I friend of mine wanted to order something from me for his last day at work, but since he had been in that job for such a short time he figured a big cake would be kind of overkill. We decided this kind of square pastries would be better. I've never done anything like this before, so i was also excited to try how they would work out. The idea i got from some of Kinuskikissa's squares.
Apple & pear squares (30 pcs):
Base:
- 250 g margarine
- 2 dl sugar
- 2 eggs
- 5 dl wheat flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 4 tsp vanilla sugar
- 230 g or about 1,5 dl apple marmalade
This recipe is pretty much the basic Short pastry dough (in finnish, murotaikina) from Kinuskikissa but doubled up (and with marmalade).
Soften the margarine with an electric mixer. Add the sugar and whip the mixture for a few minutes. Mix in the eggs and then the dry ingredients. Put the dough in the fridge for atleast half an hour before rolling it.
Put a sheet of baking paper the size of an oven pan on the table and flatten half of the dough on it with the help of some flour. Put another sheet of baking paper on top of it and roll the dough flat between the sheets, about 1/2 cm thin. Put the whole thing in the freezer for about 10 mins so that the paper will be easier to remove (it's easy to move if you put it in an oven pan). Do the same for the other half of the dough.
Remove the top paper from the dough that has been in the freezer. Spread the marmalade on the dough and remove a paper from the other dough aswell. Place it down on the marmalade smeared dough so that the marmalade will be left between the dough layers. Remove the top paper leaving just one paper, the one in the bottom which you will then move to an oven pan to be baked. If the papers stick hard and the dough would break, just keep the dough in the freezer for a little longer. Bake the base in about 180 - 200 degrees celcius for about 15 mins and let it cool completely.
Green icing:
- 100 g margarine
- 2,5 - 3 tbsp water
- 1 - 1,5 tsp pear flavour
- 4 1/2 dl powdered sugar
Melt the margarine in a saucepan and add the other ingredients. Whisk the mixture even and spread it on the base. You need to be quick about this so you can get it on the whole surface before the icing solidifies.
Melt 5-6 pieces of white chocolate and put it in a zipper bag. Cut off a tiny corner from the bag and pipe some lines or other patterns on the icing. Leave the rest of the molten chocolate in the bag for later use. You can put the bag in a warm place or in some warm water (with the tip sealed with some tape) to keep it from solidifying. Let the icing solidify for atleast an hour, preferably more.
While the icing silidifies you can make the marzipan decorations. Roll a piece of white marzipan into a rod, cut it into pieces and roll them into balls. Roll some green marzipan flat and take round shapes of it with some round tool. I used a lid since i don't have a round cookie cutter. Brush some water on the wrong side of the green marzipan and glue it on the white marzipan ball closing the seam so that the ball is completely covered with the green. Cut the ball in half and the halves in half again, forming quarter apples. Take some dark cocoa powder mixed with a drop of water (or some brown food color) and with a toothpick press small brown prints on the apple slices. These are the seeds in the apple.
Cut off the edges of your pastry and use a sharp knife to cut it into squares. It may be easier to cut through the chocolate pipings if you heat the blade in some hot water and then wipe off the water before cutting. Move the squares on the plate you're going to serve them from, spaced evenly.
Pipe patterns on each square with the white chocolate. I also glued on some green shiny sugar balls with it. Glue the apple slices on your squares with some more white chocolate and you're done!
And here are my squares (well my friends'):
Omena-päärynäruudut - Murotaikina
