Cuisine de Michelle: Apple Pandowdy

I don't care for apple pie, but give me this any day! 10/10! I've made this twice now and enjoyed very much both times. The first time, forgot to halve the sugar mixture part and thought it was still great, so kept it for second time. It was still awesome, but a little too sweet, so I'm going to go with slightly less instead going forward, which is what I have listed below. If you need the bigger version to feed more people, see the link to the original recipe below.

Original recipe credit: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/apple-pandowdy

Ingredients:

3 T. unsalted butter

2 lbs. Pink Lady apples

1/2 c. dark brown sugar (packed)

7 tsp. all-purpose flour

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 T. ground cinnamon

1/3 tsp. kosher salt

zest from 1/4 of small lemon (use microplane style grater)

juice from 1/2 of small lemon

1/2" piece of fresh ginger

1 sheet (1/2 pkg.) frozen puff pastry, thawed in fridge overnight

granulated sugar (for sprinkling/topping)

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, cook the butter over medium heat, swirling often, until bubbling and golden (around 5 min). Set aside.

2. Meanwhile, peel and core the apples, then slice into ~3/4" chunks. Place in a medium bowl with the dark brown sugar and stir to combine (I stirred after adding each apple to prevent browning).

3. Heat oven to 425°F. Set aside an 8"x8" pan or baking dish.

4. Stir in flour, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt with apples.

5. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice, then peel the ginger piece and grate over the apple mixture. Stir to combine. Pour into the pan/baking dish.

6. Drizzle only 2 of the Tablespoons of reserved melted butter over the apple mixture in the pan/baking dish.

7. Cut the thawed puff pastry sheet into strips, then cut each into a few smaller pieces (need not all be same size, most of mine were around 1" to 2"). Place pieces over apples so that they cover almost completely (you will need to overlap some, and leave a couple of small openings here and there).