TJ's Kitchen: Appelflappen

Greetings Lovely People!

Something new for you to read: A recipe! Yes, a lot of you know that I love to bake and I bake more than cupcakes hehe.

I wrote the recipe down for my friend, Bill Friday, and figured to post it on my blog as well. I haven't got those in-between pictures though, but I think this recipe is simple enough to go without that.

Whenever I make this recipe I use apples that have been on the table for a while and no one wants to eat them anymore. I don't have exact measurement for you as I don’t measure the cinnamon and sugar. Older apples are naturally very sweet.

Of course you can make your own puff pastry dough, but as I'm known to be lazy, I buy packages with puff pastry sheets. This is a quick snack and since I don't have a lot of time to bake complicated things, I go for an easier solution ;) Each package contains of 10 square sheets.

All in all, a very easy and tasty snack. So let's start!

Ingredients for the filling
Apples - I usually use 4-5 medium sized apples for 40 small pastries (2 packages of puff pastry sheets)
Cinnamon
Granulated sugar
opt. vanilla sugar
opt. sultanas

Extra sugar for the topping.

How to
- Peel and cut the apples in small cubes. Place it in a bowl and add the sugar, cinnamon and if you want sultanas. Exact amount can't be given as it really depends on the natural sweetness of the apples and to your own personal taste.

- Cut the puff pastry diagonally, so you'll get triangle shaped pastries. Add a bit of filling, pinch down the sides with a fork and then give it a wash with milk. Lastly, sprinkle granulated sugar over it.

- Bake it on 190 Celsius/375 degrees for 20-23 min. Of course you can create other shapes if you want. When the pastries are golden brown, they are done.

Buon appetito!! You can eat it warm or let it cool. They are best eaten on the same day. The longer you wait, the less crunchier they will become.

Extra thingies
1. You can mix granulated sugar with a bit of cane sugar for extra crunch.

2. You can also skip the milk and add a wash with water or egg.

3. Regarding the cinnamon/sugar. Personally, I don’t like overly sweet things, so I just add a few teaspoons of sugar and a few shakes of the cinnamon jar. If you add raisins, keep in mind that this gives its own sweetness as well.

4. Left over cinnamon apples are perfect over ice cream, in yogurt etc. 5. The longer the apple mixture sits in the bowl a syrup will form. I usually add a tablespoon of cornstarch flour to the mix to absorb a bit of syrup. But you can't prevent it from happening, so make sure to leave this out of the pastry as much as you can. No soggy pastries please!

5. Vanilla sugar can be easily made by adding vanilla pods (without the seeds) in a jar with granulated sugar. Set it on the shelf for 2 weeks and voila! Vanilla sugar has been made. I think I saw this in one of Nigella's cooking episodes.

That's it! You can experiment with other fruit or flavors or maybe mix the sugar for the topping with almond slivers. But this is a classic, just like apple pie ^_^. It's perfect with a cup of tea, coffee...basically with everything haha. If you make this recipe, do let me know!

Have a lovely weekend! Oh! Don't forget to check out my Zazzle *points to the sidebar* ^_^