Pastry, Apples and Cards – Oh My!

Today is National Pastry Day. We are encouraged to visit our local bakery and pick up one or two of our favorite baked goods. While I’m all in favor of supporting local businesses, I’m equally a big fan of puttering in my kitchen.

What is pastry? The answer is fairly broad. It’s usually something baked, made with ingredients such as flour, sugar and shortenings. Pastries can be pies, tarts or even quiches. Recipes for pastries can be traced as far back as the ancient Mediterranean. Then pastries were paper thin. Think multilayered baklava or Phyllo Dough. After the Crusades, pastry making was all the rage throughout Northern Europe, with French and Italy perfecting the art. Yeah, must be why we all love French or Italian Pastries best.

Here’s a thought for National Pastry Day – the flavors of the season, and all the cheats we can find. Instead of making our own dough, use Crescent Roll Dough found in the refrigerated section of your grocery store. Instead of making apple filling from scratch, doctor a can of filling to your particular tastes. These warm, yummy Apple Rings are great served glazed on their own or ala mode with quality French Vanilla Ice Cream. We’re lucky, the best ice cream around is Tillamook. You’ll pay a bit more, but it’s so creamy, so delicious you’ll never go back to the bargain brands again. Besides, Tillamook is a company worth supporting. It’s a co-op of nearly 60 family-farm dairies that are the economic backbone of Tillamook County on the Oregon coast. They began in 1854, when several farmers built a schooner to transport butter up to Portland along the coast rather than overland. By 1909, the association was formed and it’s grown since.

Wow – that was a bit off subject – in a way. I do love their ice cream. The only ice cream better is home-made. Back to where we were – National Pastry Day. Today also happens to be National Christmas Card Day. It serves as a reminder to get our stamps and address those cards. Do you send cards? We used to every year. But then it just became easier to say Merry Christmas to everyone on Social Media. When the pandemic hit, the need to connect was so strong, I started sending cards once more. So mine are in the mail as we speak.

If you’ve got cards to send, what better way to do that then to gather the family ‘round the table, serve up this amazing Glazed Apple Ring and have everyone involved in a Family Christmas Card project. Enjoy!

Warm Glazed Apple Rings
1 (21-oz) can Apple Pie Filling
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 tablespoon Butter, melted
2 (8-oz) cans refrigerated Crescent Roll Dough
6 tablespoons Caramel Topping
1 cup Powdered Sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons Whole Milk
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla

Optional For Serving
Vanilla Ice Cream
Additional Caramel Topping

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line two large, rimmed cookie sheets with foil; spray with cooking spray. Set aside.

Empty apple filling in a large mixing bowl. If necessary, chop apples into smaller pieces. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Melt butter, drizzle over the apples. Stir to blend, set aside.

On a cutting board, open one can of crescent rolls, roll out the dough. With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, divide crescent dough into eight triangles. Place a small bowl in the center of one cookie sheet to help keep the center open. Arrange triangles, points outward, to create a circle, wider ends overlapping slightly. Press dough together at the wider end of triangles. Remove bowl from center, set sheet aside. Repeat with remaining tube of crescent dough.

Spoon half of the pie filling onto each dough ring, around the center hole. Warm caramel topping in the microwave for about 20 seconds to thin. Drizzle pie filling with caramel topping.

Fold points of dough over the filling, tucking under the wide parts of triangles. Carefully wipe away any excess caramel with paper towels.

Place rings in the heated oven to bake until rolls are brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.

While the apple rings cool, sift powdered sugar in a mixing bowl. Add milk and vanilla, whisk to create a glaze. Drizzle glaze over the apple rings.

Using two large spatulas, transfer each ring to a round serving platter.

If desired, serve with a scoop of ice cream drizzled with remaining caramel topping.