Beautiful Apple Roses

Recipe:

How much fun we had making these beautiful, delectable and elegant Apple Roses. Follow the simple directions and have fun making these delicious morsels for family and friends.

Prep work:

Preheat wood-fired pizza oven to 375°F - 190°C. You can check the internal temperature of the oven with an infrared thermometer by pointing it on the stone of the oven.

Ingredients:

• 4 apples with RED skin
• 1 box frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 stick melted butter
• 1/8th teaspoon ground nutmeg
• a good pinch of salt
• 1 juice of a lemon

We just came back from a family vacation in the gorgeous Foot Hills of North Carolina. From one of the countless orchards we purchased delicious, freshly picked apples.

Wash the apples making sure they don't have blemishes.

Measure 1 1/2 cup brown sugar.

Mix the brown sugar with 3 teaspoons cinnamon powder.

Add a pinch of salt to the mixture.

Grate a small amount of nutmeg into the sugar mixture.

Half each apple.

Remove the apple core making sure to keep the fruit intact.

Slice each half into very thing slices.

Squeeze the juice of one lemon into a bowl with water.

Transfer all the apple slices into the water and lemon. The citric acid will keep the apples from oxidysing and turning brown.

When all the apples have been sliced and dipped into the lemon water, you can begin by removing a portion.

Spread some of the slices on a microwave proof dish and cook for about 2 minutes or until apple slices become flexible.

Dust the table with a thin layer of flour.

Place the thawed but cold puff pastry on the flour dusted table.

Slightly dust the top of the pastry with flour. With a rolling pin stretch pastry gently, but firmly, always rolling away from you.

Roll the pastry dough out to less than 1/8-inch thickness and cut each into about 2x9 inch strips (5x22 cm).

Spread a thin layer of melted butter over each strip. It is optional and delicious to also spread a thin layer of previously warmed apricot preserves on each strip of dough.

You can now arrange all the apple slices on the dough, making sure to overlap them. For best results, place the top side of the apple slice, where the red skin is, on the pastry dough and allow it to stick out a little over the dough.

Sprinkle generously with the cinnamon sugar.

You can also sprinkle the sugar over the pastry before placing the apple slices on the dough.

Layer the apples across the top half of the dough, and sprinkle a little more sugar and cinnamon.

Fold the bottom part of the dough over until you cover half of the apple slices.

Now the fun and the magic begin. Very carefully, starting from one end of the strip, begin to roll out the dough making sure the apples stay in place. Do this until the entire strip is rolled up.

The elegant, beautiful apple is ready to be placed into cupcake pan. Butter each cupcake opening with butter, unless you use a silicone pan.

Continue until the pan is filled.

A buttered ramekin is also a great way to bake apple roses.

The cupcake pan is finally filled with a most gorgeous bouquet of delectable roses.

Place the cupcake pan in the preheated wood-burning oven.

We also added a few ramekins filled with roses into the oven.

Bake at 375° for about 40 to 45 minutes. It is important that the pastry inside the roses are well cooked before removing them from the oven. If you find the Apple Roses to be darkening too much on the top, you can simply place a loose piece of aluminum over them in order to prevent from burning the top, but still allowing them to bake longer.

Remove the Apple Roses from the oven and place them on a serving dish of your choosing.

Great for breakfast, brunch or dessert, these Apple Roses are a wonderful and beautiful treat! Finally you can dust the Apple Roses with a generous amount of powdered sugar.

VOILÀ! Enjoy!

 What is your favorite way to bake apples?

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