Valentine’s apple puff pastry

How to make a special Valentine’s apple puff pastry .

This is one of those  dessert recipes   with which you will look good in a simple way on Valentine’s Day or on any special occasion with your partner.

A practical demonstration that if you want to prepare sweets or desserts that seem complicated at home and that actually following the steps of this recipe, it will be delicious.

The idea of ​​these heart-shaped puff pastries comes from the apple tart with puff pastry that you already know, for sure. It is a much easier puff pastry, it only has 2 preparations, a very simple pastry cream and on the other hand the puff pastry . The latter we have bought, a quality puff pastry plate so that a perfect dessert comes out .

To make it even easier, we can prepare the homemade pastry cream in advance, the day before and finish the puff pastry the same day that we are going to consume it.

What we are going to need could not be easier, a little puff pastry, a pastry cream and a couple of apples. Only with this, we can surprise our partner on Valentine’s Day , that is, today, tomorrow, the day after … who is encouraged?

Preparation of the pastry cream for the puff pastry

1. We start preparing the pastry cream to have it ready when we put it with the puff pastry.
2. It is important that we make a rather thick cream, so that it lasts well when cutting the puff pastry. We can do it with some advance, even the day before, so we distribute the work.
3. Follow this video or the recipe for pastry cream that you have on the blog and it will be perfect for you.

Preparation of the puff pastry. Heart shape and baked

1. We have bought on this occasion a quality puff pastry. We just have to spread the puff pastry sheets on a kitchen paper.
2. We are going to shape it, we cut the puff pastry in the shape of a heart, here you can make them in the size that you like.
3. We preheat the oven to 200º C.
4. With a large heart-shaped cookie cutter (or freehand, please make them more or less the same) we make at least 9 hearts.
5. We reserve 3 that will be the bases of our apple puff pastry.
6. Then we cut what will be the margins of our hearts. We need 2 hearts to assemble the heart.
7. We spread a finger on the beaten egg and wet the end of the heart that will be the base, we put one of the previous margins on top.
8. We paint again with egg and put another heart margin. We repeat with each of the future puff pastries.
9. We prick only the bases with a fork and put legumes (chickpeas for example) inside, so that they do not grow in the oven.
10. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown and the edges have risen, which we will then fill.

Preparation of the syrup and shine for the puff pastry 

1. While the puff pastry is baking, we hydrate the gelatin sheets to make the protective shine of the tart.
2. In a saucepan, heat the water with the sugar. Let it cook over medium low heat for about 5 minutes.
3. We turn off the heat and add the already hydrated gelatin sheets. Mix well so that they fall apart and reserve.
4. We must let the syrup cool down completely and begin to thicken before using it, so it is advisable to do it early.
5. When the syrup is completely cold, if we want we can put it in the fridge for a few minutes to help it thicken.

Apple puff pastry filling and final presentation

1. When we have all the elaborations ready we start with the assembly of the cake. The puff pastry must be warm or cold.
2. Fill the puff pastry base with a layer of pastry cream.
3. We cover the puff pastry with the thin slices of apple, as you see in the photo. And with the oven at 200º C gratin 10 minutes.
4. When the cake glitter is slightly thick, we begin to paint the entire surface of the cake with it using a kitchen brush.

Perfect dessert to look good with little effort. 

You can see all the step by step photos of the apple puff pastry recipe   in this album. Do not miss any detail and they will be perfect.

Tips for perfect apple puff pastry

• To make the puff pastry it is essential that this pastry cream is cold, so that there are no problems when handling the puff pastry. You can have it made one or two days before.
• You can see that they are unit type hearts, to be able to repeat if you want. But you can also make it a little bigger, to share between 2. I leave it to your liking. And of course, it is valid for other types of shapes, stars, circles, squares … 
• I recommend that you fill the puff pastry with a spoon and be very careful. The other way is to distribute it more easily with a pastry bag.