Apple Turnovers

Apple Turnover

By Cat, Sept 2012 (Photo, right, from Fine Cooking.com (1))

Includes: 1. Apple Turnovers

See also: 1. Pie & Tart Crusts, Pastry; 2. Pies, Tarts, Turnovers; Other sites:  1. Raspberry turnovers; 2. Brandied Apricot-Almond Slab Pie

Turnovers make great single serving treats or desserts that can easily be taken in a lunch box or picnic basket, because the filling is entirely enclosed by the pastry. And you can use just about any tart filling recipe as the filling for turnovers.

Because they are basically an enclosed tart; you can use the same dough that you would for tarts, provided you can roll it out (rather than press it into a pan). See Pie & Tart Crusts, Pastry; scroll down to Tart & Rustic Tart Crusts.

Another popular choice is Puff Pastry, which you can make yourself or buy ready-made in the freezer section of your local grocer. If you are familiar with Pepperidge Farm turnovers, they are made with puff pastry. I provide tentative instructions for using puff pastry, but have not tested this method.

Apple Turnover

This recipe is adapted from Fine Cooking.com (1), originally by Kathleen Stewart. Makes 8 turnovers. Not yet tested. I’d like to test this with thinly sliced almonds included in the filling.

Ingredients & Equipment

• 1 ½ recipes Pasta Frolla or Pastry Sucrée (rich short crust from Italy or France); alternately, use American Standard Pie Crust for 2-crust 10″ pie, or any recipe calling for about 2 ¼ cups total flour. Or use 2-sheets frozen puff pastry.
• 4 large apples (about 2 lb total); see Apple Info (About) for a chart to help you choose appropriate varieties for pies
• About 3 Tbsp unbleached white flour or 3 Tbsp tapioca starch
• About ¾ cup Rapadura sugar (or ½ tsp stevia extract powder plus 1 Tbsp Rapadura sugar)
• About 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

For assembly:

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• Granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Equipment

• plate
• rolling pin
• rolling surface
• baking sheet or two 9″ pie pans
• parchment

Method:

Pastry:

1. Prepare pastry, shaping it into two discs. Allow each disk to rest a few minutes before rolling. Or, if chilled, allow it to warm up a bit before rolling.
2. Cut each disk into quarters. Lightly flour your hands to shape each quarter into a flat oval about 3 inches long and 2 inches wide, placing them on a plate after shaping. Slide plate into a plastic bag, or cover well with waxed paper and refrigerate for at least half an hour.

Prep

1. Prep apples: peel, halve, and core each apple. Then cut each half in half again, lengthwise. Place in bowl of water with lemon juice added to keep them from browning until ready to use.

Assemble & bake

1. Line baking sheets with parchment. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. If using stevia, combine sugar and stevia in small bowl until well mixed.
3. Flour a smooth work surface well. Roll each piece of dough into a larger oval, approximately 10 inches long and 6 inches wide. The dough should be almost paper-thin. Brush off any excess flour. * See below for using puff pastry.
4. Spoon 1 tsp each flour & sugar on one half of each oval. Arrange two apple quarters as a half-apple on each pile of flour and sugar. Sprinkle 2 tsp. sweetener and a pinch of cinnamon over the apple.
5. Fold other half of the oval over the apples so that it falls just shy of the edge of the bottom half. Gently mold the dough around the apple to eliminate any trapped air. With fingertip, moisten the edge of the top half, then fold edge of the bottom half up and over edge of the top half; press to seal. Flute the edge as you would a pie.
6. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the other 7 turnovers.
7. Brush tops of the turnovers with melted butter and sprinkle with additional sugar. Bake until golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes.
8. Use a spatula to move the turnovers from the baking sheet to a cooling rack. These are best served warm but are also good at room temperature.

Or, if using puff pastry:

1. Use 2 sheets and cut each into 4 squares. Roll each square, retaining square shape, to be large enough that when folded in half, corner to corner, they will completely cover the half-apple, plus about ½” for fluting.
2. When assembling the turnovers, arrange the flour, sugar, apples and cinnamon in one half of the dough as a triangle, then fold the other half of the pastry over, corner to corner in a triangle shape.
3. Press and flute edges as described above for pie crust.

Serving ideas

1. Serve with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream

References:

1. Fine Cooking.com recipe,  originally by Kathleen Stewart (finecooking.com/recipes/apple-turnovers.aspx)