Caramelised apple filing:

• 5, 6 apples – not too soft
• 60g butter
• 120g caster sugar or brown sugar – it’s easier to control the caramelisation of white sugar.

Peel and core the apples, cut in small cubes.

Put butter and sugar into a frying pan, cook for a minute until butter melts. Add apples and  stir occasionally for 7-8 minutes, or until the sugar has dissolved and the apples have caramelised.

You can add a little bit of orange zest, cinnamon or vanilla to bring your apples to the next level.Put apples into a bowl to cool.

Pastry:

• 250g +20g if needed, plain white flour
• 250g soft full fat cheese (Philadelphia or similar)
• 125g soft butter

Additionally:

• 1 egg mixed with 1 tbs of milk
• 20-30g caster sugar or granulated sugar

Drain any liquid from the cheese. Mix all ingredients together and knead into nice smooth dough. If the pastry is too wet add a little bit of flour, but not too much.

Sprinkle your working surface with flour and roll pastry to about 3mm thickness. Cut circles of a 7cm diameter – or squares if you like. Put a tea spoon of apple filling in the middle of the circle, egg wash the edges, cover with another circle and carefully stick edges together – try not to trap too much air inside, same idea as in making ravioli :-).

Now, it’s up to you. You can leave edges as they are, give them a nice pattern using the fork or the other end of the tea spoon. This also helps pastry to stick better.

You can also cut the outside edge with the cookie cutter or scone cutter to give it a more refined finish.

Putting together parcels takes a bit of time so put your oven on in the middle of your work to save on electricity. 180C.

Put your parcels on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Egg wash them and sprinkle with sugar.

If you’re allergic to eggs, use milk diluted with water instead of ‘egg wash’.

Bake for approx 20 – 30 mins depending on size. Check on them half way through baking – you may need to turn the baking sheet to allow parcels to bake evenly.

Any leftover scraps of pastry, roll, cut as you like, egg wash, sprinkle with sugar or…. cheddar cheese and bake for 15 mins until golden.

Enjoy!