Apple Pastry Pockets & Pinwheels

I made THE BEST crust ever the other day. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m currently in art school, and although I love it, not being able to bake/cook really kills me. A lot of class time is spent dreaming of baking lovely confections. I try to bake whenever I can, but it’s hard being cramped in a dorm room and having to walk to another building to use the oven.  Naturally though, I try to incorporate anything food/baking related into my art projects, which gives me an excuse to think about food, make food, eat food, etc. Anyway, the most recent assignment for my design class was to create a vote poster, and what better way to show the American spirit than in an apple pie?? 

I’m always into trying new recipes, so I dug deep into the wonderful world of foodie blogs and finally came up with something new, a buttermilk butter crust! This crust is a little bit time consuming but SO WORTH IT. What makes it different is that I used a rolling pin to roll out the butter with the flour into slabs in order to incorporate it. This creates pockets in the dough where the butter doesn’t mix through all the way, which means little particles of pure butter are dispersed throughout the crust. Pure butter equals incredible flaky wonderfulness!!!

With the leftover dough from the pie I started making little apple tart pockets, but then they got tedious so I just rolled the dough out into a slab, put apple filling inside, rolled it back up, and cut it into pinwheels.  Long story short, use this recipe for the crust! I’ve included my apple filling recipe but feel free to adapt the filling to your taste/what is in season!

 The Wonderful Crust

(taken from Joy the Baker)

{ 2 sticks (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter /

2 1/2 (12 ounces) cups all purpose flour/ 1 Tablespoon sugar / 1 teaspoon salt/

1/2 cup (5 to 6 ounces) buttermilk }

Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the freezer to chill for 15 minutes.  Measure out the buttermilk and store in the refrigerator to keep it cold (you could even put it in the freezer for a few minutes too).

Sift together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.  Take the cold butter from the freezer and toss it with the flour mixture.

Dump the cold butter cubes and flour mixture onto a large work area for rolling.  With a rolling pin, roll the mixture, flattening the butter cubes with the flour into long, thin, floured butter sheets.  Work quickly to ensure that the butter stays cold.  

Place the flour and flattened butter back in the large bowl and chill for 10 minutes.    When the butter is cold, remove the bowl from the refrigerator, make a small well in the center of the flour and butter mixture.  Add the cold buttermilk to the bowl all at once.  Begin to bring the dough together with one hand. Moisten all of the flour with the milk, using your hand to break up large clumps of milk and flour.  The dough will be rather shaggy, but you can add another tablespoon of buttermilk, if you see that all your flour isn’t moistened.  Form the dough into two disks.  The disks will be rough, and hard to shape together, but once they rest in the fridge for an hour, they’ll be easier to roll out.

Chill the dough for at least an hour in the refrigerator.  At this point, the dough will keep in the fridge for up to three days, or in the freezer for up to three weeks.  For freezing, roll the dough out into sheets and wrap them in plastic film.

My Apple Pie Filling

(This is enough filling to make a whole apple pie; you will need this much filling if you want to make a whole batch of pinwheels out of the pie dough)

{ 2 ½ pounds apples peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick (I used a combo of fuji and granny smith) / 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice / 1 teaspoon lemon zest /

¼ cup brown sugar / ¼ cup white sugar / 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon /

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg / ¼ teaspoon salt /

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter / 1 Tablespoon cornstarch }

{ 1 egg / 2 Tablespoons milk } (for the egg wash)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and prepare 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper. 

Combine all of the ingreidents together (besides the egg and the milk) in a bowl and stir.

Transfer the mixture to a wide pan and cook on low until the apples begin to soften and release their juices.

Stir occasionally, and watch until the sauce slightly thickens and bubbles. This should take no more than 10 minutes.

Roll out ½ of the dough ¼ inch thick, and if making pinwheels, spread half of the fruit mixture on to the dough slab, working quickly as to ensure the butter does not melt.

Roll up the slab and then slice rounds with a sharp knife or bench scraper.

If you would like to make the individual pie pockets, roll out half the dough, and pour all of the fruit mixture onto the slab of dough.

Roll out the second slab of dough, and place it on top of the fruit.

Then proceed to cut the slab sandwich into squares. Take each square and press together the edges with the prongs of a fork.

Cut 2 small slits in the top for ventilation.

Finally, whisk together the egg and 2 Tablespoons of milk. Brush the top of your pastries with the egg wash, and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.