Apple Roses

The Internet is filled with stories of Pinterest fails. I’ve had my fair share of less than stellar Pinterest attempts, but the Apple Roses I made for Thanksgiving were a success!

I was first inspired to try my hand at these apple roses from fellow bloggers TwinDays when they posted about them earlier this fall. I then saw a bunch of different posts on Pinterest for them with slightly different variations (some used puff pastry, some phyllo dough, some used apple butter, some used apricot preserve, etc.) but with the same basic idea and method.

The recipe I mostly followed was this one from The Love Nerds with a few changes.

I cut up thin slices of apples in half moon shapes, which is easy once you halve your apples. The recipe suggested using 1 large or 2 smaller apples, but I ended up needing 2 1/2 small-ish size apples.

Cut your puff pastry into 6 even strips. I ended up using both sheets of puff pastry yielding a dozen apple roses.

In order to more easily roll the roses, you’ll need to cook the apples. The apple slices should go in a bowl with water and lemon juice (to prevent browning) and go in the microwave for 4 minutes. I used lime juice instead of lemon just because that’s what I had readily available. It’s really important to cook the apples though because they need to be soft in order to roll.

I didn’t have apple butter and like mentioned above some recipes use apricot preserve, which I had planned to buy or make if I had the time but I forgot both soooo I used strawberry preserve. The recipe also called for sprinkling cinnamon and ground cloves inside the strips, but I chose to do a sprinkling of a mix of cinnamon and sugar. The apple slices should overlap and stick out above the top of the puff pastry strips. Make sure to leave space at the ends so that you can close the ends when you’re done rolling.

The rolling is really easy and it already looks like a rose!

Before putting the roses into the oven, I put the whole cupcake pan into the refrigerator for 10 minutes. After working with the filling and rolling each rose, the puff pastry wasn’t very cold anymore. It was still cool, but puff pastry needs to be cold when put in to the oven in order for the butter to activate resulting in the puffing. After they chilled briefly, I baked them at 375 for 30 minutes. I checked at 25 minutes and they weren’t quite brown yet so I kept them in for another 5.

Dusting them with powder sugar is up to you, but I think it gives them a little more finished look.

They came out beautifully and look so fancy when they really were not hard to make at all! I love when things look like you put a ton of effort in but in reality it wasn’t difficult. Not only were they beautiful, but they were delicious as well. A definite win – win. They reminded me in taste and texture like apple turnovers. Definitely give these a try the next time you want to impress with a dessert!