Chausson aux Pommes

Puff turnovers filled with a thick cold apple compote, scored in curves and sealed with water rather than egg.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

For the filling

• 700 g apples, peeled and diced
• 50 g butter
• 60 g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional

To finish

• 1 batch puff pastry, as on its own page
• 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon milk
• caster sugar, to finish

Method

1. THE APPLE MUST BE COLD AND DRY BEFORE IT GOES IN. Cooked down until a spoon drawn through leaves a channel that does not fill, then cooled completely. Warm filling melts the butter in the pastry before the oven can lift it; wet filling turns to steam inside and bursts the seam, and then the sugar leaks out and welds the turnover to the tray. Both faults happen in the oven where you cannot intervene.
2. THE SEAM IS SEALED WITH WATER, NOT EGG. Egg on the join cooks to a brittle glue that cracks open as the pastry lifts. A damp fingertip round the edge and firm pressure with the back of a fork holds far better. Egg goes on the TOP only, and not over the cut edge, which would glue the layers shut.
3. THE CURVED SCORING IS NOT DECORATION. Those shallow arcs are a vent: they let steam out through the top instead of through the seam. Cut through the glaze and no deeper than half the pastry.
4. Apples, butter, sugar and lemon juice in a pan, lid on, 10 minutes until collapsing.
5. Lid off and cooked 10 to 15 minutes more, stirred, until THICK -- a channel drawn with a spoon stays open. Cinnamon stirred in if using.
6. Cooled completely, and chilled if there is time.
7. Puff pastry made as on its own page, rolled to 4 mm, and cut into six ovals about 14 cm long. A plate makes a good template. Cut cleanly in one stroke.
8. Rested in the fridge 20 minutes, or they shrink.
9. Each oval rolled a little longer in one direction, so the folded side is not short.
10. 2 tablespoons of cold filling on one half, a 2 cm border left clear.
11. The border wetted with a finger, the pastry folded over, and the edge pressed firmly with the back of a fork.
12. Chilled 20 minutes. Then glazed on top only with the egg yolk, keeping it off the cut edge.
13. Scored with three or four shallow curves, and one small hole cut at the thick end.
14. Baked at 200C for 25 to 30 minutes until deep gold and crisp underneath. Sugar scattered over while hot, and cooled 20 minutes -- the filling is molten.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes