Caramel Apple Pastry

My sister in law pointed out that I had promised to post my recipe for Caramel Apple Pastry and never did! How flaky (pun intended) of me lol. Sorry to anyone waiting for this, and Medora, thanks for reminding me!

I love love  LOVE this dessert. There are so many ways you can adjust this concept to be as quick/easy or as complex as you want. There are 2 main componants of this dessert, obviously the APPLES, and the PASTRY.

First... the apples. You can slice them thinly and arrange them in a pretty design, or you can chop them finely in the food processor with almonds to a relish-like consistency. No matter how I disassemble the apples, I always use the following spices: a big amount of cinnamon, a medium amount of ginger, and a small amount of all-spice. I don't measure the exact amounts, but a good guess is, for 2 cups of apples, use 1 1/2 tsp Cin., 1/2 tsp ginger, and 1/4 tsp all spice.

Now, the pastry.  I suggest just buying the frozen puff pastry in the "dessert" section in the frozen food aisle at the grocery store if you don't know how to make your own (I don't... yet). I am not a puff pastry purist.

For the caramel, I like to use easy dolce de leche, you can find the recipe in this post.

Caramel Apple Pastry

1 box frozen puff pastry
2 cups chopped or sliced apples (granny smith are the best)
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp all spice
1/2 cup dolce de leche

Honey spice glaze (optional)*

Pre-heat the oven to 325 F. Take the frozen pastry sheet and cut into smallish, rectangles about the same size of a napolean (or about 4x2 inches) you will need 3 rectangles per pastry. Put on a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and store in the fridge to thaw.

Core, peel, and prepare your apples however you like. I usually put them in a food processer with the spices and pulse until they are small chunks. If you slice them, toss with the spices.

Take out your puff pastry rectangles and arrange them in groups of three for each pastry. Place the apples on two out of the three rectangles, leaving one alone (for the top). Make sure to leave about 1/8 in of pastry along the edges. Spoon about 1 1/2 tsp. of dolce de leche on top of the apples.

Bake the pastries un-assembled for about 15-20 minutes, or until the top layer rectangles are completely puffed, and slightly brown.

After the pastries have cooled enough to handle, stack the two apple covered layers, then top with the plain layer. Drizzle with honey spice glaze, or a little powdered sugar or cinnamon. Enjoy!

* Honey Spice Glaze
Heat a sauce pot over medium high heat, add 3 tbsp. honey. Once the honey is melted and thin, add 2 tbsp. butter and swirl until the butter is melted and incorporated into the honey. Now add a dash of cinnamon, and allspice. Finally stir in a cap full of vanilla extract, swirl until everything is incorporated, and take off the heat immediately. Drizzle over your pastry and enjoy!

Sweet Weekend

Good afternoon, and happy Monday! All hell has broken loose at work today, and I am doing about a gagillion things at once....so if my writing seems a little chaotic, THAT is why!

This weekend was full of sweet things, literally and figuritively. Zak and I went to bruch on Sunday, which is a VERY rare occurance, and I had the most spectacular bluberry pancake that was just ever so slightly undercooked so that it was deliciously gooey in the middle. Also, I haven't had real blueberries for months, and it perked me right up. We spent the meal drawing goofy things on the chalkboard above our table, reading the onion to each other, and holding hands. Mushy yes, but just the kind of quality time you start to crave when you both work fulltime jobs and don't get to see one another during daylight hours very often.

Now on to more substantial things, cooking! This summer, I discovered a meathod of making Dolce de Leche (caramelized milk) on my favorite food blog, Not Without Salt. It is so easy it feels like cheating. Dolce de Leche is so delicious you could eat it all on its own, but it is also spectacularly versitile for cooking. You can use it as a spread on just about anything you want to put caramel on (bread, apples...), or you can use it in pastries, because it keeps its form very well when baking (no giant pool of burnt caramel on the bottom of your oven!).

Super Easy Dolce De Leche

All you need for this recipe is a can of sweetened condensed milk and a deep pot for boiling water. Basically, all you have to do is submerge a can of the SCM under boiling water for 3 hours, that's it! There are however, a few things to note.

 It's very important that you use sweetend condensed milk and not its neighboor evaporated milk, because you need that sugar in order for the caramelization to occur! When you are boiling the can of SCM, make sure there is at least 1 inch of water above the top of the can at all times, if the water level goes below the top of the can, it might explode! You don't want to scrub sticky caramel off your kitchen celing do you? I didn't think so! Finally, after the can has been in the boiling water for 3 hours, take it out and let it cool until you can touch it with your bare hands before you open it. The first time I made Dolce de Leche, I was so excited to see inside the can that I tried to open it right away, big mistake! As soon as the can opener pierced the can, a stream of hot caramel shot out across my kitchen! You need to let the pressure from the heat subside before you open the can :) Also, let me just say, it is so enjoyable to open that can and see the gorgeous caramel, and your first bite will be heaven, I promise!

I got the idea to put the Dolce de Leche into coffee from The Pioneer Woman. I just brewed some extra strong coffee, stirred in the ddl, topped with hommade, unsweetened vanilla whipped cream and cinnamon to create these little concoctions.

A very welcome treat on a snowy, cold, horribly grey, Sunday afternoon. You might also consider adding in a little Kahlua, or Whiskey if you're feeling fancy.

Also, caramel apple pastry...I will post the recipe for this later in the week, but for now, I will leave you with this: