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!