Apple Roses For Christmas Brunch
When it comes to throwing a Christmas Brunch, or any brunch for that matter, having something that looks complicated to make, but was really simple to make really does help put a shine on that brunch spread. The dish I speak of is apple roses. These rounds of buttery, apple goodness look beautiful, but aren’t difficult to make. You can’t go wrong with apples wrapped in buttery puff pastry.
Christmas Brunch Flavors
Not only are these apple roses easy to pull off for Christmas brunch, they have all the flavors of Christmas built right in. First, the buttery puff pastry (store bought! This makes it easy!) is slathered with dulce de leche. This will never be a bad idea! You could use caramel, too, but there is something luscious about dulce de leche that can’t be beat. The apples are sprinkled with spiced sugar, too – Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Clove. These spices have Christmas written all over them.
Christmas Brunch Make Ahead
These delights can be made ahead and reheated or served at room temperature the day of the brunch. Give’em a shake of powdered sugar before serving as an extra special touch. A little cinnamon or clove mixed in to the powdered sugar would never hurt. These roses are a perfect accompaniment with a little egg nog! Good dipping!
Christmas Brunch Preparation
The video below shows you all the techniques needed to make these apple roses. The full recipe follows.
- 1 9x15 sheet of purchased all butter puff pastry
- 3 medium green apples
- 1 can of dulce de leche
- 3 tbsp of sugar
- 1 tsp of cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp of ground clove
- powdered sugar
- Pre-heat the oven to 400F.
- Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray.
- Core the apples
- Cut the apples in half. With a sharp knife, thinly slice the apples into half moon shaped slices. Make the slices 1/16 -⅛ inch thick. The thinner the better. Place the slices in a microwave safe bowl. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap. Steam the apple slices in the microwave on high 45-60 seconds until the apple slices are flimsy and bendable. Set the slices aside and let them cool completely.
- On a clean surface, unroll the puff pastry sheet. Using a pastry cutter, cut the sheet into strips 1¼ to 1½ inch wide along the short side of the sheet. Cut 12 strips.
- In a small bowl, mix the sugar and spices together.
- Lay out 1 strip of puff pastry so the strip is in a vertical position. Using a knife, spread the dulce de leche down the full length of the puff pastry strip.
- Place slices of apple vertical so that the skin side faces the left side of the strip and overlaps the left edge just a little bit and the skinless apple edge is about in the middle of the puff pastry strip.
- Sprinkle the apples with a little spiced sugar.
- Fold the right side of the puff pastry edge over the apple slices. Sprinkle the exposed side of the puff pastry with more spiced sugar.
- Starting from the top or bottom, carefully roll the strip up into a roll creating the rose. Place the rose apple side up in the prepared muffin tin. Repeat until all the roses are made.
- Bake the roses at 400F for 35-40 minutes until the pastry is puffed and the roses are golden brown and caramelised.
- Let cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve.
- Red, green, or yellow apples can be used for Apple roses. Caramel can be used instead of dulce de leche. The spices can be changed to suit tastes.
Keep Eating! Keep Innovating!
Have you ever made apple roses? If so, how?
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