While using commercial puff pastry takes a bit of forethought, move the package from freezer to fridge the night before, the actual preparation could not be simpler. And voila the following morning or night you have piping hot puff pastry squares for your family or friends. There are two types of frozen puff pastry on the market. One is the block type you have to roll it out yourself and the other one is already rolled out for you. Grocery stores tend to carry one or the other, and unless you live in a one establishment town, I would suggest looking for the puff pastry already rolled out for you. It comes in a long box and contains 2 pastry sheets. Each sheet will make four apple squares and if eight squares are too many you can repack one of the pastry sheets and put it back in the freezer. I would do this only once though. For convenience and because there are just the two of us most days, I used one pastry sheet and made four apple squares.
Puff Pastry Apple Squares
1 sheet of frozen puff pastry sheet, there are 2 sheets per package
You may refreeze the other sheet
2 apples, cored, halved and sliced very, very thin
2-3 Tbsp melted butter
ground cinnamon for sprinkling
1 Tbsp maple syrup to use sparingly
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup finely ground nuts – I used walnuts
• Preheat oven to 400F and line a large baking pan with parchment paper.
• Cut puff pastry sheet into 4 squares and place on the parchment lined baking pan.
• Next peel, core and thinly slice the apples.
• Arrange apple slices on the pastry sheets.
• Brush the apples and the pastry lightly with the melted butter.
• Sprinkle a minute amount of cinnamon over the apples.
• Drizzle a bit of maple syrup on top.
• Next sprinkle it with the brown sugar.
• Finally sprinkle with ground nuts.
• Bake for 15 minutes or longer until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and with a spatula slide the hot apple squares on a serving platter.
• Dust with powdered sugar.
