Apple Roses-Bánh Táo Nướng Hình Bông Hồng

Favorite fruit of Fall, apples are teamed up with rough puff pastry and a little bit sweetness from sugar, cinnamon, apricot preserve/jam.  These are not new but the video "Baked Apple roses" from Tip hero taking a storm over Internet the last few days.  I use the apricot preserve to brush on apple petals after baking to add the sweetness and beautiful shiny look instead of powder sugar.  If you do not have apricot preserve/jam in hand, use powder sugar instead.  I only use green apples from my boyfriend's yard but any baking apples will be good.

Make 12 roses

4 baking apples as Mutsu, Granny smith, Pink lady, etc.
4 Tablespoon sugar, divided
2 Tablespoon apricot preserve or  a little powder sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 package (17 oz) of frozen puff pastry thawed  or homemade puff pastry, recipe followed.
12 cupcake baking pan. Paper cup liner (optional)

1. Wash apples, do not peel, cut them in halves, core and thinly slice into 2 mm (< 1/16 inch) thick slices. Count when slicing the first apple to see how many slices.  One apple should made 3 roses about 8-10 petals each.  Toss apple slices with 2 Tablespoon sugar, and microwave for 2 minutes. Toss apple slices and continue cooking another minute or two minutes more until they are bendable. Strain them in a strainer, keep the juice.  Let sit on the counter until cool.  Apple slices can be cook in a pan on the stove top but need to stir often to make sure they are soft at the same time.
2. Preheat oven to 375 oF with a rack in the middle position. Thaw frozen puff pastry as instruction on the box.  Roll one sheet out into 10 x 9 inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Mix cinnamon and 2 Tablespoon sugar and sprinkle 1/2 on the dough. Cut the dough into 1.5 x 10 inch trips with a knife or pizza cutter.coated with flour.  Take one trip out then arrange 8-9 apple slices overlap together along the dough trip.  Keep the flat side of apple slices slightly off the edge of the trip about 1/16 inch.  Using both hands rolling the dough trip with apple slices into a circle like a rose.  When finish rolling, hold the rose in one hand with the bottom up and gently press and pinch the dough into the center of the bottom.  Put it into a cupcake pan. with or without paper liner.  Repeat with remaining apple and dough.  Bake in preheated oven until the pastry puff golden brown about 30 minutes for dark pan, and 35-40 for shiny pan.  
3. While the roses baking, put apple juice in a small saute pan and cook it down like syrup/ glaze texture, add apricot preserve, mix well.  Remove from heat then strain it through a fine sieve.
4. Remove the baking tray from oven onto a wire rack.  Brush apricot and apple mixture on the petals immediately.   Let apple roses cool in the pan a few minutes. Take a small spatula or knife, fork remove the roses and cool complete on the wire rack.  If you do not use apricot,  just cook down apple juice from cooking apple slices and apply to the petal and sprinkle powder sugar over cool roses. 

Rough puff pastry

This recipe is from Gordon Ramsay and Michel Roux, two famous Michelin star chefs.  They use equal weight amount of butter and flour.  Michel uses less salt.  There are two videos showing how they making the dough by hand and food processor.  There are another method from Delia grating frozen butter into the flour which use less butter.  This recipe yield about 20 oz dough, a little more than needed for 12 roses.  Cut extra dough into small trips, sprinkle with some cinnamon and sugar and bake along with apple roses.

8 oz unsalted butter (2 sticks), cold cut into small cubes

8 oz all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

3/4 cup ice cold water, divided

1. Put butter and flour and salt into a food processor.  Pulse  a few times until the butter about the pea size.  Add 1/2 of water, pulse a few times.  Add more water if needed until all the flour in cooperated and a firm dough formed with fingers. Shape the dough into 5 inch square, cover the  with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge about 20 minutes. 
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough  in one direction( backward and forward) into a rectangle 2 times the width (12 x 6 inch).  Try to keep the edge straight. Fold the dough into 3 layers.  Give it a quarter turn (90 degree).  Roll and fold like before. These are the first two turns. 
3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.  Give the chilled dough another two turns: roll and fold like before.  Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 more minutes before use.