Apple Butter Joulutorttu 'Christmas Tart' Modern Twist

-

Hi again All,

Very luck this week - you get two posts from me. Well only because I shared with you my Apple Butter recipe and thought - you might need an idea of where to use it! Well, beside the oatmeal and toast options.


I had discovered the Apple Butter works well is in the place of prunes when making “Joulutorttu” – Translation: “Christmas Tarts”. Yes, I am aware it is not Christmas yet – but for anyone who celebrates Christmas in July I would say this would be a good recipe to do.

Traditionally speaking, the Christmas Tarts in Finland are made using a specific cutting tool with some stewed prune mixture (jam) in the middle of the pastry. Then each wing of the pastry is folded inwards to create these wind-whirly like fruit pies. One of my Dad’s favourites. Over the years my Mummu and Aunt had altered the recipe to use strawberry jam, instead of the prunes, which was a very nice alternative! And now, with my Apple Butter discovery --- I have also found an even better replacement to the prune mixture, or strawberry jam!




The pastry of the Christmas Tart is made using ricotta cheese and a bunch of other ingredients. It is a soft type of pastry and very delicious to consume. But to speed things along here I’ve decided to use some simple ready-made puff pastry. To make these look like the original you will need the cutter tool. Otherwise I would suggest making rounds with either a cutter or a glass rim then placing the Apple Butter in the centre and pinching the edges close. Don’t forget to egg-wash the tops for that yummy golden look!

Using the cutter tool go around and try to get as many cut-outs as possible. Transfer the cut pastry to a prepared oven tray lined with baking paper. In the centre of each place a teaspoon sized lump of the Apple Butter (and you can even add a bit of custard if you like!) Then pick a side like the Right Side and bring the corner into the centre. Then go to the next wing and bring the corner into the centre. You may need to refer to my picture for a complete understanding.
Brush with egg-wash and bake on 180⁰C for about 15 minutes or until the puff-pastry gets well… puffy and golden.



Remove from the oven, allow to cool. Then if you like to jazz up the pies for serving I made a quick glaze using icing sugar and lemon with a hint of red food colouring. Quickly drizzle this over the top. Serve immediately – warm is always best I think in these circumstances. Or serve warm with custard!



Left over Puff-Pastry bits? I sure had some left-over squares and rectangles of pastry and so I layered them on top of each other to give the piece a bit of length. Then spread over “tomustard” yes - we had recently purchased from ALDI. I truly recommend this purchase. It is the right balance of tomato sauce and mustard – TOGETHER. 
Sidenote: We had purchased it for a recent sausage sizzle get together with our friends and we all loved it. Worked so well!


Spread the tomustard over the puff pastry then sprinkle mixed herbs over the top. Now add your choice of meat. As I am all about using up excess, I used up some devon slices. Partnered with some grated tasty cheese. Then roll up the pastry and you will have some chunky, short sausage roll shaped pies. Add some egg-wash over-top and cook in a hot oven of 200⁰C for about 15 minutes. Enjoy immediately dipped in a bit more of the tomustard! Yum yum.







Recipe Card:
“Christmas Tarts”
INGREDIENTS
 “Christmas Tarts”
METHOD
Left over Puff-Pastry ‘sausage rolls’ Ingredients
 Left over Puff-Pastry ‘sausage rolls’  Method
Puff Pastry
Apple Butter
(refer to previous post for recipe)
Custard (optional)
1 Egg – lightly beaten
Use cutter for windmill shaped pies like traditional Joulutorttu. Add filling into centre and fold side piece inwards. Brush egg-wash over-top. Cook in moderate oven 180⁰C for 15-20 minutes.
Enjoy warm or with custard.
Can add sugar glaze over top if desired. ½ cup icing sugar plus small amounts of water to create consistency desired. Add colour for more fun!
Left-over puff pastry pieces from Joulutorttu cut outs.
Tomustard
Mixed herbs
Choice of meat (Devon)
Grated cheese
Left over from 1 egg
Left-over puff pastry pieces from Joulutorttu cut outs. Layer over to create longer rectangle pieces.
Spread tomustard sauce over pastry. Sprinkle mixed herbs over. Add meat and cheese. Roll up pastry. Brush remainder of egg-wash over. Cook in hot oven of 200⁰C. Enjoy warm with more sauce.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Last minute Christmas Gift wrapping

-
Image
Hi All! IT IS ALMOST CHRISTMAS! I hope you all have finished your Christmas shopping, creating, decorating, crafting, baking and anything else that could fit in that list! For us Christmas is already happening. Seeing some people here and there and on this day and that day. Gifts here, laughter and fun over there. For those of you who are pumping out the last few things, in these last few moments or the last day. Here’s some last-minute gift-wrapping tricks and ideas I’ve got. Hopefully throughout the year you may have collected some cereal boxes. These are great for other crafts too – and not just with kids! (New year’s resolution idea maybe? Keep cereal boxes for future craft and gift-wrapping ideas!) I remove the tabs off the top of the cereal box so there is an opening, then wrap the box up with Christmas Paper. Next for a finishing touch using washi tape around the edges of the opening. Then using a hole puncher, press two holes for each side where you can use a match...
Read more

So Many Jars - Part 2

-
Image
Hi All,  Well, it appears after clearing out some small baby food jars, from the last time I mentioned these. I found another place I had stored some jars and thought what is something different I could do to utilise these jars. Hmm..  Well, turns out I found something indeed, and now I am unsure if I would like to give the set away or keep it myself haha. For this crafty project you will need; ·        3 baby food jars, preferably the same size ·        Hot glue gun + extra glue gun sticks ·        3 alternative materials, I used paddle pop sticks, wooden pegs and cinnamon bark tea ·        Scissors ·        Pen With the required items gathered, this is the how to guide in assembly. Jar 1 – First off I decided to cut the paddle pop sticks into two different lengths. After I decided on the lengt...
Read more

Butter it up into a pudding...

-
Image
Hi Everyone! A couple months ago a friend of mine advised how he loves bread and butter pudding and he was learning to make it himself. I recall announcing how I detest bread and butter pudding. Funny enough, bring the time forward to current day and I felt it necessary to update my friend on how I made bread and butter pudding and ENJOYED it. Goodness me. It happened as a result of having a left-over crusty Vienna loaf that was just soooo good, but unfortunately my husband and I couldn’t eat that much bread and now the loaf was slowly going stale. What options did I have in order to not waste it? I wasn’t keen on making it into breadcrumbs as I so often do with other stale bread or bread crusts from when I make “voileipä kakku” (Sandwich Cake – that can be a post for another time. It would be the ULTIMATE in Sandwiches and Savoury Cake Decorating!) and that’s when it dawned on me about bread and butter pudding. Though my initial reaction was ‘ugh no thanks’ I thought well ...
Read more