Tag Archives: pastry

Apple Turnovers (2)

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If pushed I think an apple would my choice if only able to eat one fruit ever again.  I love summer berries and would find it particularly difficult to cast aside juicy raspberries or fragrant, almost scented, wild strawberries but an apple would pip them all to the post.  Not only is it hard to beat the juicy, tangy crunch of a perfectly ripe apple but they work so well in all manner of recipes, both savoury but particularly sweet that one might never become bored.  Lacking the glamour of blowsy, vividly coloured summer fruits they are more the sensible prefect of fruits – jolly reliable and a proper all rounder.

Lucky enough to inherit a collection of apple trees when we moved here and having subsequently added to our small orchard, now is the time of year when we are spoilt.  Various eaters and a hugely prolific Bramley mean apples feature on our menu several times a week.  The turnovers in the photograph were an after school treat at the end of last week and a simple form of apple strudel hit the table for pud on Sunday.  A bowl of stewed apples alternate with plums to accompany granola and Greek yogurt for breakfast and an apple crisp is on the cards for supper tonight.

There are apple pies of course and crumbles (try my Apple and Raspberry Crumble, October 2015), elegant apple tarte fines, apple cobblers, crisps and Betty’s.  Grated apple works a treat in a treacle tart to soften that super sweet hit and I like it mixed with mincemeat for a slightly less rich and more tangy pie at Christmas.   My super easy Tarte Tatin (January 2019) enjoys regular outings here as does the Crunchy Apple Pudding (January 2015).  The sharp apple makes a perfect foil to sweet pastry and oaty crumbly toppings;  it melds perfectly with cream whether straight or in the form of ice cream or custard which is why it makes so many appearances as a pudding.  Apples and cinnamon?  A life long love affair and a little tangy apple works amazingly well in cinnamon buns.

So make the most of wonderful apples.  We grow them here and right now you can enjoy them super fresh without having travelled a thousand miles or languished for months in cold storage.   Check out farm stalls and farmers markets for locally grown and unusual varieties – above all make a delicious apple pudding – with all that fruit under the crumble, well its almost health food.

Apple Turnovers

These are a little different to the filo wrapped turnovers I wrote about in Turnovers and leftovers (October 2016).  Not only do these use puff pastry (as that is what I had to hand) but they also combine cooking and eating apples.   This means you get the fluffy Bramley which breaks down to a fluff along with small pieces of the eaters which retain a little bite.  The strudel I mention in the introduction was essentially a large, long turnover using the other half of the pack of puff pastry.  It was eaten before I could take a photograph.

1 large Bramley apple, peeled, cored and cut into small dice

2 eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into small dice

4-5 tablespoons caster sugar plus some extra for sprinkling onto the turnovers

A couple of tablespoons of water

1/2 pack of puff pastry

Milk or a little beaten egg

A little flour

Icing sugar to dust (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200.  Put apples, sugar and water into a large pan and cook gently until the Bramley has broken down and the eaters have lost their crispness.  Taste, you may need a little more sugar and when you are happy with it leave to cool.  Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle and cut into six squares.  Put a tablespoon of the apple onto one square of pastry, sort of in the right angle, brush the edges with milk or egg wash and fold over to make a triangle pressing the pastry well to seal, use a fork if you like.  Repeat with the other 5 and put onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  Brush a little more milk or egg over the triangles, sprinkle with caster sugar, cut a couple of slits in the pastry and bake for 12-15 minutes until puffed, bronzed and crispy.  Allow to cool a little before dusting with icing sugar if you like.  Makes 6 and depending on the size of the apples used you may have some apple left which would be delicious for breakfast…

 

Plum Galette

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There is a definite nip in the air this morning and I feel we are now fully enveloped in Autumn and the treats it brings.  There is bonfire night to look forward to which always reminds me of those when I was a child.  Nibbling enthusiastically on a toffee apple but shamefully becoming bored once past the sugar and faced with the apple.  Hot dogs which inevitably leaked ketchup onto my woolly gloves and the glowing face that comes from a huge bonfire.

It is then a speedy tumble towards Christmas but I don’t want to become distracted by this end of the year fiesta and rather enjoy now.  Frosty mornings which lead to sunny but cold days, leaves changing colour then falling and the sparse bleakness of the garden.  On the flip side there is sloe gin to be made and stashed away, fires to be lit and all those culinary delights that were cast aside somewhere around early April.  Stews, hearty gratins and bakes, crumbles and cobblers filled with all manner of orchard fruits.  Rib sticking food to keep out the cold and to enjoy around the table with family and friends as the daylight fades.

My previous recipe for a galette was a nectarine and cherry one (August 2013) and it seemed long overdue to offer a more autumnal version, this fits the bill perfectly.  Unlike that summer version which suggested using bought pastry for speed (summer holidays and all) this time I make the pastry but you should do whichever works for you (I won’t judge).  I have used plums here because I can’t resist their juicy tartness, the perfect foil to crisp sweet pastry but you can just as easily use a few crispy apples (eaters not cookers here) perhaps adding a little cinnamon along with the lemon juice.  We have enjoyed this two or three times over the last week or so, my children love it with ice cream, I prefer it with cold pouring cream but can’t help thinking a really good vanilla custard would probably bring the house down.

Plum Galette

The amount below is just right for the four of us, a generous quarter each but then none left winking at me from the counter begging me to finish it (for which I am grateful).  The one in the photograph is simply this amount doubled and it happily served seven.  You only need a teaspoon of beaten egg for the glaze so take it from another egg that is being cracked for another purpose if possible otherwise use milk.

100g plain flour plus a heaped teaspoon extra

60g cold butter, cubed or grated

A good pinch of fine salt

60g caster sugar, divided in two

30ml cold water

6 plums stoned and each cut into sixths

Squeeze of lemon juice

A teaspoon or so of beaten egg (see introduction)

A dessertspoon of demerara or caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 190.  Put the flour and butter into a medium size bowl and rub together with your fingers.  There isn’t really enough to justify getting a food processor out. When it looks like breadcrumbs add the salt and 30g of sugar followed by the water, bring it together into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and leave somewhere cool for half an hour.  Mix the plums with the teaspoon of flour, remaining 30g of sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice.   Roll out the flour to a rough 30cm circle and place on a parchment lined baking sheet, tumble the plums onto the pastry leaving a good gap and turn this pastry edge over the plums.  Brush with your glaze, egg or milk and sprinkle with the dessertspoon of sugar.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on top and crisp underneath.