Twisted Apple & Blackberry Custard

Coryanne from Kitchen Living with Coryanne and our Kitchen Council is sharing a delicious dessert recipe inspired by the wonderful combination of Granny Smith apples and blackberries. Enjoy!

My kitchen is anything but quiet, especially on the weekends when everyone is home and hungry. With more time to tinker in the kitchen, and many hands there to help, we never miss an opportunity to bake something as a family that will keep us sweet all weekend long, and our favorite nibble is a quick twisted custard pastry.  There are so many options with this recipe, but our favorite is a tart blackberry and Granny Smith apple blend that offers all the tang of a fresh Granny Smith apple and all the sweetness of a blackberry. This is the sort of pastry that gets better over time, but is just as irresistible right out of the oven. When we make it, we generally make 2-3 twists at a time and snack on them over the course of the weekend. The first time you make it, don’t be put off by the twisting, call it a ‘rustic’ wreath until you get the hang of it. Or skip the twist element all together and simply layer on the custard and fruit atop of a flat sheet of puff pastry for a simple variation.

While the fruit is the star of this dish, the homemade custard brings it all together.  Homemade vanilla custard is a staple in our house, the possibilities are endless  –add it to a bowl of roasted pears, serve it with glazed cherries, or simply eat it out of the bowl at midnight with a spoon…when no one is looking. The sweet cream plays so well with this twisted pastry that you won’t mind this extra step or the possibilities that left over custard bring.

Twisted Apple & Blackberry Custard

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Nutritional Information

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 Cups of heavy cream, or milk for a lighter version
• 1 Vanilla Pod, halved and scraped, or 2 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 Cup of white granulated sugar
• 1/4 Cup of cornstarch
• Pinch of Salt
• 8 Medium egg yolks
• 1 Package of ready made Puff Pastry, thawed
• 1 Cup of Custard Pastry Cream
• 1/8 Cup of brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/8 Cup of unsalted butter
• 1 Large Granny Smith Apple, peeled, quartered and cored
• 1 Cup of fresh blackberries, rinsed
• Pinch of flour for dusting
• Pinch of cinnamon

Our Kitchen Council is sharing a delicious dessert recipe inspired by the wonderful combination of Granny Smith apples and blackberries. Enjoy!

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• Yield
  4 servings
• Prep time
  00:45
• Cook time
  00:30
• Total time
  01:15
• Cuisine
  American
• In Category
  Dessert
• Level
  Intermediate

Coryanne from Kitchen Living with Coryanne and our Kitchen Council is sharing a delicious dessert recipe inspired by the wonderful combination of Granny Smith apples and blackberries. Enjoy!

Instructions

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
2. In a large heat proof bowl, whisk the egg yolks until creamy, then add a spoonful of the dry mixture, one spoonful at a time, until the two bowls are combined.
3. Simmer the cream and vanilla for 5 minutes to warm it, then turn up the heat and cook for a further 2 minutes so that bubbles appear on the sides, taking care not to boil the cream.
4. Remove the cream from the heat, and slowly pour the cream into the egg batter, whisking continuously until the custard starts to thicken. Discard the vanilla pod.
5. Once combined, pour the custard through a metal sieve to smooth it out and remove any excess lumps. Cover tightly with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming, and refrigerate for 4-6 hours or until chilled.
6. Preheat the oven to 400F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper dusted with flour.
7. Add the butter and brown sugar to a wide frying pan and simmer until melted together. Once melted add the apples and the pinch of cinnamon.   Fold them into the caramel to evenly coat them, cooking for 5 minutes to soften them. Drain the apples and set aside to cool. Reserve the caramel sauce.
8. Cut your Puff Pastry into 4 long rectangles, and place them together on the baking sheet to make 2 long rectangles. Score the rectangle 1 centimeter inside the boarder on each side.
9. Twist the pastry so that each rectangle is overlapping and continue this until you reach the end; taking care to not twist too tightly before bringing it together to form a circle.
10. Once the circle is formed, use a piping bag to insert the custard filling inside each twist of the circle. You will need to gently pull some of the twists apart as they tend to stick when you twist them.
11. Once the custard is in place, place the apples and blackberries in the custard, taking care that when you insert the fruit you wrap the pastry around the fruit to create a sort of tube.
12. Use a small knife to cut slits into the tubed pastry along the twisted pattern and expose the fruit.
13. Place the baking tray in the oven and bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes, or until the pastry is brown and the fruit is starting to glaze.
14. Remove from the oven, brush the reaming caramel across the pastry and allow it to cool before dusting with confection sugar.

Nutritional Information

Per Serving

• Calories: 605