Need an easy and impressive dessert this holiday season? Then this will be it! Easy to make, super impressive, as in your guests will want to take pictures of these before taking a bite and will only eat if you insist because they are so pretty! And they are good and tasty! What more could you want...someone to make them for you? Your kids would love making these, so gather up your slaves sweet children, and have them roll you some rosettes, they will love it!
You will need Puff Pastry (found in the freezer section of your grocery store). One package of pastry has two sheets inside; each sheet is already divided into thirds but you will stretch them into fourths. You will get 8 apple rosettes from one package of pastry. Whew! That's a lot of math for me! As you know, I'm left brain deficient, definitely from lack of use, but as I have proven every day of my life, all you need is a working right brain and a sincere apology on your lips!
I have made these several times in the last few months - once with homemade caramel sauce, when I had time to make it. The other times I used a good caramel sauce I purchased at the store...it worked great and is a huge time saver! Feel free to use a different flavor of preserves or maybe even cream cheese instead of preserves - whatever jingles your ornaments! In the pictures you can see I used cream cheese, spread thinly on the pastry then sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon...delish!
Caramel Apple Rosettes - Adapted From Cooking With Manuela
1 package Puff Pastry, thawed according to package directions
4 large apples, any kind, I used Gala
juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon flour, to sprinkle on counter to prevent pastry from sticking
1/2 cup of apricot preserves or apple jelly (if you can find apple jelly, use it, if not, apricot is delicious) OR if you want to use cream cheese, you will need one 8 oz. package, softened
Cinnamon for sprinkling
Sugar for sprinkling
Caramel sauce for topping
powdered sugar for decorating
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using a muffin tin with 12 holes, spray 8 of the holes with cooking spray and fill the remaining 4 half way up with hot water, set aside. (Filling the empty holes with water will act as a "bath" for the apples and help steam them as they bake so they are nice and soft.) Fill a large bowl with warm water and add the lemon juice. Cut the apples in half, remove core and then cut the apples into thin slices, as thin as you can get them. (Leave the peel on.) Place the sliced apples into the lemon water, which will keep them from turning brown. Microwave the apples in the lemon water for about 3 to 5 minutes, just to make them softer and easy to bend/roll. When you remove from microwave, test an apple slice, it should be able to bend slightly without breaking, if not, nuke it a few more seconds!
Unwrap the puff pastry over a clean and lightly floured counter (or if you have a pastry cloth, use that). Roll one sheet of dough slightly with a rolling pin, then cut into 4 equal strips. Place preserves/jelly in a small bowl and microwave until warm and easier to spread. Spread one tablespoon of preserves/jelly/cream cheese onto each strip of dough. (Use both pieces of pastry so you will have 8 strips.)
Drain the apples. Arrange apple slices on the dough, overlapping each slice and only covering half of the strip of dough (the other side gets folded up and over.) Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar to taste. Fold up the bottom part of the dough and starting at one end, carefully roll the dough, keeping the apple slices in place, with the apples sticking slightly beyond the dough. Place into a prepared regular muffin tin. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon if desired. Carefully place muffin tin with the rosettes and hot water into oven and bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the apples are soft and the pastry is done all the way through and lightly browned. (Check after 30 minutes to make sure the rosettes are not getting too brown on top, if they are, cover loosely with aluminum foil.) Remove to cooling rack to cool to room temperature. Drizzle with caramel sauce to taste then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Makes 8 Apple Rosettes.
