Sometimes you want pie. But not a whole one! A whole pie is too way too much commitment for a week night dessert. Besides, I never mastered my mom’s excellent home made pie crust, and anything less than scratch is an insult to her efforts to teach me pie craft.
But a pie pocket? Mmm, light and fluffy, these mini apple pies are an excellent after school snack or a Tuesday night dessert. Made with fresh apples and refrigerated puff pastry, Apple Pockets hit the spot.
Working with puff pastry still takes a bit of time and a tiny bit of effort, but you’re guaranteed a perfect outcome. These aren’t QUICK, because you’ll need about 40 minutes to thaw the pastry sheets, time to assemble them and finally 20 minutes to bake.
But it’s worth the effort.
Recipe Ingredients for Apple Pockets in Puff Pastry
- 1 package puff pastry (Pepperidge Farm is good)
- 2 apples, diced (your favorite flavor)
- 1⁄3 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons flour
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 stick butter
- 1 beaten egg yolk
- white sugar
- parchment paper
Note: you can use blend of nutmeg or cinnamon instead of the pumpkin pie spice…I always have some left over because, geez, how many pumpkin pies do you make in a year?
First, thaw the dough, about 30-40 minutes.
Heat the oven to 350.
While you’re waiting for the dough to thaw out, dice the apples. The finer the dice, the more apple you can stuff into the pockets. Leave the skin on, because who has time to peel apples? If you’re letting your kid’s help in the kitchen, dicing the apples will take the whole 30 minutes of thawing time.
Mix the apples with the brown sugar, flour and spice in a large bowl.
Once the dough is thawed, unfold the sheets carefully on a cutting board and cut into 9 pieces each. Some say you should flour that cutting board, but it’s not really necessary and you’ll end up with flour all over the kitchen anyway.
Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place 9 pastry squares on the sheet.
Place a dollop of apples on each square. How much? About as much as you can fit, maybe a quarter cup. Wing it. (I did.)
Place a pat of butter on each square.
Break the egg, and separate the yolk. Beat the egg yolk in a small bowl with a teaspoon of water, then brush on the edges of the top puff pastry squares. It’s not an exact science, just get a good smear on there. (I didn’t dilute the egg on this first batch and it didn’t spread very well. Don’t be me. Be you.)
Cover each pie pocket with the top. Feel free to smush and stretch the dough to get it to cover–it can take it.
Crimp the edges with a fork to get a good seal.
Poke the top with a fork a couple times to vent the pastry. Yes, it looks like giant ravioli right now, but thank goodness it won’t look like it for long.
Brush the tops with the extra egg yolk and sprinkle with white sugar.
Pop in the hot oven for 20 minutes.
Pour a tall glass of milk and serve hot. Also good at room temperature…if they last that long!
