Pastry diamonds filled with delicious apple filling
Makes 12
These babies are so delicious, you’ll be putting them away faster than a speeding bullet. The irresistible crispy, golden layers of light, flaky pastry will melt all your troubles away.
The apple filling is semi sweet, with a burst of cinnamon in every bite. The caramel sauce (although optional) is a yummy addition, that adds yet another scrumptious flavour to this already delightful treat.
Before you start, please read the Tips and tricks
Tips and tricks
Store bought puff pastry in Australia is sold in packets of 6 or 10 square sheets of pastry.
Each measuring 24cm x 24cm
You need to work quickly when working with puff pastry. Don’t defrost it
completely, but allow it to thaw for no more than 10 minutes. It needs to be soft enough to fold but firm enough so it doesn’t break when you fold the border. If it’s too hard it will break.
If the pastry gets too soft (just like in my video) then it becomes hard to manage and it’s hard to get a consistent shape, but as uneven as they turned out, they still looked good. So don’t panic if they don’t look great before baking, they end up looking fine after a trip to the oven.
Work with the one sheet of pastry at a time, and keep the other two covered in plastic in the coldest part of the fridge.
Make sure you have EVERY THING you need ready before you start to cut the pastry.
Make sure your oven is preheated, and your baking tray is lined with paper. Check that the knife you are using is sharp and ready for use, and you have your fork and the egg wash ready to apply with a basting brush.
Cut your pastry on a clean, flat, smooth cutting board.
Only prick the centre of the diamond shape pastry because we don’t want the centre bit to puff up. We only want the frame to puff up so it creates a nest to fill the apples with.
When baking, you need to keep an eye on it, every oven is different and you don’t want to burn the pastry.
Lets get started
ingredients
Apple filling
2 extra large sweet apples like red delicious or pink lady
2 tablespoons brown sugar
½ tablespoon cinnamon powder (or according to your taste)
¼ cup water
Method
Apple filling
Peel, core and dice the apples
Transfer diced apples to a small pot, add water, sugar and cinnamon,
give it a good stir, cover and cook over medium heat until apples are semi soft: about 10- 15 minutes. Transfer apples to sieve and drain liquid. Set aside.
Ingredients
Pastry
3 puff pastry sheets
1 egg at room temp (for egg wash)
1 tablespoon water or milk
Diamond pastry
Method
In a small bowl, whisk the egg with a tablespoon of water or milk until well combined and smooth, set a side.
Place a single square sheet of puff pastry sheet on a cutting board. (Each sheet measures 24x24cm). Cut the sheet into four equal size squares (12 cm x 12cm each). It’s not the end of the world if they’re not exactly perfect.
Cut an 8cm square inside each pastry square creating a pastry frame which is 2cmm wide all around.
Lift the top lefthand corner of the frame and fold to meet the inside of the right bottom hand corner of the centre square, and gently press down. Lift the outside corner of the frame which is above the corner you have just folded over and fold it over the frame so it points in the opposite direction to create a diamond shape and press down gently. (watch reel)
Using a fork, prick the centre of the diamond shape pastry only! Brush pastry all over with egg wash.
Transfer to a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 20-25 minutes or until pastry has . puffed up and is golden brown. Be sure to keep an eye on the pastry, every oven is different, some are hotter than others.
Fill the centre of each diamond with a heaped tablespoon of cooked apples and drizzle with caramel sauce
Ingredients
Caramel sauce
200 gm caster sugar
50 mls water
80 gm butter, coarsely chopped
125 ml pouring cream
Method
Caramel sauce (optional)
While the pastry is in the oven you can make the caramel sauce
Stir the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Stop stirring and bring to the boil, reduce the heat to medium low and cook until caramel changes colour: about 8 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, stir in the butter until it has dissolved, slowly, pour the cream into the pot. Be very careful as the hot caramel will spit. Stir until combined, allow caramel to cool to room temperature.
Transfer to a clean jar and seal with a lid, it will stay in the fridge for roughly 2 weeks.