Gluten-Free Cheat’s Apple, Caramel and Custard Danishes
Easy
6 Servings
30 minutes bake time
A special, elevated breakfast made with a few cut corners. You can make the pastry cream and caramel in advance, so that you can simply assemble when ready to bake. Bonus points are that they’re gluten-free and can easily be made dairy-free if you use an alternative milk and butter.
Ingredients
For the almond crème pâtissière/pastry cream:
- 225g whole milk
- A few drops of good quality almond extract
- 50g caster sugar
- 2 medium egg yolks
- 15g cornstarch
- 20g unsalted butter
For the cinnamon apple cider caramel:
- 250ml cloudy apple juice
- 75ml maple syrup
- 30g unsalted butter
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 x Jus-Rol™ Gluten-free Puff Pastry Ready Rolled Sheet
- 2 small eating apples, cored and thinly sliced
- 1 medium egg, whisked
- 2 tablespoons flaked almonds
Equipment required
- Baking tray
- Sharp knife
- Chopping board
- Saucepan
- Heat-proof spatula
- Balloon whisk
- Heat-proof mixing bowl
- Wire cooling rack
- Pastry brush
Method
- To make the pastry cream, add the milk and almond extract to a saucepan and place over a medium heat. Stir the milk every so often and as soon as it comes to a boil, remove it from the heat.
- Whisk the caster sugar, egg yolks and cornstarch together in a heat-proof bowl until smooth. Slowly pour the milk over the egg mixture, whisking all of the time to temper the egg yolks (and to prevent them from scrambling).
- Return the mixture to the saucepan and place back over a medium heat, whisking constantly for 2-3 minutes, or until the cream bubbles and thickens. Take off the heat and transfer to a clean bowl.
- Whisk the pastry cream for a few minutes to cool it further, then whisk in the butter. Cover the surface with a sheet of cling film and let cool to room temperature before placing in the fridge to chill completely (it will keep for up to 3 days).
- To make the cinnamon apple cider caramel, pour the cloudy apple juice into a large saucepan and place over a medium heat. Reduce to half, then add the maple syrup, butter, salt, cinnamon and apple cider vinegar. Whisk together until combined and bring to the boil. Cook, for 3-4 minutes, stirring often, or until the caramel has thickened and you can see large bubbles on the surface. Remove from the heat and let cool.
- Unroll the Jus-Rol™ Gluten-free Puff Pastry Ready Rolled Sheet and cut it in half lengthways. Cut each half into 3 equal pieces. Lift the pastry squares, still on the baking paper, onto a baking tray and preheat the oven to 180℃ fan.
- Fold a pastry square in half diagonally, then place the flat edge in front of you. Without meeting at the middle point (you want the strips to still be attached), make 2 cuts parallel to the edges of the triangle 1 cm in. Unfold the pastry and brush beaten egg around the edges, before picking up the two almost-cut edges of pastry and folding them over each other, placing them gently down on the inner square so that you have a pretty diamond shape. Brush any visible bits of pastry with egg too.
- Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the center of the egg-washed diamonds and top each with 6-7 slices of fanned out apple. Brush the apples with a little of the cinnamon apple cider caramel, then sprinkle over the flaked almonds.
- Chill the pastries in the fridge for 15 minutes, before baking for 25-30 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. Drizzle over a little more caramel, if you like.
