Apple Rose Cupcakes - Pinterest Inspired (Warning - Pinterest Fail)

Last week I saw this link on Pinterest for the wonderful-looking Apple Rose Cupcakes as they were calling them.  They looked fairly simple, with few ingredients and not any special skills needed so while we were in the grocery store last Sunday, I picked up the two ingredients that I did not already have at home to make these.  Apples and Puff Pastry.

I trimmed and cut the apples as the directions said, then nuked them for 3 minutes in water and lemon.  I was very careful when slicing them to make the slices as uniform as possible (and as thin as possible also).  

I defrosted a sheet of puff pastry, rolled it out and cut it into 6 slices as prescribed.  Then I used some apricot/mango/passion fruit jam on the strips as directed.  

I laid out the sliced apples just like in the video, sprinkled with a little cinnamon and attempted to roll them up just as easily as the cook in the video - NOT.  

Either I used the wrong type of apple, the slices were too thick, or they weren't cooked long enough because the apple slices cracked as I rolled.  Still I managed to get them into muffin liners and then into the muffin pan to cook.

I first took them out at 30 minutes which was a mistake because I didn't read the time correctly and the pastry was anything but done at that point.  BUT...... after putting them back in the oven for an additional 15-20 minutes, the apples crisped to the point of browning and still the pastry wasn't done.  

I really didn't expect them to look exactly like the one's that I had pinned, but this was way off and such a disappointment.

After checking various other sources for recipes like this I found that some said it was okay to use Pink Lady apples (which is what I used), and some said you should not use Red Delicious (which was what the post I used recommended).  I also saw that there was a discrepancy as to what product to use - puff pastry, phyllo dough, or pie crust. I actually had all three on hand but went with what the video said to use.  

Taste - well after I cut into it and saw that the pastry was not done, I could not, in all consciousness, try to eat the mush.  Instead I pulled some of the apples out and sure enough, even after being in the oven for more that 40 mins. they were not all soft.  

Will I try this again?  Don't know.  The recipe says it makes six and there was a lot of unused apple slices to begin with.  The pastry was unappealingly mushy when rolled like that.  Perhaps it should be more like a little pie crust first and then add the apples.  In the long run, I am soooooooooo glad that I did not try to make these for Admin Prof Day (which I was thinking of doing) because I would have been very distraught with the results.  

If anyone out there decides to give this a try, please let me know how yours turned out - what tricks you used.