Its Apple Season in Sweden! Thinking about something different to bake every time, and every year can be a bit challenging, however if you really look at bakeries all over, you find staple things such as tarts, buns, choux pastries, cream puffs, cookies and cakes. I mean generally these are the main genres, so this time I thought lets try baking a choux (I know it may not be so easy but once you get the hang of it, its pretty easy peasy) and add in an apple pie flavour! I really didnt want to bake a whole apple pie, for two reasons, it takes longer, and secondly, both my husband and I are trying to lose weight! Yes a baker, trying to lose weight is NOT EASY! 🙂

However I created these amazing little apple caramel choux pastries, they are a regular choux, with a green sable on top (thats the crunchy cookies thingy that makes it look like a turtle shell – when it was meant to resemble a green apple! lol) and inside is a cinnamon spiced apple mix with creme caramel! YUM! They’re tiny, cute, yummy, and actually not so hard to bake!

My sable are thicker that usual, and YES there is a reason! Its because I LOVE THE CRUNCH! and i’m always searching for more when I eat one, so I thought why not make it THICKKKEERRR!! wohoo! craving, solved! 😉

Here’s how you bake them!

INGREDIENTS: 

Choux Pastry –  

• 235 g water
• 115 g unsalted butter cut into cubes and at room temp.
• 140 g  flour, sifted
• 226 g eggs, about 3 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tsp white sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Sable/Craquelin –  

• 115 g unsalted butter
• pinch of salt
• 130 g light brown sugar
• 130 g flour

Apple Stuffing –  

• 2 medium sized granny smith apples
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp butter

Creme Caramel –   

• Salted Caramel Sauce – recipe & Ingredients click HERE! 
• 1 Cup whipped cream

 

METHOD:  

Sable/Craquelin – 

Choux – 

1. Preheat oven to 175C.
2. Place salt, water, sugar (if using) and butter in a saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When the water is just starting to boil (butter should be melted at this point), add the flour in one go (do this with the saucepan away from the stove/heat) and vigorously mix the flour in, so that it absorbs all of the water (use a wooden spoon or spatula to do this). When the flour has absorbed the water and it’s forming a dough, return the pan to the stove (medium heat).
3. Cook the dough for 2 – 5 minutes while you mix and move it around in the pan until you get a dough that pulls away from the sides of the pan, forms oil droplets on the bottom of the pan, and when you stick a spoon in the dough, it stays upright.
4. Transfer the dough to a bowl, and let it cool down slightly for a few minutes. Add the vanilla extract (if using), and then with a hand-held mixer (or whisk), mix the dough while adding the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Make sure the eggs are lightly beaten so that you can stop adding eggs immediately, when you reach the right consistency (i.e. a dough with a glossy sheen with pipeable consistency. You may or may not use up all the eggs, please see the post for details).
5. Prepare two baking trays with baking paper.
6. Pipe the desired shape on to the baking sheet – either using a piping bag fitted with a large tip (I use Wilton 1A or 2A tip, or you can cut the pastry bag opening instead). I got roughly 24 choux buns, they were each roughly 2 inches in diameter.
7. Take the Sable/Craqelin out of the freezer, and using a cookie cutter, cut out circles with a diameter of 1mm larger than the choux that youve piped. Once all sable are done, place them one by one ontop of each piped choux, making sure the choux is perfectly center on the sable.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 40 in the center of the oven, DO NOT open the door until 30 minutes have passed. At 30 minutes, open the door of the oven and prick each choux pastry with a sharp knife or a toothpic, to release air, close the door of the oven andl et them bake for another 10 minutes. This is so the inside of the choux dries out and bakes evenly.
9. Remove from the oven, and let the choux pastry cases cool completely in a draft-free area. Preferably in a place that is not cold. (Letting them cool in an open but turned off oven is even better, but not necessary).

Apple Stuffing –  

1. Peel the apples, and dice into 1 mm tiny cubes. Place all ingredients into a frying pan, and mix until the apples are coated and semi soft. This recipe requires the apples to be ‘al dente’ but you can cook them until they are super soft if you don’t like the crunchiness. Leave it to cool completely before assembly.

Creme Caramel – 

1. Take your caramel sauce (method here) And fold it into your ready whipped cream gently. Fold until fully combined. Place into a piping bag and leave in the fridge until assembly.

Assembly – 

1. Take each choux and cut off the top part (the green ‘hat’) First pipe roughly one tsp of creme caramel on the bottom, and then fill 1 tsp of apple filling, then top with 1 tsp of creme caramel, and place the ‘hat’ back on top. Repeat with all , and Voila! You’re petite choux are done!!!

Enjoy!