This very easy recipe for vegan hibiscus apple turnovers stretches the definition of home-baking a bit by using shop-bought puff pastry.
There is a magic ingredient, though: hibiscus tea, which transforms an ordinary apple turnover into something the colour of Turkish delight with the added health benefits of hibiscus.
Shop-bought puff pastry is one of those products that luckily turns out to be vegan (unless there’s something telling like “all butter” printed on the packaging!).
Hibiscus tea, which is available in health food shops and online, contains even more antioxidants than green teas, including the famous matcha. Its flavour is sharp and fruity but not very distinctive – perhaps closest to cranberry.
To preserve the bright crimson colour when cooking (and the benefits of the anthocyanins that give it that colour) you need an acid environment, which is why using it alongside fruit works so well. (If you add hibiscus tea to a cake mix with raising agents, it will turn a nondescript greyish colour.)
The only skill required for this recipe, which makes twelve tiny turnovers from a pre-rolled sheet of puff pastry, is not over-filling the pastry. It’s easy to end up with a tray of puff pastry triangles amid a sea of pink apple puree if you don’t limit the quantity and seal the edges properly.
Vegan hibiscus apple turnovers…
Ingredients
- 320 g pack of ready-rolled puff pastry
- 2 dessert apples or 1 good-sized bramley apple
- 1 dessert spoon of hibiscus tea (dried calyces of hibiscus flowers)
- 25-50 g caster sugar
- soya or other non-dairy milk for brushing the tops
- demerara sugar for sprinkling
Method
- Prepare the strong tea in advance by pouring around 50 ml of boiling water over the dried hibiscus tea in a cup or mug. Leave it to steep, at least until cooled but you can leave it overnight in the fridge if you have time.
- Set the oven to 200°C/395°F and very lightly oil a large baking tray.
- Peel, core and chop the apple. Place it in a pan and add the strained hibiscus tea and sugar to taste (you can use less sugar, but if using bramleys you will definitely need to sweeten this mixture as the tea is also very tart).
- Cook the apple down for a few minutes until soft and an even shade of deep pink. It should be the consistency of thick apple sauce. If it is too runny, you can thicken it by removing a tablespoonful to a small bowl and mixing in a teaspoon of cornflour before stirring this mixture back into the apple in the pan and cooking for another minute. Set aside to allow it to cool a bit.
- Cut the pastry sheet into twelve even squares (4 by 3).
- Place a teaspoon of the apple mixture in the centre of a square and fold diagonally to create a triangle. Seal the edges carefully, pressing down with the tines of a fork or a spoon handle. Place on the baking sheet and repeat until you have twelve tiny turnovers.
- Brush each one with soya milk and sprinkle some demerara over the top.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
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