Cathy Katin-Grazzini
Cathy’s Kitchen Prescription LLC
www.cathyskitchenprescription.com
Pretty Apple Packets
Here’s a delightful apple pastry made entirely of fruit and a bit of leavened whole white wheat dough. These little dough-wrapped pastries that are pretty enough for company, and a festive healthy option for breakfast, brunch, afternoon tea, or dessert. Say goodbye to heavy pastry and laminated doughs, laden with butter, fat, and refined carbs. With pretty apple packets on hand, you won’t miss them.
Prep time 2 hours for dough to rise + 40 minutes
Bake time 30 to 40 minutes
Makes 8 to 10 4-inch tarts
½ cup apricot paste from 1 cup unsulfured dried pitted apricots
1/3 cup apple glaze from 1 carton frozen apple juice concentrate
1 cup unsweetened soy, almond, or oat milk, warmed to body temp
1 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
½ teaspoon vanilla powder or seeds from ½ vanilla pod
¼ teaspoon Ceylon cinnamon
2 ½ to 2 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
2 to 3 baking apples (I used pink Lucy Roses), cored and cut in 1/8-inch slices
Juice from 2 lemons
To make the apricot paste, cover the dried apricots with water in a small bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Alternatively, heat them in a small saucepan on the stovetop. Cool. Add the fruit with some of its soaking water to a high-speed blender and purée into a smooth, soft paste with the consistency of jam.
To make the apple glaze, empty the contents of a frozen concentrate carton into a small saucepan. Simmer on low until about half the liquid has evaporated. Allow the cool. The consistency of the apple reduction should be thin enough to easily apply with a bristle pastry brush. If it overthickens, stir in a teaspoon of water.
Add the soy milk to a medium ceramic or glass bowl and whisk in 2 tablespoons of apricot paste, the vanilla, and cinnamon. Microwave about 30 seconds to warm slightly or heat in a saucepan on a stovetop for a few minutes until moderately warm. Stir in the yeast. Allow 10 minutes for the yeast to activate.
Using a Danish dough whisk or wooden spoon mix in just enough flour to create a soft, slightly sticky dough. Use your hand to knead the dough in the bowl (or saucepan) for 5 minutes until uniform and smooth. Cover and allow to rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours. The dough will inflate but not double in size.
Wash, quarter, core, and slice the apples. Add the lemon juice to a microwavable bowl and gently stir in the apples. Zap the bowl in a microwave for two minutes, until the apples have softened partially and become pliant. Alternatively, simmer on the stovetop for just 2 to 3 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Divide the dough into roughly 9 pieces. Keeping the rest well covered to prevent drying, roll the first piece out to about 1/8 inch in thickness. Use a knife and ruler to cut out a 4-inch square. Reserve the scraps to reuse later. Now move your knife ½ -inch in from the perimeter and cut right angles at each corner. Each “L” should have “legs” about 1½ inches long. Gently lift up each of these flaps to free them from the surrounding dough. Soon we will stretch them over the fruit to make pretty dough ribbons enwrapping the apple slices.
Spread a thick layer of apricot paste over the dough surface. Lay down about 6 apple slices, spreading apricot paste between each slice as you overlap them like a fan.
To wrap up the fruit with the dough pick up two cut corner tabs opposite one another. VERY gently stretch them out, up and over the fruit and pinch them together to seal the “ribbon.” Now pick up the other two opposing tabs and do the same. Because this dough is whole grain, it is fragile and will tear easily. Don’t fret if any of your ribbons break. Just use a little extra dough to patch and smooth the joins. Repeat until all your dough and apple slices are used. There should be 8 to 10 of them, depending on the dough’s thickness.
Bake the packets on a cookie sheet lined with parchment on the oven’s middle rack. After 10 minutes, remove the sheet and apply a generous amount of apple glaze over the fruit and dough. Return to the oven and bake
for about 20 minutes. Remove and apply another coat of apple glaze. Return to the oven for a final 10 minutes of baking. The packets are ready when a knife easily penetrates the fruit and the dough is golden. Remove from the oven and brush on a final coat of apple glaze.
Pretty apple packets are best served warm on warm plates with your favorite warm beverage.
