottom with a little vegetable oil – 1-2 tsp of sunflower or olive oil is enough for all of them. Place the pastries on the paper, leaving a little space between them.
Strictly speaking, you don't need to brush the pastries with anything. They will come out crisp and golden anyway. We brush them with a little beaten egg and sprinkle with regular sugar. You can also lightly moisten the dough with water and sprinkle it with sugar. The sugar won't have time to burn during baking and will stay on the surface, forming a sweet sugar crust.
Put the baking sheet in the oven. Apple puff pastries usually bake for 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on them, judging by how golden the tops and bottoms are. As soon as you're happy with the result, take the baking sheet out of the oven and let the pastries cool – apple puff pastries are eaten warm or cold.
Put the finished apple puff pastries on a plate or in a wicker basket and serve with tea. They are very flaky and shed crumbs a bit, so keep that in mind. They go perfectly with tea or fruit juice. If you have puff pastry left over and don't need to bake more, don't refreeze it – spread it with thick jam and roll it up into a log with sealed ends. Bake it the same way.