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By Sarah Condley

Columnist

Brad and I were going to visit our daughter and her family (really, we were going to see our one-year-old grandson, Owen) and were taking supper to them. I had a couple of apples lying around and wanted to use them in the dessert. I started looking through my dessert recipes and found one for Apple Pie Bites. The photo with the recipe was as cute as it could be, and something bite-sized is always appealing to me. I’d received the recipe when I subscribed to Joanna Gaines’ magazine Magnolia Journal.

To my surprise, I had all of the ingredients on hand, and after thawing the puff pastry, I was ready to get started.

I gently rolled the puff pastry sheet to the desired shape and size and cut the dough into 24 squares. The mini muffin pan I have is non-stick, so I didn’t need to grease the muffin cups before placing one square of dough into each little cup.

With just three ingredients, the apple filling was a cinch to put together. I distributed the filling evenly among the little muffin cups and placed the pan into the preheated oven. After 15 minutes, the edges of the puff pastry were a nice golden brown, and I took them out of the oven.

The bites cooled for a few minutes, then I removed them from the pan and sat each one on a cooling rack.

While the bites finished cooling, I heated the caramels and cream over low heat, constantly stirring until melted and the consistency was smooth. There was more than enough caramel sauce to drizzle over the apple pie bites, and I put the leftovers in a small bowl for later. I sprinkled on the chopped pecans and a little flaky sea salt. Now we were ready to head to Lexington.

After some playtime with Owen, we sat down to eat. Brad said the blessing, and after filling our bellies with supper, it was time for dessert.

I loved the little apple pie bites, but Brad thought they needed more filling. They were so good. In fact, I was glad we were sharing. Our daughter agreed with me, and her husband thought they were okay. Owen doesn’t eat dessert yet, so he didn’t get to have an opinion.

There were plenty of mini apple pie bites left over, so I took a few home. The next day the bites were a bit soggy; that’s probably why the recipe said, “Serve immediately.”

I nailed this recipe, and I will definitely make them again, but I’ll need to wait until I have a bigger crowd to feed so there won’t be leftovers.

Apple Pie Bites

Ingredients

• 1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package of frozen puff pastry sheets (1 sheet), thawed

• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped apples, peeled if desired

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 10 vanilla caramels, unwrapped

• 3 tablespoons heavy cream

• Chopped toasted pecans

• Sea salt flakes

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  On a lightly floured surface, unfold puff pastry sheet.  Roll pastry into a 15 x 10-inch rectangle; cut into twenty-four 2 1/2-inch squares.  Fit each square into a 1 3/4-inch muffin cup.

• Stir together apples, sugar, and cinnamon.  Spoon into pastry-lined muffin cups.  Bake about 15 minutes or until pastry is golden.  Cool 5 minuets in pan.  Carefully remove bites from pan.

• Meanwhile, heat and stir caramels and cream over very low heat until melted and smooth.  Drizzle bites with caramel sauce and sprinkle with pecans.  Sprinkle lightly with sea salt.  Serve immediately.

• Tip: If desired, use a high-quality purchased caramel sauce instead of making your own.