Whiskey Apple Tarts

When the weather turns chilly, my first instinct is to bake! My momma asked me to make some Apple tarts she'd seen on Pinterest, and I obliged, but I decided to put our own little spin on it. We made a nice apple whiskey glaze, and it is good stuff!

With my sweet Mrs. Claus apron... because I can!

INGREDIENTS

• 3-4 apples, sliced thinly
• 1/4 c applesauce
• 2 T honey
• 2 T apple whiskey
• 2 cans of honey croissant dough (Pillsbury)
• powdered sugar to taste

PROCEDURE

The first step is to slice the apples up, nice and thin.  You want to shoot for the slices to be about 1/8".  Too thick, and it won't bend to make the rose.  Too thin, and you won't really taste the apple.  Once you have the slices, you'll need to microwave (or otherwise cook) the slices so they're pliable.  I ended up microwaving about 10 slices, enough for one tart, at a time for 15-20 seconds.  To make the glaze, whisk together the applesauce, honey and whiskey.
Next, we opened up the cans of dough and rolled them out.  The dough from Pillsbury was perforated for croissants, so I pushed those back together so they wouldn't fall apart while trying to roll up the roses.  Each can of dough needs to be cut into 6 long rectangles.  The rectangles got a line of the applesauce glaze, and a line of softened apples.  See the pic below for how to set it up.

After this, fold the dough up on top of the apples, but make sure the top of the apples are still sticking out to make the petals.

Fold the dough up, and roll into spiral shapes.  Place each rose in a muffin tin, and bake in a 350* oven for 16-20 minutes, or until golden brown.  I put more of the glaze on each after they finished baking, and a nice sprinkle of powdered sugar.

If there's one suggestion I could make, I would make the dough on the thinner side, so it doesn't expand so much as it bakes.  It won't taste any different, but it'll look more delicate and pretty when it's out of the oven!  ;-)

In their happy little cups!

If you're ever on pinterest, you've probably seen some version of this recipe.  I feel like a lot of blogs try to make this whole thing sound super easy...  It's not terribly hard, but it takes a couple of times to get the hang of how soft the apples need to be and how tight you need to roll the dough.  Thankfully, I only had one I screwed up beyond repair.  If you give this a try, I'd love to see pictures and know what you think about the applesauce and whiskey glaze!

P.S.

Don't forget to sign up for our email notifications, and to follow us on facebook and Instagram!

Cinnful Pulled Pork

Hello! With the end of fall, we've been thinking of all the recipes we can to incorporate our favorite flavors. Pretty much all of our family loves cider, and we love pulled pork. Why not combine the two? Cinnful Apple from Angry Orchard made the perfect base for our recipe.

Ingredients

1. One pork shoulder, about 2 lbs. (can also be called Boston Butt depending on the market)
2. 1/4 cup of brown sugar
3. 1/8 cup of sugar
4. 2 teaspoons of salt
5. Dash of cinnamon
6. Two apples
7. One bottle of Angry Orchard Cinnful Apple
8. One crock pot

First thing you want to do is to make a dry rub with the two kinds of sugar, the salt, and the dash of cinnamon. Just throw it all in a small bowl and mix it together, doesnt have to be perfectly mixed. Then you take out your pork shoulder and cut off any excess fat you see. After that, you put the pork in a large mixing bowl and pour your dry rub in. You want to massage the dry rub into the pork for about 10 minutes. It should get sticky and absorb pretty well. Once that is finished, cut the two apples into slices, and line the bottom of your crock pot with them. Pour in half a bottle of the Angry Orchard, then put in your pork. Put another layer of apples, and a little more cider.

Before it starts cooking

Let the meat cook on high for about 5 hours, adding cider as you wish you keep the meat nice and moist. After the meat is done cooking, take it out and grab two forks. The meat should be fairly tender, so you can just start pulling strips off. We enjoyed eating ours on a bun, but you are welcome to enjoy it however you like.

Alternately, you can let the meat cure overnight by applying your dry rub, then setting the pork in the refrigerator. This will increase the amount of flavor soaked up by the meat. 

This meal is an easy setup, and would be ideal for starting in the morning, so you have dinner ready when you get home (but set your slow cooker on low instead of high!).

Are you planning on trying this recipe, or do you have one similar that you love?  Let us know in the comments!  Share this recipe to save for later (pin it, g+, whatever floats your boat).  And, as always, stay classy, San Diego.