Maple-Glazed Apple Rose Tartlets

Elegant and playful, these apple rose tartlets will be your new favorite recipe anytime a charming dessert is in order. Though they look so wonderfully impressive, making them is simple. Assembling the rose is no trickier than rolling up a jelly roll, then each one is popped into a muffin pan for evenly baked, beautifully burnished pastry cups.

4-6 pink or red apples, such as Pink Lady or Honeycrisp

1/2 cup sugar, divided

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed and refrigerated

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Cut apples in half, remove core and slice into very thin slices, leaving the peel on. Place sliced apples in a microwave-safe bowl and gently toss with 1/4 cup sugar to coat. Microwave on high power for 90 seconds, then set aside for 10 minutes. Transfer the apples to a strainer over a bowl, allowing the apples to drain for 10 more minutes. Reserve the juice in the bowl.

Roll out one sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface into a 12 x 9-inch rectangle. Slice pastry into 6 strips, each about 2 x 9-inches.

Place remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl and stir to combine. Sprinkle pastry strips with half of the cinnamon sugar. Lay apple slices, overlapping one another, near top edge of one strip of dough. Make sure skin side of apple lays past the top edge of the strip. Place bottom edge of dough over apple slices, folding the strip in half lengthwise. Starting at one end, roll up the pastry like a jelly roll. Seal the edge at the end by pinching the dough together. Place the “rose” into a muffin pan cup. Repeat with remaining pastry and apples to make 12 rose tartlets.

Refrigerate muffin pan and tartlets while preheating the oven to 375˚F. Combine reserved apple juice with maple syrup in a small mixing bowl and set aside.

Bake the tartlets in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, until light golden-brown. Tent the top with foil after 25-30 minutes of baking if the apples are getting too brown. Brush the tops of the tartlets with the syrup mixture. Return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes until the tartlets are golden-brown and syrup has caramelized. Remove from the oven and let tartlets sit for about 10 minutes before carefully removing them from the muffin pan with a spatula.