Crafts- Apple Roses

This year we've gotten a really good crop of apples from our tree. Last year we got crate upon crate of tiny sour little things, most of which ended up going to our friends to make cider so we're thrilled to have plenty of edible ones this time round.

This pile is only about a quarter of what came off the tree. Apples that were heavily bruised or had already been partially eaten by birds or bugs went straight to the chickens. Some of our apples have already been chopped up and put in the freezer for making pies and crumbles throughout the year and some have been pickled in some leftover pickle juice we had.

I wanted to use some to make a batch of apple roses. I'd actually never heard of apple roses before yesterday but my partner thought they looked delicious and they are all over the internet so I thought I'd make him some as a surprise.

Things you will need-

• Apples (x6 small-medium size)
• Plain flour (225g)
• Butter (100g for pastry & 50g for syrup)
• Water (4 tablespoons for pastry & 2 tablespoons for syrup)
• Cinnamon or Mixed Spices
• Sugar (100g)
• Knife
• Mixing bowl
• Pan or double boiler 
• Muffin/cup cake baking tray
• Rolling pin

If you really don't want to make your own pastry you can buy ready made stuff instead but it's so simple to make you might as well save yourself some money and make it from scratch. First dice up the butter into a mixing bowl and add the flour.

Using your hands rub the ingredients together until the mixture becomes crumbly. Then add the water and knead it all together. Place the pastry into the fridge to chill while you work on the apples. 

Core your apples. If you don't have an apple corer you can slice the apples into quarters and cut out the core instead. Next slice your apples as per the photo below. 

Place your sugar and remaining butter and water into a pan and heat until it is all melted. Be careful not to burn the sugar when you do this. Now you can either add your spices to the syrup mix or you can sprinkle the spices on top of the apples. I decided to mix mine in. Add the apple slices to the syrup and stir it thoroughly but carefully to ensure all the slices are coated properly. Let it simmer gently for 5 minutes to soften up the apple slices.

Set aside the apple slices to cool and take your pastry out of the fridge. Roll out a thin sheet of pastry and cut out circles to fit the base and sides of each cup cake slot in your baking tray. Make sure you dust your surface with flour first or your pastry will stick to the table. 

Once your apple slices are cool lay several of them out in a line and roll them up to create a rose. This can be a bit messy due to the syrup but it will be worth it. Keep going until your rose is the correct size to fit inside the pastry cup.

Place the rolled up apple slices inside the pastry cups and put them into the oven to bake for 40 minutes at 180 degrees. 

If you didn't add your spices to the syrup don't forget to sprinkle them over your apple roses once they are baked.