Fall

Imprisioned apples

by:
April 24, 2011
4.7
3 Ratings
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

Baked apples filled with custard cream, beautifully decorated with pastry and caramel —SandeeA

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Ingredients
  • 4 apples
  • 100 milliliters water to cook the apples
  • 200 milliliters water to soak the raisins
  • 50 gr raisins
  • 50 nuts
  • 4 tablespoons prepared custard cream or creme patissiere
  • 2 packets puff pastry
  • 150 gr sugar
Directions
  1. Bake the apples. To do this wash them carefully, core them, put in a dish suitable for oven, with half a glass of water, and cook at 180Cº for 25 minutes.
  2. Prepare the filling. Hydrate the raisins in some water for an hour. Then drain them. Prepare your favorite custard or creme pattisiere recipe, and take 4 tablespoons. Mix custard with raisins and nuts
  3. Once the apples are baked, pour into the middle/core of each apple 1 tablespoon of the raisin filling we’ve prepared previously
  4. Prepare the pastry prison. Use a grid cutter or sharp knife to create a grid or pattern on the pastry sheets. Take some parchment paper and wad a bunch of it up into a large ball, about the size of your apple
  5. Cut the pastry into 4 pieces, and then wrap each piece around the paper balls. See step-by-step images on the related blog link. Place on a baking sheet
  6. Bake the pastry for 15 minutes at 200 º C. If dough is too thin to use the cutter and gives you problems, you can knead it and stretch the width you wish
  7. After baking the grids, carefully remove the baking paper ball from inside
  8. Prepare the caramel, just putting sugar in a nonstick pan over medium heat, and heating it until it becomes liquid and gets dark
  9. Once the pastry grids are baked, use a pastry brush to spread hot caramel over them, being careful not to get burned. Let the caramelised grids dry
  10. To serve, put an apple (already filled) on a dish and cover with the pastry grid

See what other Food52ers are saying.

19 Reviews

Gabrielle January 23, 2015
Omg this is Beautiful.
I mean really
Greenstuff April 29, 2011
So cool!! One year for my birthday, my mother made me Julia Child's cake in a cage. I just went looking for it--it's in From Julia Child's Kitchen, Knopf, 1975. Since my mom was more of a cook than a baker, this was a real event. The cake was a beautiful layer cake, filled with crème Chantilly, fruits and liqueurs. The cage was made from caramel, drizzled all over the back of a metal bowl. The round dome was placed over the cake, and when it was time to serve, she tapped it--tap,tap,tap--and it shattered onto the cake. That was pretty fun, Now your technique has me going off to buy the grid cutter I never knew I needed!
SandeeA April 29, 2011
Wow, that sounds amazing!!!! you just gave me an idea, I think I will make that with chocolate! yum! Thank you :)
lorigoldsby April 28, 2011
These are GORGEOUS! This could be a fun new dinner party theme--prison break! Can't wait to try these.
SandeeA April 29, 2011
hahaha love the idea of prison break! Just let me know if you have any questions regarding the recipe, thank you :)
Shauna S. April 25, 2011
This is amazing! So beautiful, and I adore the name.
SandeeA April 25, 2011
Thank you! the name is a joke, cause my spanish readers use to say i love to imprison food :) I'm always cooking things inside other things!
fortyniner April 25, 2011
I will definitely be giving this recipe a go!! It looks so stunning and apples are dirt cheap here at present. I have one of those pastry cutters that makes the lattice - I bought it years ago and husband said I would never use it!! Well I will now.

Have sister in law and husband coming to dinner in a couple of weeks - so this is going to look brilliant.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful looking recipe with us all.
SandeeA April 25, 2011
Thank you fortyniner, just let me know if you have any questions about the recipe! Hope you will surprise your sister in law... and your husband too! :)
fortyniner May 4, 2011
Sandee, I have done a trial run of 2 cases, just so that I can get it spot on for Sunday's lunch! I used one sheet of Puff Pastry and it made 2 prisons. Our pastry comes prerolled here, makes it all simple, the shells/prisons turned out just like your photos! And of course, the lattice pastry cutter got it's first outing from the drawer of 'things I may need to use in my cooking some time in the future'
SandeeA May 5, 2011
Thank you for giving a go to the recipe :) Glad to hear you liked it! have you frozen the "prisons" you've made? That is something I've never tried before, it would be great if they can be prepared in advance!
fortyniner May 5, 2011
Well I have one imprisoned in a biscuit tin on it's own to see how it keeps in air tight container. However the other one was promptly eaten by myself and husband as soon as I had removed the paper ball interior - it was delicious, so crispy!
Well we had to test them didn't we?
I will make the real thing ( cases) on Saturday and do the apples Sunday.
Thought the prisons would be good over a dollop of home made ice cream and prison surrounded by mixed berries, as a different play on your dessert. However Sunday will definitely be the apples inside!
Thanks again Sandee for inspiring me to try something entirely different and novel.
fortyniner May 8, 2011
Made these for our Mothers Day lunch today and they went down a treat!! I made the custard cream, from a carton of whipped thicked cream stirred into some thick shop bought custard. Then I mixed in sultanas that had been soaked in sweet vermouth and vanilla liquer. Plus of course added a load of mixed chopped nuts.The toffee coating on the shell just finished it all off nicely.
This is definitely worth making if you want to serve up a very impressive dessert!
Thanks again Sandee.
Emiko April 24, 2011
This looks gorgeous!
SandeeA April 25, 2011
Thank you Emiko :)
boulangere April 24, 2011
Beautiful!
SandeeA April 24, 2011
Thank you boulangere! :)
Panfusine April 24, 2011
The only hitch with this dish would be, its soo pretty, I wouldn't know whether to just admire it or eat it!
SandeeA April 24, 2011
thank you Panfusine :) It is so easy to make that you wouldn't mind eating it!