It isn’t very often that you come across a dessert that manages to be both adorable and elegant. These mini rose shaped apple pies are the best of both worlds! They can be made for any event from a backyard get-together to a formal dinner party, and are guaranteed to get a lot of ‘wows’ from the crowd.

I was kind of intimidated by these little beauties at first, to be honest. I mean, I’m not a fancy pastry chef and these are obviously really hard to make, right? Actually, they aren’t! The key to making them are very thin apple slices that are the same thickness. It’s much easier if you have a mandolin, but totally doable with a sharp knife and a steady hand.

After cutting your apples in half lengthwise, remove the core, stem, and seeds. Cut the apples into thin, even slices. This is where that mandolin comes in handy! Honeycrisp or Pink Lady apples work very well, but any crisp, red-skinned apple will do. The key to good apple pies are of delicious apples.

To create your roses, lay the apple slices in a row with the peeling sides all facing the same direction. Each apple should overlap the one before it by about half. Begin at one end and tightly roll, keeping a consistent pace from start to finish, if at all possible. If your slices are too stiff, putting them in the microwave for 15-30 seconds will soften them enough to roll into little rose apple pies.

These cute little apple pies are excellent drizzled with jam, sprinkled with powdered sugar, or warm with a scoop of ice cream. However, you choose to serve them, prepare yourself for a barrage of compliments and/or disbelief that you made them in your own kitchen. These mini rose shaped apple pies are a definite crowd pleaser.

Ingredients

Pastry Puff

1 cup flour
8 tbsp. butter
1/3 cup ice water

Filling

1 red apple thinly sliced
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ cup melted butter
Aluminum foil

Instructions

1) Mix flour, butter, and ice water together. Knead dough until ingredients are mixed. I will be sticky. Cover and place in the fridge until ready to use. When ready to use roll out. Sprinkling with flour, and then fold into thirds. Roll out again, and repeat sprinkling with flour and folding until dough because manageable.
2) Roll pastry puff out and cut into strips about 1 inch (2 fingers) wide.
3) Brush each strip of pastry puff with melted butter, and then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
4) Lines apples along each strip of pastry puff. The straight edge should reach the middle of the strip, and the curved end will stick out over the edge. Each apple should overlap for easy roll up.
5) Fold the strip of pastry puff in half over the apples. Brush with more melted butter and sprinkle with more cinnamon and sugar.
6) Starting with the end of the strip where the apple is on the bottom, roll the pastry puff and apples up to form roll.
7) Place each rose in the center of a piece of aluminum foil and roll up the edges to keep rose from unrolling. Fill the center of each rose with cinnamon and sugar.
8) Preheat oven to 400 degree F and make for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Let the roses cool and then remove from foil. The roses should hold their shape. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Mini Rose Shaped Apple Pies