These apple cinnamon pastries are the perfect spiced treat for the fall, but let’s be honest–they’re also perfect for any time of the year!

Flaky puff pastries topped with spiced apples, a sweet maple glaze, and chopped pecans! Easily comes together and guaranteed to impress in a pinch. Let’s bake, friends.

Puff Pastry: Store-bought or Make Your Own?

This recipe is meant to be a quick and easy, throw-together-want-this-now kind of bake, so I’ve gone with store-bought puff pastry for this one. Now, you could certainly go all out and make your own, but it’s not always necessary! Especially when you don’t have a lot of time (or patience).

My go-to frozen puff pastry, when not making it myself, is always this one from Pepperidge Farm! For being store-bought, it’s still incredibly flaky and puffs up nicely. It’s somewhat less butter-y than if you made your own, but there’s plenty of other spices and flavors going on in this recipe anyways.

Rough Puff Pastry Recipe I Swear By

If you’re feelin’ a little risky, a little dangerous if you will (look at you go), then consider making your own rough puff pastry! ANYONE can make rough puff, I promise you. It’s looks way more intimidating than it actually is to make and honestly, after you do it once you’ll see that! It’s also much easier than making full puff pastry–that’s a whole other story/ballgame (did I just make a sports reference?? Who am I?).

This recipe by Erin McDowell is my absolute go-to: “Best Rough Puff Pastry”

She is THE pie goddess and when it comes to dough, so you can trust her! She even has an amazing video with Food 52, walking you through both full and rough puff pastry. Check that out here! You’ll be a pro in no time.

Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice

Cinnamon = spice royalty for me if we’re being honest. I’ll take it in/on/with most things and it’s never done me dirty. Basically, I am fully in love with Cinnamon, it is true, yes.

(Okay throw Cardamom in there too–YUM. Also in this recipe!)

The combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom here really throws you full on into fall-mode and it’s most welcome. Cozy, comfy, warm spices just make everything better and there’s really no argument to be had about that! Especially when baking these apple cinnamon pastries.

Materials You’ll Need:

Various sized mixing bowls
Rolling Pin
Small Knife for scoring pastry edges
Apple peeler (or just that same small knife)
Large baking sheet with parchment paper
Cooling rack
Measuring cups and spoons
Whisk
Pastry brush (to apply the egg wash, CAN use your hands if you don’t mind the mess, but a brush is easiest!)

Scoring The Edges of Your Pastry

Whenever a recipe asks you to “score” something, your first reaction might be something along the lines of:

Which is 100% valid, haha. When you score pastry, you’re essentially cutting into it without cutting all the way through. This allows you to make fancy designs on tops of pie dough or on something like a Galette des Rois aka “King Cake” (see one I did here)!

You’ll also see it mentioned with most bread recipes, which is typically for two reasons: yes it can be visually appealing and give something a “rustic” look, but it’s also to allow some steam to escape during the bake.

For this recipe, the scoring around the inside border allows the edges to puff up and get flaky, while everything else stays nestled down in the middle! That’s why you want to avoid cutting all the way through; juices may seep out, the pastry may not bake properly, etc.

It can take some practice, but it’s always better to cut less deep than more if you’re nervous about passing all the way through!

I hope you give these apple cinnamon pastries a try! Truly so easy to whip up if you’re in a bind time-wise or need something fancy to throw on the table in the fall. Tag me on instagram @joshisbaking if you make them!

Happy baking, friends!

Apple Cinnamon Pastries with a Maple Glaze

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Author: joshisbaking
Prep Time: 30 Min.
Cook Time: 30 Min.
Total Time: 1 Hr.
Yield: (6) 4x6in. Pastries

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Description

Flaky puff pastries topped with spiced apples, a sweet maple glaze, and chopped pecans! Easily comes together and guaranteed to impress in a pinch.

Ingredients

Scale

1 sheet store-bought puff pastry, thawed
3 medium to large apples (peeled, cored, thinly sliced)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cardamom
1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 large egg, lightly whisked for egg wash
Demerara sugar for topping

Glaze

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 Tbsp. whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F and prep a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out puff pastry to 12x12in. & cut into (6) 4x6in. rectangles. With a small knife, lightly score a 1/2 in. border around the inside of each (careful not to cut all the way through).
Toss apples, lemon juice, brown sugar, spices, & flour together in a bowl. Leaving the borders clear, overlap your apples in the middle of each pastry. Sprinkle chopped pecans over the top.
Brush the borders with your lightly whisked egg wash & sprinkle with demerara sugar (any coarse sugar works). Bake at 400°F for 15-20 min. on the middle rack or until desired browning. Let cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a separate rack to cooling rack.
Once completely cooled, whisk together your glaze ingredients & drizzle over your pastries. Enjoy as-is or top with your favorite ice or whipped cream!

Notes

Check out my go-to rough puff pastry recipe from Erin McDowell if you wanted to take a crack at making your own!
Be careful not cut all the way through your pastry when scoring! It’s already very thin, so just a slight indent into the dough is what you’re going for.
In terms of baking time, I say bake these babies closer to the 20 minute mark! It’s baker’s preference really, but I love a good crispy & crunch pastry!

Need another good fall recipe? Try out my Chocolate Pumpkin Sugar Cookies–you’ll be addicted, I promise! Or my Oatmeal Fig & Ginger Cookies which are just about the coziest cookie I think of.