You need:
- a rectangular sheet of puff pastry
- 6 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 50 gr of butter (melted)
- a bowl with water (300 ml) and 3 tablespoons of sugar
- 4 apples.
Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Slice the apples thinly and put them in the bowl of sugary water - microwave it for 5 minutes so that the apples become soft and drain them. Cut the puff pastry into slices ( 5 cms thick) across its shortest side. Place each stripe horizontally. Sprinkle the lower half of each stripe with brown sugar and place the apple slices over the top half overlapping them. Fold the lower side of the stripe over the apples and then roll the stripe from left to right. Butter a muffing tray and place each puff pastry roll into each muffin hole. Push the pastry a bit down with your fingers so that the rose opens up. Paint the apple with the melted butter and bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 180 degrees and bake for another 12-15 minutes. Sprinkle with icing sugar.
Most recipes for apple roses use apricot jam, but brown sugar makes a nice caramel base, which works well with the puff pastry. Children enjoy eating this but find the whole process utterly boring, especially as I stupidly did not realise I was competing with France v England on TV - what was I thinking!
