Apple and Caramelized Onion Pizza

First, thank you to everyone who commented on their mom's best dishes, it was a lot of fun reading about those. I made my mom guess the five foods I listed (since she rarely reads this blog), and she got most of them right away, although the corned beef and cabbage threw her off. After blogging about all the good food my mom makes on Monday, Monday night I got to make dinner for my mom and dad for the first time in my apartment! They came down to visit for Veteran's Day, and we went to Mt. Vernon and this amazing cheese store in Del Ray called Cheesetique, which I will have to write more about later.

Monday night for dinner I made this apple and caramelized onion pizza with cream of mushroom soup (coming soon!) and salad. The meal turned out really delicious, and everyone liked the pizza, especially the caramelized onions. My mom and Nic both told me that it would have been better with Gorgonzola cheese instead of cheddar, and although I hate to admit when either of them are right, I think it might be true. You couldn't really taste the flavor of the cheddar even though it was sharp because the apples and caramelized onions had such a strong taste. The original recipe didn't call for caramelized onions, but they definitely made the pizza much more interesting than it would have been with just apples. They also made it feel more like a savory dish as opposed to a dessert. And of course, I love anything you can make with puff pastry because it means I don't have to struggle with making my own dough. I will definitely be making some variation on this next time I have company over.

Apple and Caramelized Onion Pizza
Adapted from Gourmet

Ingredients:
1 frozen puff pastry sheet, thawed and rolled out to 15X12 inches
2 tbs. bread crumbs
3 1/2 tbs. butter, divided
3 medium apples, cored and thinly sliced
3 tbs. sugar
dash of salt
2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 cup grated sharp white cheddar (or substitute Gorgonzola)

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
-Melt 2 tbs. butter on medium-low heat in a skillet. Add onions and cover. Cook over medium-low heat covered for 25-30 minutes or until the onions are a dark caramelized color. Try not to lift the lid often.
-Roll out the puff pastry on a flour surface with a floured rolling pin. Transfer to baking sheet and poke holes in the surface with a fork. Sprinkle the dough with breadcrumbs.
-Combine apples with 1 1/2 tbs. melted butter, then add sugar and salt and mix.
-Spread thin layer of apples on dough, leaving a one inch margin around all of the sides. Fold the puffy pastry edges up and over the edge of the apples.
-Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until apples are tender. Spread the caramelized onions on top of the apples then sprinkle with cheese and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, until the cheese is slightly browned and bubbly.

Cheating Tastes So Good

I had a peck of apples. I thought about pie, I really did, but crust scares the be-geebies out of me. I'm sure I could make it, I'm just not sure I could get it right the first, second, or third time. And I was just not feeling a 10-tries-to-get-it-perfect recipe tonight. So I cheated. I bought puff pastry and made these AMAZING apple turnovers instead.


Holy moly, I don't know if I'll ever even bother with pie after these bad boys. They were light and crispy, tart and sweet, so good I actually thought about not taking them to work to share. (But then I remembered I was supposed to be training for a marathon. I can see these really improving my time.) Nic and I rarely get really excited about sweets. We're more of savory people. But we're both in love with these. There probably won't be many more apple recipes on here in the near future. I might just dedicate all my apples to these. Seriously. SO GOOD. Make them immediately.

Apple Turnovers
Inspired by Williams-Sonoma (A kid's recipe, I might add, that started with "make sure a grown-up is nearby." Check.)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 large, TART apples (1 1/4 lbs.)
juice of 1 lime
1/3 cup granulated sugar+some for dusting
1 tbs. all-purpose flour+some for rolling pastry
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
14 oz. puff pastry, thawed
1 egg
1 tsp. water

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet (or two, mine's huge) with non-stick cooking spray.
-Squeeze lime into medium sauce pot. Peel, core, and cube apples and put in pot with lime to keep from browning.
-Stir in 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tbs. flour, and a pinch of salt to apples and lime juice.
-Cook apple mixture over medium heat, covered, for 5 minutes. Stir once or twice. Cook until the juices start to thicken into a syrupy liquid and the apples get a little bit softer. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
-Sprinkle flour on a work surface to roll out puff pastry. (Keep it in the fridge until the very last minute.) Sprinkle more flour on top of pastry and roll out until double in size. (My puff pastry came in one, large 14 oz. piece. To make this easier, I cut the pastry into four parts first, then rolled out each part individually until double in size.)
-Cut the puff pastry into eight even squares. They should be about 5-6 inches wide.
-Beat one egg with 1 tsp. water for egg wash.
-One by one assemble the turnovers on the baking sheet. Place the puff pastry on the sheet. Spoon about 1/3 cup of apple mixture onto one half of the square, not too close to the edge. (Don't over fill. Make sure you can actually turnover the dough.) Brush two edges of the pastry square with egg wash. Fold half the square over the filling to form a triangle. Use a fork to seal the edges. And repeat seven more times. (There might be a little extra apple filling.*)
-Brush all the turnovers with egg mixture and sprinkle lightly with sugar. Poke a hole in the top of each turnover with a paring knife.
-Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown, firm, and dry.
-Cool for 10 minutes.

Try not to eat them all before they cool.

*I used mine in a mini-apple crumb. Just top with oatmeal+brown sugar+butter mixture in a very small baking dish or souffle cup.

Peek-a-boo.