Apple pie pastry braid is a sweet treat filled with tender apples, cinnamon and sugar. This easy apple pie bread dessert is the perfect beginning, or ending, to any meal.
Brunch is such a lovely meal, isn’t it? I love spending a leisurely morning lazing about the house with no pressure to go anywhere or do anything. While I’d much rather be at a nice restaurant being waited on at brunch, there’s something to be said about staying in.
Even now I can imagine the soft morning light, the bubbles in my champagne, {because what’s brunch without champagne?}, and the smell of something delicious baking in the oven. A breakfast casserole, muffins or maybe a honey ham? Or this. Apples, cinnamon & sugar baked in a tender, flaky crust and drizzled with a sweet glaze. Yes, this easy apple pie pastry braid!
Of course, for an easy dessert recipe like this, you’ve got to start with some amazing apples that are sweet and crisp, like the breeze, currently grown in New Zealand. Aren’t they gorgeous?
A little cinnamon and granulated sugar goes a long way to making these apples the perfect apple pie filling for my pastry braid.
For obvious reasons, this shorcut-loving girl is a huge fan of puff pastry. While I am crazy about my easy foolproof pie crust, I prefer the more forgiving puff pastry.
Even though dicing the apples was a bit more time consuming than I would have liked, the apple pie pastry braid was totally worth it, especially once I drizzled the glaze on top.
As my luck would have it, my 14-year old son came home mere minutes after I was finished photographing it. I managed to eat two or three bites, but he managed to devour the rest of it. As in all of it. And not just the first braid, either. He ate 3/4 of the second one the next day, and, I’m pretty sure that’s all he ate that day. Boys.
Filled with tender apples, cinnamon and sugar, this apple pie pastry braid is the perfect beginning {or ending} to any meal.
30 minPrep Time
35 minCook Time
1 hr, 5 Total Time
Yields 2 braids
Save RecipeIngredients
- 4 medium apples {I used The Breeze, but Gala or Granny Smith works well also}
- 1/3 cup Dixie Crystals granulated sugar
- 1/8 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract {I used Nielsen-Massy, my favorite}
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 cup Dixie Crystals powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Remove puff pastry from package and thaw according to package directions
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400º
- Peel and core apples
- Dice into 1/4 inch pieces
- In a medium bowl, combine diced apples, sugar, flour cinnamon and extract
- Stir to combine, making sure apples are evenly coated; set aside
- On a lightly floured surface, roll each pastry sheet into a long rectangle, about 9x13 inches
- Transfer each sheet to it's own baking sheet lined with parchment paper
- Cut out a 2 1/2 inch section from each rectangle, creating 4 'flaps'
- With a small side facing you, cut 1/2 inch slits in large flaps, being sure each side has the same number of flaps; repeat with second pastry sheet
- In a small bowl, create an egg wash by beating the egg and water together
- Brush the pastry {both the center of it and the flaps} with the egg wash
- Fill the center of the pastry with 1/2 of the filling, draining juice back into bowl from each spoonful as you go {this will help keep your braid from being too gooey}
- Fold top flap over apples; repeat with bottom flap
- Alternating sides, fold the strips of dough on the side flaps over your filling, overlapping them to create a braid
- Brush top of braid with more egg wash
- Repeat steps 12 -16 with second pastry sheet
- Bake at 400º for 35 minutes, or until apples are soft and pastry is golden
- In a small bowl, combine sugar and milk until smooth
- Drizzle over warm apple pie pastry braid
- Serve warm
- Calories 914
- Total Fat: 1 g 1.54%
- Saturated Fat: 1 g 5%
- Cholesterol: 3 mg 1%
- Sodium: 15 mg 0.63%
- Potassium: 70 mg 2%
- Total Carbohydrate: 230 g %
- Sugar: 204 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Vitamin A: 1.14%
- Calcium: 64 mg 6.4%
- Iron: 1 mg 5.56%
Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and MyPlate Info
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