Les Poissonchats

Snow White couldn’t resist the apple – who could, when it looked that perfect?

As for me, I have a tiny apple-related childhood trauma: whenever chocolate appeared, an apple had to be eaten first. For My Health, apparently. Which is why apples feel vaguely medicinal to me to this day – and therefore best avoided: so yes, I would’ve stayed safe and sound with the dwarfs, not even remotely tempted by that shiny piece of fruit.

Which does leave one question open: what would have happened if the apple had come with a jacket? Then… well, that might be a different story.

What you’ll need

For four jackets:

• 250g flour
• A pinch of salt
• 125g of fresh cold butter
• One egg
• Sugar for rolling out the dough
• An egg for brushing

For the filling:

• Four apples, hearts removed
• 10 Walnuts from last year, crushed
• 6 tablespoons of honey
• 3 dried plums or tipsy damsons
• 6 tipsy cherries
• A whiff of cinnamon
• A whiff of grated nutmeg
• A whiff of crushed cloves
• A pinch of fleur de sel
• Nine appleseeds, crushed in a mortar 

How you bake it

Start with the dough.

Mix the flour with the salt and butter, the butter should not get warm, so you might just cut it with a knife into the flour or mix it in your kitchen robot. Swiftly incorporate the egg and form a ball. Cover in plastic foil and set aside in the fridge for at least an hour. 

Sprinkle some sugar on your worktop and roll out the dough down to 2-3mm. Cut into four rectangles, keep the residue and shape into leaves. Mix the ingredients for the filling.

Pre-heat the oven at 180°C.

Place an apple on each patch, fill with the filling and place any surplus filling on the top. Fold the corners over the apples, fix with a leaf. Brush with egg and bake for 25 minutes, serve warm.

How you eat it

Maybe, just maybe a little scoop of vanilla ice cream to go along, what a delight! Enjoy and beware of witches bearing gifts.