Ambrosia Apples Test Kitchen – Puff Pastry

Ambrosia apples turnoverIn this series, we are heading into the test kitchen. We are trying Ambrosia apples in some of our favourite dishes and experimenting with some new ones. This month, we thought we’d play with puff pastry. 

With inspiration from Sabrina’s dessert from the Come Dine With Me Challenge, we played around with puff pastry. The beautiful thing about this ingredient is it’s ease of use – unless, of course, you make your own. The frozen sheets are quite easy to work with, and produce some delicious results with just a little time and effort.

We started our experimentation with Sabrina’s original dessert. Our pinwheels took a little longer to bake than the recipe indicated – about 30 minutes – and we didn’t have any ice cream on hand so we just ate them out of the oven, and they were quite tasty.

Ambrosia apples turnoverSabrina suggested that a little brown sugar might be an idea, so we did add a little but we decided to take the whole thing up a notch, make an actual filling, and try some turnovers. We mixed some apple sauce, brown sugar, nutmeg, and chopped the apples quite fine. The results were delicious right out of the oven, and were just as good cold. Cinnamon is not a favourite in our test kitchen, but it would certainly fit into any of these combinations as well.

Quick and Easy Ambrosia Apple Turnovers

  • 2 sheets frozen puff pastry – thawed but cold
  • 1 c Ambrosia apple sauce
  • 2 Tbls. brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. Ground nutmeg
  • 1 egg – beaten for egg wash
  • 1 Tbls. granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. Ground cinnamon (optional)

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 400F. Follow package instructions to get the puff pastry to a 12 inch square. Cut each square into 9 smaller squares. Place a small amount of filling into the middle of each square and fold over to make a triangle. Make sure the edges are completely sealed by crimping with a fork, and poke a few holes in the top of each to let the steam escape. Put onto a baking sheet lined with parchment, and leave about an inch between them. Brush with the egg wash and sprinkle the sugar on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

The pastry sheets come in pairs, so we thought we’d play with the shape of the turnovers. Since we had a few macerated strawberries in the fridge, we chopped them up and threw those into the filling as well. This time, instead of the standard triangle turnovers, we made little squares. They were quite tasty, and the strawberry flavour was a nice addition, but the shape didn’t hold up as well in the oven.

The final verdict: The triangle turnovers were the hands down favourite shape, and the filling was delicious.The strawberries added a nice touch of flavour with the Ambrosia apples, but the squares were harder to eat. We’d definitely play around a little more with puff pastry, as it was quite easy, and the Ambrosia apples were the perfect apples in terms of flavour: sweet enough that we didn’t need much sugar, but the brown sugar definitely added to the texture, and the Ambrosia apple sauce was a perfect base for the filling.

Ambrosia Apples