These are the dessert I make when people are coming over and I have almost no time. Two apples, one sheet of puff pastry, and a bowl of cinnamon sugar. They come out of the oven looking like a bakery made them, and nobody needs to know they took ten minutes to put together.

The trick is slicing the apples into rings instead of wedges. A ring sits flat on the pastry, bakes evenly, and gives you that whole apple shape in the middle when you tear one open.

Ingredients

Makes 6

• 2 apples, cored and sliced into thick rings
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 sheet puff pastry, cut into 6 squares
• 1 egg, beaten
• A handful of chopped walnuts

Method

1. Heat the oven to 400F and line a sheet pan with parchment.
2. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together in a shallow bowl.
3. Core the apples, then slice them into thick rings. Thick matters. Thin rings go soft and disappear into the pastry.
4. Press each apple ring into the cinnamon sugar on both sides.
5. Roll the puff pastry out and cut it into six squares. Lay an apple ring in the middle of each square and gather the four corners up over the top, pinching them together.
6. Brush the whole thing with beaten egg, then scatter the rest of the cinnamon sugar and the chopped walnuts over the top.
7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until puffed and deep golden.

A few things I have learned making these

• Keep the puff pastry cold right up until it goes in the oven. Warm pastry does not puff.
• Do not skip the egg wash. It is the only reason they come out that color.
• They are best warm, about ten minutes out of the oven, when the pastry is still crisp and the apple is soft.
• Any apple works, but a firm one holds its shape better than a soft one.

What I used

• The apple corer I use for the rings
• The parchment and deli paper I style everything on
• The acacia wooden spoons in the crock behind me, gifted to me by the brand

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