Fusion Gujiya - Gujiya with Apple Pie Filling

Today is Diwali, we are celebrating the festival of lights with diyas and patakas and of course with sweets. Shops are flooded with sweets and chocolates of different size and shapes, you get gifts in the form of dry fruits and sweets from friends and relatives, some are home made, where you feel the love of your friends and so on. Now when it comes to home made sweets from my part, I am a bit skeptical, since we, as a family, donot have a sweet tooth ( quite unusual as a Bengali though), So, home made goodies has to be extra ordinary, with a kick, may be with a touch of fusion or else the effort will go unnoticed. For this reason, I usually avoid to prepare sweets at home, but this year, I have decided to give it a try and zeroed in to prepare Gujiya.  
Gujiya is quite a well known item in Northern part of India, this is kind of a deep fried pastry in half moon shape usually filled with nuts , coconuts, jaggery and sweet spices. To give it a fusion twist, I have prepared an Apple Pie filling and baked the stuffed pastry instead of deep frying. I am thrilled with the results, the combination of aromatic stuffing and flaky pastry is amazing. And yes, it is well accepted in my family.

I picked up this recipe from 'http://divinespicebox.com/' . You may see the original recipe here.

Ingredients

For Pastry Dough

• 2 cups All purpose flour
• 3/4th cup butter (Salted variety, very cold/frozen and cut into cubes)
• 2 tablespoon cold Milk
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar (make your own by mixing 1 tablespoon of icing sugar with 1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder)
• Milk for brushing the gujiyas on top

For the filling

• 2 apples 
• Fat pinch of Cinnamon
• pinch of Nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons mixed fruit jam
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• A knob of butter
• 2-3 cloves
• 1 tablespoon corn starch (dissolve it in 1 tablespoon of milk)

To prepare the dough, sieve the flour. Add butter cubes and mix with your finger tips till you get a coarse bread crumb like texture.

Now add 1 tbsp of cold milk at a time to make a dough. Be careful not to add extra milk or else the dough will be soggy. Keep the dough refrigerated for one hour.

To make the apple pie filling, chop the apple. Then add the butter in a pan with two types of sugar. Let the sugar melt., 

Then add the mixed fruit jam and mix well.

Stir occasionally till the apple is cooked and the mixture becomes sticky. Then add the cinnamon and nutmeg. Add vanilla too.

When the spices are incorporated well, add cornflour dissolved in milk and stir quickly. Your filling is ready. Let it cool a bit.

To make the gujiya, take out the pastry dough from refrigerator and divide the dough into 15-16 pieces. Using a rolling pin, flatten each dough into a circle. Use a sharp bowl or cutter to cut a neat disk from the circle. Please a tbsp of filling onto the disc and fold it into half to give your gujiya a half moon shape.

Seal the edges and using a fork, press the edges securely. I have also pricked the filling part to let the steam evaporate.

Prepare all the gujiyas. Preheat the oven at 180 degree C. Place the gujiyas side by side on your baking sheet / tray and brush them generously with milk. 

Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top. Then bake them for 20-25 minutes.

When the top of the gujiyas are browned slightly, the baking is done.

Remove from oven and let them cool. Enjoy the happiness with your family and friends.

Happy Diwali to all of you !!