Elmali Milfoy~Apple Puff Pastry

Today at the Niagara Cultural Center we had a going away party for our friend Somer. Dilek had called and ask me to bring a dish to pass. I decided to go with something sweet and flaky, homemade apple puff pastry.

I surfed the Internet for a pastry dough recipe. While searching, I found that this dough is difficult, time consuming and really an art. (video) Butter is added to the center of a basic dough, covered and then rolled in. It needs to be folded over and over, to make the delicate flakes in this pastry. After seeing how difficult it was, I resorted to buying a boxed dough.

Cutting the dough was a little tricky at first but then after folding you see how it lays in place. The first attempt, I braided tightly and it turned out very narrow. The second attempt was beautiful. I folded the strips loosely. After baking you could see the bubbling filling oozing out the openings. Serve with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. Afiyet olsun!

Recipe

1 Pkg. Puff Pastry

Filling:
6 lg. Gala Apples
1 C water
1/2 C sugar
1 pkt. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
few drops of lemon juice

Extra:
2 tbsp. sugar (topping)
1/2 cup Flour (for rolling out dough)

Peel and chop apples in small pieces. Place in sauce pan. Add all of the above ingredients. Simmer until all apples are soft. Optional: Place cooked apples in food processor and puree too a chunky texture. Preheat oven to 375.

Place a small amount of flour on counter and open dough. Keeping dough square, roll out dough to increase it's size. (both directions) Fold dough in half (vertically) and place on parchment paper. Cut off right top corner diagonally. Then cut 1/2 inch strips down whole right side. At bottom center make one vertical cut from bottom-center up. Make this cut up too last strip. Open and arrange onto paper.

Place cooled filling in center,from top to bottom. Fold down center flap, to keep filling in. then rotate left and right strips over one another. At bottom fold bottom center flap up and fold last strips over. Gently place your dough that is on parchment paper onto baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 375 until golden brown. Cool on counter. Serve warm.

Note: Save time by making your filling ahead of time and then freeze. Take out and defrost before using.