Thanksgiving morning, I woke-up nice and relaxed knowing I had the day off without anything planned except eating, a bit of baking and a lot of catching-up with friends.
After a morning run, reading a few blogs and catching-up on the news, I was shocked when somehow the clock hit 11am. I hadn’t even thought about baking the dessert we would be bringing for our Thanksgiving meal in less than 2 hours and figured it was probably a good time to at least preheat the oven.
As I attempted to get the process started, I encountered Problem #1: I forgot to defrost the puff pastry. So I unwrapped the delicate dough from its package and placed it directly in the sunlight while I got working on the rest of the recipe.
After about 40 minutes, the dough was ready. I spread it out, carefully placed it in a sheet pan and started placing the apple slices on top. Then I realized Problem #2: I forget to peel the apple. Oops. When it comes to baked desserts, I know the apples should always be peeled. Sometimes, I forget skip this step when I’m baking just for my husband and I, but I knew I shouldn’t take any shortcuts for Thanksgiving.
So I enlisted my kind (and patient) husband to help. As he peeled the skin from each individual apple slice, I gently placed them on the dough.
The pan went into the oven and I started to think that maybe I wouldn’t mess-up dessert after all.
It was then onto the next step: making the Salted Caramel Glaze. Yup, you guessed it. Problem #3: The heavy cream I just bought a few days before had already expired. I admit, I opened the container, took a whiff, didn’t notice a funky smell and thought to myself, “it’s only 2 tablespoons; I’m sure it will be fine.” But then I decided I also didn’t want to risk making everyone sick on Thanksgiving day.
So my (did I mention patient?) husband ran out to the store to get heavy cream. Of course, it was Thanksgiving day at about 12pm so the first two stores he went to were closed. The next store he went to only had Light Cream and he wasn’t sure if that would be okay, so he bought it just incase and headed to store #4, where he bought basically anything that said the word cream.
When he came home from the store with all those containers I couldn’t help but laugh and be reminded once again, why I have so much to be thankful for . 
I was finally able to finish the dessert!
Even with a few hiccups along the way, this dessert was a complete success! Everyone loved that after such a big meal, this still satisfied our sweet tooth but didn’t feel too heavy. This dessert not only looks impressive, but tastes impressive too! Really, how can you go wrong with puff pastry, apples, caramel and ice cream?!
I’m not going to repost the recipe because I followed it exactly (woah, this never happens)! The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen. I used 3 apples; 2 were Granny Smith and the other was Fuji (I think). Oh, and I was a bit intimidated by making the Salted Caramel Glaze but if you just follow her directions exactly, it will work!
We served it with Caramel Delight ice cream (I highly recommend this combo!) and because we now had extra whipped cream, we of course, added that on top too!
