Try This Now

Many people have been going to my September 5, 2017 post about the mock puff pastry adapted from the Silver Palate cookbooks. A couple of days ago I made the pastry to encase seasonal apples because my husband loves my apple pie but I wanted to try something that wasn't apple pie this time.

So go back to September 5, 2017 for the recipe or go to the Silver Palate cookbooks for the mock puff pastry recipe but remember that ice cold vodka instead of water works way better since the vodka doesn't cause the same problems with gluten as the water. So no tough pastry and delightfully crisp results.

Then what I did after prepping the pastry was I asked my husband, who is the prime beneficiary of any dessert I make, to peel and slice the apples. I had a pan ready on the stove with some butter melted and the pan heating up. As he peeled and sliced he added the apples to the pan. This ended up having a benefit to the dessert because some of the apples cooked longer and became almost applesauce and some of the pieces were still somewhat crisp when they went in to the pastry. I seasoned the apples with some cinnamon, added some golden raisins, stirred in a couple of tablespoons of butter and a quarter cup of sugar and cooked everything after the final apple addition for about 15 minutes. I wanted to cook the apples before encasing them because the pastry doesn't cook as long as a pie and I wanted the apples to be fully cooked. 

We only used half of the recipe of pastry but I sprayed an eight inch cake pan with cooking spray. then rolled out the half of the pastry into a rough square and put it in to the cake pan with the corners hanging over the edge. Then I put the apples in the middle and folded the pastry over the apples.

With the oven pre-heated to 425, I cooked the pastry apple combination for 35 minutes. It was fabulous.