What's mixin' in the kitchen: Apple Danish

Fall reminds me of apple pie. I love the smell and the way a slice of fresh apple pie just feels like home. But pie isn't always the easiest to eat because you can't easily pack it in a lunch or put it on a napkin. However, apple danish tastes like apple pie and is easy to grab on the go. 

Crust:

3 1/2 c. flour

2 egg yolks, beaten

3/4 c. milk

1 c. shortening

1 tsp. salt

Filling:

6 c. apple slices, thin

1 1/2 c. sugar

2 Tbsp. flour

2 tsp. cinnamon

Glaze:

1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

2-3 Tbsp. milk

2 Tbsp. butter

Mix flour and salt together and cut in shortening. Combine egg yolks and milk, then add to flour mixture. Roll out half the mixture on floured surface to fit 11 x 16 x 1/2 inch jelly roll pan. Place in pan. It can be difficult to roll out the dough into a perfect rectangle. After I placed the dough onto the pan, I cut around the edges and added dough to where there were any holes. 

I used granny smith apples because they are more tart and the recipe calls for quite a bit of sugar. I like to use a vegetable peeler for the apples. To slice the apple real thin, you could use a food processor or a manual slicer. It took 3 large apples to make 6 cups of slices. Arrange the 6 cups apple slices on the crust. 

               

Combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Sprinkle the mixture over the apples. Dot with butter. When dotting with butter, cut up cold butter into small cubes. I used about 2 to 3 T. butter here.

             

Roll out the remaining pastry dough and place over top of apples. You can see that I had to cut and add dough to a few places. No worries because the frosting will hide it!

Brush pastry with slightly beaten egg whites.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. The original recipe said 45 minutes but my oven seems to cook things more quickly and this was after 40 minutes. This was my first time making this but you can see that the pastry shrinks just a little bit, so next time I will allow a larger margin on the dough.

Mix glaze until smooth and spoon over pastry while still warm. The original recipe didn't have butter in the glaze but butter makes everything taste better. I personally like my frosting to not be so sweet but there are other recipes that make the glaze with egg whites and powdered sugar or you can just omit the butter. 

Cut into squares or diamonds when cool.

This recipe is from a church cookbook. The actual recipe was given by my relative. If you like what you see, you can find more family recipes at our family recipe blog: http://dishnitup.blogspot.com/