Warm Apple Pear Fruit Beggars Purses Recipes

BEGGAR'S PURSES RECIPE (AUMôNIèRE DE CRêPES)

Steps:

• sift flour with a flour sifter in a large bowl. Add eggs, salt, vanilla extract, and orange flower water and mix with a hand whisk. Add water and cold milk in small portions, and mix well. Melt butter, pour into the mixture, and whisk. Let it stand for 2 hours at room temperature.
• Pour a ladle of the batter (about 1/4 cup of batter) and tilt and rotate a crepe pan to distribute it and cover its bottom. When the crepe's edges become golden and come off the pan, turn the crepe over with a heatproof plastic spatula or a flexible turner. Let it brown on the second side. Continue with the remaining batter.
• peel apples and cut them into small cubes. Melt the sugar with water in a pan to make the caramel. Shake the pan and let it brown. Add butter and mix with a wooden spatula. Add apple cubes and orange juice, sprinkle with ground cinnamon. Cook over low-medium heat for 10 minutes.
• top each crepe with one tablespoon of the caramelized apples. Gather the edges of the crepe towards the center while making folds and tie them with one or two toothpicks. Serve 1 or 2 per person.

WARM APPLE AND APRICOT PHYLLO PURSES

Steps:

• Soak the apricots and the raisins in the 1 cup of white wine for 2 hours
• Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the wine
• Preheat the oven to 320 degrees F
• In a large skillet, melt the butter over a medium flame
• Add the 1/4 cup of white wine
• Add the apples and the drained apricots and raisins
• Saute for 3 minutes
• Add the juice of 1/2 an orange and 1/2 of the lemon into the skillet and continue sauteeing
• Add the brown sugar, mix well with the fruit
• Sprinkle with cinnamon and remove from the flame
• In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with the juice of the remaining 1 1/2 oranges
• Stir vigorously until smooth
• Put the pan of fruit back on the flame
• Slowly add the cornstarch mix to the pan, stirring continuously
• The mixture should start to thicken and caramelize
• You want it to be sticky, not runny
• Remove from the heat
• Unwrap the phyllo dough and lay out the sheets
• Cut the layered stack lengthwise and widthwise to make 4 rectangular quarter-stacks of 12 sheets each stack
• Take one rectangular sheet, brush around the edges with the melted butter
• Lay the next sheet on top, but at an angle
• Continue doing this 4 more times for a pile of 6 sheets, each sheet at an angle to the one below it
• Place a small mound of fruit in the middle
• Top the fruit with a square of chocolate
• Lift one edge toward the middle, gathering and pleating the dough as you go around the pile, pulling the edges to the middle to form a purse
• Make 8 purses this way (8 piles of 6 sheets each)
• Brush and drizzle each purse with melted butter
• Place the purses on a parchment line cookie sheet
• Bake 10 minutes
• Raise the heat to 350 degrees F, and bake another 15 minutes until the purses are golden
• Serve warm
• If you make the sheets in advance, rewarm for a few minutes in the oven to warm the fruit and melt the chocolate

BEGGARS' PURSES

Steps:

• Make crêpe batter:
• Melt butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat and set aside 2 tablespoons for cooking crêpes. Continue to cook butter remaining in skillet until it has a nutty fragrance and is golden brown, about 2 minutes. Blend brown butter with remaining crêpeingredients, except chives, in a blender until smooth. Add chives and pulse 1 or 2 times to just combine. Let batter stand 30 minutes.
• Blend brown butter with remaining crêpe ingredients, except chives, in a blender until smooth. Add chives and pulse 1 or 2 times to just combine. Let batter stand 30 minutes.
• Blanch whole chives:
• Blanch chives in a small saucepan of boiling water 10 seconds. Drain and plunge into an ice bath. Pat dry.
• Make crêpes:
• Lightly brush skillet with butter, then heat over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Stir batter. With skillet off heat, add a scant 1/4 cup batter, tilting and rotating skillet to coat bottom. (If batter sets too fast, reduce heat slightly.) Cook until golden around edges, 15 to 30 seconds. Loosen with a heatproof plastic spatula, then flip crêpe over with your fingertips. Cook until underside is set, about 30 seconds. Slide onto a plate. Make more crêpes, brushing skillet with butter and stacking crêpes on plate.
• Assemble purses:
• Top each crêpe, browned side up, with about 1 1/2 tablespoons sour cream and 2 teaspoon caviar. Gather crêpe around filling and tie 1 or 2 blanched chives in a knot to close purse. Trim ends of chives if necessary.