Recipe: Appelbollen

Nothing says autumn better than warm spiced apple desserts, and these traditional Appelbollen (apple balls) are a Dutch favourite when served with hot custard or ice cream.

Ingredients

• 4 firm apples (eg. Elstar), peeled
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 75g raisins
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 25g butter
• 1 egg
• 4 slices of puff pastry (bladerdeeg) from the freezer and defrosted

You will also need an apple corer, rolling pin, little bit of flour, greaseproof paper, pastry brush and a baking tray.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200 ° C. Put the raisins to soak in a bowl of hot water for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove the core from your apples (leaving the apples whole). Pour the lemon juice onto a plate and roll the apples in it.

Drain the raisins and pat dry with a paper towel. Mix the raisins, 3 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon together.

Sprinkle a little flour onto a work surface and place a sheet of puff pastry down. Roll out the pastry so that the sheet is large enough to wrap around the whole apple. Repeat for each sheet of pastry.

In the center of the pastry, put a knob of butter. Place the apple on top, with the top of the apple facing down. Fill the cavity of the apple with the raisin mixture (use your finger or a chopstick to push as much filling in as possible). Top the filling with another knob of butter.

Fold the pastry up around the apple, fully enclosing it. Moisten the edge of the pastry with a little water to help the edges stick.

Put the apple pastry ball, with the closed side down, on to a lined baking sheet. Separate the egg white and yolk, and beat the egg yolk. Using the pastry brush, apply a thin coat of egg wash over the top of the spheres and sprinkle with the remaining sugar.

Place the tray in the middle of the oven and cook for about 25 minutes, until golden brown. Let the apple balls cool on a wire rack until lukewarm and serve with hot custard or ice cream.