Apple Empanadas a la Mode
4 tablespoon unsalted Butter
3 large Baking Apples
3 tablespoon Dark Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 box frozen Puff Pastry, thawed(this takes about 40 minutes)
Flour, for dusting
Pinch Salt
Optional: 3 tablespoon Dark Rum
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Peel your apples.
Core your apples, and dice them into small bite sized pieces.
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Once the butter is completely melted, add the apples
and stir them until they are soft. This does not take long.
Once the apples are soft, add your brown sugar,
cinnamon, salt, and rum, if you so desire. I omitted the rum.
Let this cook for 10 minutes, stirring often.
Once the 10 minutes are up, mush the apples with a fork
until it looks like lumpy applesauce.
During the 10 minutes, start to cut out your circles
from the puff pastry. Unfold the puff pastry. Use something
that is 4-5 " in diameter to cut out your circles.You can see
that I used my funnel which was 4 1/2" wide. It worked great!
Using a paring knife or pastry wheel, cut out your circles.
There is 1 of the 4 circles I cut from 1 puff pastry sheet.
I made 1/2 of the recipe,
so I only ended up with 4 empanadas.
Scoop 2 tablespoons of apple mixture onto each circle.
Fold each pastry circle in half.
Pinch the ends closed.
Crimp the ends of the pastry with fork tines.
Pretty!
Take the 1 tablespoon of butter that you didn't use,
melt it, and gently spread it on the empanadas.
Poke a couple holes in the top of each pastry,
allowing it to vent while baking.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until they start to
turn light brown.
Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream!
Enjoy!