A few years ago, on our way to Poland to visit family, my mum and I stopped over in Paris for a few days.
I was just beginning my love affair with butter, and I dragged her around Paris so I could check out all the amazing boulangeries and patisseries.
Without doubt, at every single bakery, while I was busy ordering pain au chocolat and escargot, my mum would have chaussons aux pommes.
And she was onto something, because they are absolutely delicious.
They aren’t very common here, you can probably find them at a bakery or two but they’re definitely not easy to come across, or nearly as good as the ones from Paris!
So last week I made my own chaussons aux pommes at home. And they really are very easy! Particularly since I buy my puff pastry, but I always make sure it is a good quality all-butter puff.
The apples get cooked off in some butter, cinnamon and brown sugar, the puff gets rolled out into little ovals, then the turnovers are assembled (like this!), baked, and voila! The buttery pastry puffs up, the apple filling bubbles and you have gorgeous, flaky, warm, fragrant chaussons aux pommes.
What could be better on a chilly autumn day? X
- 4 apples (Granny Smith)
- 2 tbsp butter (30g)
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 sheets all-butter ready-rolled puff pastry, thawed
- 1 egg whisked with a splash of milk for the egg wash
- Peel, core, and quarter the apples. Cut each quarter into four slices.
- Melt the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat.
- Add the apples, sugar and cinnamon to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, or until the apples begin to soften.
- Set aside to cool.
- The sheets of puff pastry I use are 27 x 27cm squares that are 4mm thick.
- Cut 4 circles out each sheet of puff pastry using a large cutter.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the circles of pastry lightly until they are in the shape of an oval. You should have 8 ovals total.
- Brush the edges of each oval of pastry with a little egg wash.
- Arrange 8 slices of apple on one side of each oval. Turn the other side over the apples and press to seal the edges.
- Arrange the turnovers on a tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F).
- Brush the turnovers with egg wash and use a small paring knife to score lines in the pastry.
- Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden and puffed.
- Makes 8 chaussons aux pommes. Happy baking!
Adapted from Kary Osmond.