Apple Rose Tartes

Hello everyone! How have you been enjoying this beautiful autumn weather? It's been absolutely gorgeous in our neck of the woods and I've been savoring all the hot drinks and crisp air! 

A few weeks ago I made Apple Rose Tartes and thought they were perfect for fall since the caramel and apple are practically a match made in heaven :) we ended up making these for one of the Widow's Banquets and everyone seemed to love it, and i thought you might too!

::THE CRUST::

5 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 cups lard or shortening

2 tbsp vinegar

2 eggs

Sift all the dry ingredients together and then work in the lard. Beat the eggs in a cup, add the vinegar and fill the rest of the cup with water. mix well. then add it to the dry ingredients.

Once the dough has been made you'll want to roll it out till it's not too thick (i found that if i rolled it too paper thin it just fell apart in the end and if it wasn't thin enough it is very hard to roll into a rose). Then cut the dough into rectangles that are approximately 8" by 3".

:: THE FILLING::

3-4 apples

9 tbsp lemon

12 tbsp water

 sprinkle of cinnamon

2 tbsp sugar (per rose)

8 oz. cream cheese

Take the apples, cut them in half like you normally would to take out the seeds, then lay them cut side down and cut into thin slices from the top of the apple to the bottom. (does that even make sense?) Put the sliced apples into a microwave safe bowl, add the lemon juice and water, then microwave for about three minutes or until the apples are nice and flexible. 

Get the cut dough and spread the cream cheese all along one side (lengthwise). sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon on the cream cheese and then line the apples on top of the sugar. make sure that the side with the peel is sticking out past the dough so that it makes the end result look as planned :) 

Fold over the plain side of the dough on top of the apples and then roll it up. Place into a greased muffin tin and bake @ 375 F for 30 minutes.

As soon as you take the pan out of the oven make sure that you remove the tartes immediately since the sugar makes a delicious caramel-ish sauce, and it will make it much more difficult to get them out of the pan once they are cooled! (lesson learned :) For a little bit of "extra special" dust them with icing sugar before serving.

Enjoy!

:: He said to them, "come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest"::

Mark 6:31