I Have Been Invaded

Don't you hate it when that happens?  Your house gets invaded by ants  You wake up one morning and there they are, on the table, on the chairs.  Everywhere you look, ants.

 

Well, in my case, I was invaded by Aunts.  And they were invited and quite welcome!  I'm not entirely sure that they were aware that this meant they were my resident guinea pigs. I had some recipes I wanted to try and they were a captive audience.  Plus, Aunt Suzy and Aunt Donna are both excellent cooks, so I could count on a true opinion.  Well, Donna might tell me it was good to be polite.  Suzy would tell me the unvarnished truth.  Suzy is polite, but don't ask her if your butt looks big in these pants unless you want her to tell you.  You ASKED!

I wanted to try an apple recipe using Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry.  I found one for individual pies and that sounded like something I could use for my B&B guests.  I added some raspberries, but they are optional.

I started out to make the whole recipe, but my invading ants, er, Aunts, brought so much food with them, that I cut the recipe in half.  I will give you the whole recipe, but my future guests will get little pies folded into triangles, because they have to have room for the rest of the breakfast.  We had scrambled eggs with Cheddar cheese and cilantro and bacon.

 

Puff  Pastry Apple Pies

1 package Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry, thawed overnight in the refrigerator
2 Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup raspberries, optional
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons flour, plus extra for the counter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 egg
1 Tablespoon water

 

Heat the oven to 400°.  Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or use a Silpat to prevent the pies from sticking.  Set aside.

Mix the egg and water in a small bowl and set aside.

Peel and core the apples cut them into thin slices.  I just cut around the core, then peel.  It is faster for me.  Place them in a small bowl and mix them with the lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown. 

Lightly flour your work surface.  The puff pastry sheets are folded into thirds.  This makes it easy to cut along the folds and then cut them in thirds the other direction.  This will give you 9 squares from each puff pastry sheet.

 

Place the sugar, flour and spices in a large bowl.  Mix the apples in and stir until they are all coated with the flour mixture.  Place about 1/4 cup of apples on top of half of the squares of puff pastry, making sure to leave the edges clear.   Dot the top of the apples with a raspberry or two.  Brush around the edges with the egg wash.

 

Pick up one of the squares of pastry dough and stretch it a bit to fit over the mound of apples and so the edges match up.  Press to seal and then use a fork to make the edge pretty!

 

Place the finished miniature pies on the prepared baking sheet.  I just used half of a sheet and so I had one extra piece of puff pastry.  I placed a large spoonful of apples on this and folded it over.  This is how I would serve these little pies to guests.

 

Brush some more egg wash on the top of the pies and sprinkle them with sugar.  Or cinnamon sugar, if you wish.  Make a small L shaped cut in the top of each pie and fold back the pastry flap.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden.  Cool for about 5 minutes and then enjoy!

 

The raspberries seemed to melt into the apples and a bit of the pink raspberry juice bubbled up and out the wee flap  on top of the pies.  So yummy.