annemckinney

Apple Turnovers

My first attempt at making apple turnovers, and as a novice with pastry in general.
They’re a little wonky, but delicious!

This is another heirloom recipe from my mom’s recipe index box. She didn’t credit it to anyone, but I don’t remember her ever making these, either. She didn’t really do much with pastry that I can recall, and as an adult, I’ve been a little fearful of dipping my toes into that water. And while pastry dough is a level up from working with something like cake batter, following this recipe feels like a step towards leveling up!

And, okay, so my skills still need a lot of work in this regard. At least I’ve lost some of that fear. The rest is a matter of practice, right?

apple turnover cut in half to show the filling inside
Yep, there’s apples in that turnover.

The original version of this recipe allowed me to make the four isosceles triangles in the photo above with plenty filling leftover from 3 medium-sized apples, so I went back the day after the first batch to make another batch of dough and try out some different shapes. For the recipe below, I’ve doubled the dough and added another apple. This should hopefully even things out (unless you have truly gargantuan fruit. How’s about them apples, eh?).

Other shapes made by cutting the dough into circles and layering as hand pies, shaping like potstickers, or rolling out the leftover dough and doing whatever happened in the bottom left. We didn’t have decorative baking sugar crystals on hand, so I substituted green sugar sprinkles because who doesn’t want a green pie?! Also, using up leftover filling in a misshapen galette was a choice.

Dough:
3 c. all-purpose flour
14 oz. (1 3/4 c.) cold butter, cubed
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. ice water
1 egg

Filling:
4 medium-sized apples, cored, peeled, & chopped
1/2 c. sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon (~1 1/2 tbsp.)
zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp. cinnamon

Blend the flour, butter, 1/4 c up of sugar, and salt in a mixer. Add the ice water slowly while the blender is running.

When the dough starts to form a ball, stop the mixer and use your (clean) hand to knead gently until everything is incorporated. Wrap up the dough in plastic wrap and rest for one hour in the refrigerator.

While the dough is chilling, peel and chop the apples and mix in the rest of the filling ingredients. (More directions are below the photo.)

You can roll out half of the dough into one large rectangle and cut that
into separate pieces, or cut first and roll out one at a time.

Cut the chilled dough in half. If you want isosceles triangles, you can roll half of the dough out into a large rectangle, then cut it into fourths (as in the photo above). Or, cut the lumps of dough into smaller pieces and roll out one at a time.

Drop spoonfuls onto the dough. Fold one corner of the dough over to the opposite corner to form the triangle. To seal, press the edges shut with a fork, using a little water if you have trouble sealing it. Cut a couple holes in the surface with a knife or fork to help vent the dough.

Beat the egg with a teaspoon of water and brush onto the dough.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes for larger turnovers, or 20-25 minutes for smaller ones.

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