This past week Nadia Lim posted about making some delicious looking Apple Pastry Rosettes. They were supposed to be simple. Conceptually, they are. But I will tell you that practically, they aren't. And you know that I bake and make pastry quite a bit here at Struan Farm. Friends Kris and Bob and I sampled something quite similar earlier this year at the Wakefield Heritage Apple Fair. So I was keen to try making them.
Thin slices of apple halves (doused in lemon juice and heated in the microwave to soften, then cooled) are set out overlapping along a strip of butter puff pasty that has been brushed with apricot jam. The apples are then dusted with cinnamon and the rosette is rolled up. My first effort looked great in the tins, but I had problems getting them out without deconstructing them. I wondered if I should have greased the tins or used non-stick muffin tins. I queried Nadia, but didn't get a response. They tasted great, so I decided I needed to try again.
"Take 2" was a considerable improvement. I watched her video. I saw that Nadia was using puff pastry that was a different size from the standard Edmonds butter puff pastry available in the grocery store to the average consumer. Her rectangles, and thus her strips, were wider than mine. (She used a ruler, I hadn't.) Her apple slices were also much smaller, so the ratio of apple to pastry was completely different, hers allowed for a cushion of pastry at the bottom of each rosette. She also used larger muffin tins than I have. Probably "Texan."
So I adjusted what I could, using a spoon to dig them out of the muffin tins when warm. A better result if still a wee bit mangled:
They are yummy served warm with cream, yogurt or ice cream, and worth the effort. But they are fiddly and just saying to clear the air: NOT THAT SIMPLE!
Comments