These lovely apple rose tartlets with puff pastry are an easy elegant mini apple pastry you can easily make at home and serve with coffee or tea for a special brunch event. Made with sliced apples, puff pastry, brown sugar, cinnamon, and a little lemon. Top with powdered sugar for a beautiful apple dessert presentation.
We are a vegan family, and so I am always looking for fun and delightful vegan snacks and desserts that everyone can enjoy AND that aren’t too challenging to make. Vegan baking is always a bit of mystery science, and so when I can find a dessert that uses “regular” ingredients and still works for my family, I consider it a win!
You will love these pretty apple rose tartlets! They are made with puff pastry, apples, a little cinnamon, and sugar, and aren’t that challenging to make – once you get the hang of it.
They are great for after-school snacks, after-dinner desserts, or can be served at a coffee with friends, or another special event.
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Ingredients needed to make apple rose puff pastry tarts
- one puff pastry sheet – my preference is for Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets. However, it seems that these days you need to take what you can find. Pepperidge Farm’s frozen puff pastry is rectangular in shape. If you can only find round frozen puff pastry then see the directions below. It will still work. Also, since we are a vegan family, I do read the ingredients on the back. I have not seen any commercial puff pastry yet that is not vegan – but do check.
- two medium apples – You will be using thinly sliced apples to make the top of the roses that peek out over the puff pastry.
- lemon juice – You can squeeze half a fresh lemon, or use bottled lemon juice. It doesn’t really matter for this recipe.
- brown sugar
- ground cinnamon
- optional powdered sugar for decorating – see other optional serving suggestions below.
How to make apple roses with puff pastry
The exact ingredients with measurements can be found in the recipe card below along with more concise abbreviated instructions. Read on for more details, tips, and tricks so that you will feel confident making this recipe.
Step 1: Prepare/ thaw the frozen puff pastry sheet
You will need at least two hours out of the freezer to thaw a puff pastry sheet. Follow the directions on your package.
You can also spritz the muffin tin with cooking spray at some point before you begin. No need to preheat the oven just yet.
Step 2: Prepare the apples
You will need to cut the apples into very thin slices – not paper-thin slices, but not apple wedge-sized slices either. Either use a sharp knife or, if you are comfortable with a mandoline slicer, you can use that too. Just remember that we are going for thin – not paper-thin slices.
Start by cutting the apples in half, digging out the center seed part, and then starting on one end, and thinly slicing into very thin wedges.
Step 3: cook the sliced apples to soften
You will not be able to roll the puff pastry into a proper apple rose if the apples are not thin, nor if they are not soft.
It is best to use a non-stick pan to cook the apples and sugar. If the cinnamon sugar mixture on the bottom of the pan begins to dry out, then add the smallest amount (one teaspoon) of water and continue cooking and stirring.
Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add the apple slices, lemon juice, brown sugar, and ground cinnamon. Toss together gently and heat for about fifteen minutes until the apples have just softened. They should be bendy but not mushy. We are not making apple sauce!
Remove the pan from the heat so that the apples can cool enough to handle
Now is the time to preheat your oven to 375° while the apples are cooling enough to handle.
Step 4: Time to make the apple rose tartlets!
By now the puff pastry sheet should be thawed enough to work with. Undo the roll onto a lightly floured counter or onto a sheet of parchment paper.
If your puff pastry sheet is round, then cut off and discard the small end pieces – you won’t be needing them. Then proceed to cut the sheet into five long pieces with a sharp knife or with a rotary pizza cutter.
If your puff pastry sheet is a rectangular shape, go ahead and cut it into five even strips. The strips should be about two inches high.
Starting on one end, place the cooked apple slices side by side so that the top part with the skin is facing the top and is slightly off of the pastry strip.
Fold the bottom part of the pastry dough up over the bottom part of the apples (the top of the apples with the skin should still be out of the pastry strip) and begin rolling.
Start at one end and carefully roll to the other end, tucking the apples if necessary as you go until you’ve made an apple rose shape.
Place each apple rose into the muffin tin as you finish it. If you don’t have a muffin tin then you can place the apple roses in a cupcake liner to keep them together and then bake on a baking sheet.
Time to bake the apple tartlets
You will be baking the apple puff pastry roses for 35-45 minutes. At thirty-five minutes, take a peek and see if the puff pastry is golden brown. If they are under-cooked then the apple roses will taste doughy.
Remove from the pan as soon as you can comfortably handle the apple tarts and continue cooling on a wire rack.
Serving suggestions
- Sprinkle with a thin layer of powdered sugar.
- Drizzle on some caramel sauce. You can make my homemade salted caramel sauce here.
- Serve with a side of vanilla ice cream. You can find one of my yummy vanilla vegan ice cream recipes here.
The recipe for Apple Rose Tartlets
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Apple Rose Tartlets with Puff Pastry
Ingredients
- 1 puff pastry sheet see notes
- 2 medium apples
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- optional powdered sugar for decorating
Instructions
- Allow the puff pastry to thaw according to package directions. This will take at least two hours.
- Wash the apples and dry them well. Use a sharp knife and cut them into thin slices. You will be avoiding the seeds and leaving the peel on. You can also cut them with a mandoline if that is easy for you. But the apple roses will look better if the apples are cut into "wedge" shapes. See the blog post for the details. Toss the apple slices with lemon juice to keep them from browning.
- Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add the apple slices, lemon juice, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Toss/stir gently and heat for about fifteen minutes until the apples have just softened. Remove the pan from the heat so that the apples can cool enough to handle.
- Preheat the oven to 375° while the apples are cooling. They should be cool enough to handle once the oven is heated.
- Unroll the puff pastry and cut into five strips. The strips will be about 2 inches in width.
- Working with one strip at a time, lay the apples along the entire edge of the top half of the strip with the skin side facing out of the pastry strip. (See blog post for example.) Fold the bottom half over the apples so that only the top part with the skins is poking out. Carefully roll into a "rose".
- Spritz some muffin cups with cooking spray or use cupcake liners. Place each apple pastry rose in a muffin cup.
- Bake in a 375-degree oven for about 35-45 minutes until the apple pastries have browned. If the apple rose is undercooked then it will taste doughy. the 35-45 minutes is suggested because ovens vary so much. Start checking at 35 minutes. Take one out and slightly pull it to check for doneness. Mine get done in about 40 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Sprinkle (optional) powdered sugar on to decorate.
Amazing eye appeal and taste!
My puff pastry did not cook thru. Should I raise temp or cook longer?
Ovens vary greatly and that really seems to affect the doneness of this puff pastry recipe. Start checking at 35 minutes and then every 3-5 minutes the first time you make this recipe. Mine get done in 40 minutes.
Have you ever tried making a smaller version of these in a mini muffin pan?