D235: Wee Apple Danishes!

My mum recently turned 80!  We had a lovely afternoon tea with family and I made these little apple Danishes, or turnovers, to share.  Unfortunately, I only made 18, which was too few for the 16 adults and children there.  I varied this from other recipes, but it's terribly simple. 

I recommend making the apple mix a few days before the day you plan on making the pastries.  The mix will also do for a pie.*

Need:

• 4 apples, cored, peeled, cut into 6 wedges, which are then sliced.
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• 1-2 tbsp sugar
• 1-2 tbsp plain flour
• 3 sheets of puff pastry for sweets
• Some milk for brushing
• Some jam for glazing (apricot is most popular, plum works too: anything seedless but probably not marmalade!)

To make the apple filling:

1. If you have one of those peeler/corer/spiral-slicer things for apples, it is perfect for cutting the apples for this project. Once you've peeled/cored/spiral-sliced the apple, cut the stacked spiral into 6 wedges.  About one of these stacks will do for each little Danish.
2. Put the cut apple in a snap seal bag.
3. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg to a fragrance you like.
4. Do this twice: put a tbsp each of sugar and flour in with the apple, then seal and gently toss the bag.
5. Put the bag in the fridge if you don't need it straight away.  I left it there for two days and it was pretty perfect.  Freeze it if you're cooking it much later than that.

On the day:

Apple! Not bacon!

1. Preheat a moderate oven (375°F/180°C).
2. Line your baking tray with grease proof paper.
3. Take a sheet of puff pastry (leave on the backing sheet) and put the others back in the freezer. (The pastry gets soft and 'melts' quite quickly.)
4. Cut your pastry sheet into 9 even squares by scoring it (don't cut the backing plastic) into three even parts vertically and then horizontally.
5. Arrange a spoon or two of apple mix diagonally on a small square of pastry. Pick up the empty corners and overlap the points on top of the apple.
6. Move it to your lined baking tray.
7. When you've filled your tray (I did 9 per tray), brush all the exposed pastry with milk and bake for 25 mins.
8. Prepare the next sheet of pastries while the first bakes, and so on with the third. 
9. Once the pastries are cooked and have cooled a little, heat your jam and glaze your pastries generously.

Enjoy!

*If you are going to freeze the apple mix for pie, freeze the bag in your pie dish. Then, when you're ready to bake, you can take it out of the bag and pop it straight into your pie dish with a snug fit!

D110: She'll be apples...

I can't decide whether apples or lemons are the best fruit.

Lemons are so versatile - sponges, stir fries, a lemon transcends the boundaries. It's sparks and tilts the flavour of a meal, it's a garnish and a foundation flavour, and they last and last...

Apples, though, go with meats and pastries and are in the jam in jam doughnuts, and there's a gazillions varieties of them, and you can eat them fresh*... Yeah, it's apples.

While fruit is notoriously sweet, it is often also sneakily tart and in a way my adult palette has missed.  When I made apple and plum puree Bub hit an especially sour spoonful once and, I kid you not, turned her head to the side, straightened her little legs and smacked the table three times.  Although paralysed with laughter, I did have the presence of mind to retain that plums are sharp.

Once I started paying attention, I realised that Granny Smiths, too, would be quite sharp for babies so I initially chose an eating apple because they often have a mild flavour.  I love Fuji apples, so I got those in case I was too disorganised to actually make the purées.  (Or is that really organised...?)

3 medium Granny Smiths, 2 brown pears & 1 medium banana = 1 doz. heaped tbsp

Bub is a fan of apple, pear and banana purée and today I had the presence of mind to document my effort, not just in photos but in quantities.  I've tried different types this time: brown pears instead of green, Granny Smiths instead of Fujis, just to work some variety into a somewhat reliable food.

Then I used some mild Golden Delicious and added some frozen berries - a few each of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries.  Two small apples and some berries do not yield very much, and now I know.  A part of me thinks I'm kidding myself with this one, flavour-wise.  Did I not just explain how babies notice sharp flavours more than adults.. and I'm using raspberries? Really?

Nevertheless, I don't want to start not making things because I'm presuming Bub's tastes.  Who's to know what her preferences are like one day to the next?  Maybe she's old enough for some tartness.  Her interest in food waxes and wanes and preferences come and go without rhythm.  So as much as I feel foolish for not being right about what she likes (coz I'm supposed to have some sort of telepathy about that, obvs) I still want to try lots of different things, rejection be damned.  

Two Golden Delicious and half doz berries = not much.

This cooking thing is beginning to feel like a metaphor for the grief of parenting - all this effort, with no possibility of gratitude, some likelihood of pleasure and every chance of rejection.  For me, knowing that Bub will refuse things she doesn't like means I have to manage my emotions about it all.  I go to a bit of effort to imagine or choose and make all these things especially for this little person, with no guarantee whatsoever that it will be liked, hoping for her best response, which is a frequently opened mouth, some impatience, maybe some kicking.  So I have to find this middle ground of being thoughtful, maybe creative, but not invested.  (These are the minutiae of mental health for some mums.)  

And yet, sometimes I can't help but get a little bit excited about new foods.  For instance, I couldn't wait for her to try the little shepherd's pies I made.  I'd really like her to enjoy beef and potato, two feature ingredients in my diet.  I even cut one in half, so I wouldn't feel too bad if she rejected it.  It took three pans to make, you see, and that's a lot of bother for me.   I even caught myself talking my heart down, "She prolly won't like it much, it is a very strong flavour, and she's got no teeth..." 
She inspected it a lot, and tried the potato... early days, early days.

So, if you haven't figured out that I overthink things, you've just been busted for scanning and not reading.   About once a week I exhaust myself and fall in a gentle heap with "You know what?  We'll just put what we're having in front of her and if she eats it she does, and if she doesn't she'll have a breastfeed. No biggie."  At some stage, that relaxation will become permanent, I hope, or Bub's eating habits will shift.  As they say, food is for fun before they are 1.  For FUN.  So I've got a little under 8 weeks to get it right.  (Good work brain, way to help.)

*Yes, I know, technically you can eat a lemon fresh, but you can also eat a book fresh, so, you know.

D104: Pie!

Apple Pie from the Cookery the Australian Way bible, with some cranberries (yes, still working through that pack) and butter.  It's a huge pie dish, so even with an extra apple, it's pretty shallow!

Still yum!

D96: Making the Most of Your Jaffle Toaster Part 2: Apple Jaffles!

Mmmm, supper!

These ones are super duper easy and ding dong yum! (Apologies in advance for the povo photography.)

Apple Jaffles!

You need:

• 1 good sized apple of any type; 
• 1 sheet of puff pastry; 
• cinnamon; 
• a squeeze of lemon juice; 
• sultanas if you like.

To make:

1. Peel, cut and grate the apple.
2. Add as much cinnamon as you like and the lemon juice.
3. Prepare a sheet of puff pastry by cutting it into square quarters.  Cutting it into triangles - as described in step 3 of the French Toast how-to - would be fine too.  Create cutting lines by pressing the pastry onto sandwich maker before it's warmed - the pastry will melt very quickly upon contact with the hot surface, so no do-overs here.  
4. Warm toasted sandwich maker and smear butter on the surfaces.
5. Lay down the bases in the sandwich maker.
6. Roughly divide your grated apple into four. Squeeze out the juice before you put it in each sandwich triangle.
7. Sprinkle some sultanas over each sandwich triangle if you like.
8. Lay over the other two squares. 
9. Lower the top of the sandwich maker. (Consider putting some paper towel or some such underneath, to catch apple juice.)
10. Do the dishes.
11. Check on the jaffles.  Simply wait until they're as brown as you like, but make sure the pastry is cooked through on all edges.
12. Prise out with a knife and present.  Some cream on the side would work.  Some folk might like to brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Tip:
Wipe down the surfaces while they're still hot - much easier to get off the sticky apple juice.

This recipe doesn't really work with bread.  Maybe some croissant-like pastry-ish bread would do, but with regular bread it just soaks through.  I think I recall trying something like this with a shortcrust pastry and, in general, it worked but was very difficult to get out of the toaster - lots of breakage.

I think this would work okay in a flat sandwich press, or a rippled one, if the lid was not heavy and you sealed the edges of your sandwich before putting it in.  I don't think I'd recommend it though...

So I hope you're somewhere comfy, enjoying some steaming apple pockets, wondering what else you can do with your marvellous sandwich maker... :D