cooking @ home

First let me direct you to my recipe on Fruit and Cream Cheese Triangles as that covered a lot of the basics found in this recipe here. In fact, this recipe is in many ways a continuation or the next step after those delicious little triangles.

Using the same amount of puff pastry dough that made the nine triangles, one sheet, I was this time able to more simply create four large turnovers. Since I’ve never really played with puff pastry dough prior to these two outings, I saw no sense in making the filling from scratch, as I was more interested in getting the pastry correct and learning from what I was doing.

Speaking of which, I found with the nine mini tarts that 350°F for 16-18 minutes worked best. No doubt because they were larger and each individual item has a lot more filling, 375°F for 22-25 minutes turned out to be the time for the apple turnovers.

With that in mind, I “copped out” and used a can of apple pie filling I had gotten from the market on a previous outing. That said, I also “upped the ante” a tad by deciding I would make frosting for the maybe the second time in a decade. So, for me, a second learning experience with the dough and basically a newer one with the simple icing.

Btw, although I do have an icing bag that comes with the variable nibs to make designs, I decided to do “the old plastic baggie trick” for you (see photograph) just to show this easily can be done without all the fancy “equipment”. That means you can do it too!

What can I tell you, this was so easy and delicious it tasted like I bought them at my local bakery shop. And there, where they cost three bucks a piece, I’m sure I spent considerably less with my ingredients, and they tasted as good — if not better — afterall I was able to eat mine 10 minutes after out of the oven.

  

Apple Turnovers
©2007 Harry Kenney

1 sheet puffed pastry
1/2 can of apple pie filling
1/4 cup of raisins
1/4 cup of golden raisins
1 tsp of lemon juice
egg wash

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Take one puffed pastry sheet, slice into four squares. Take filling above, mix and place as much as can hold into the squares, roughly three or four tablespoons. Fold one corner over to the opposite corner creating a triangle or “turnover”.

Brush egg wash along the two sides, press together, then use a fork on the edges to further press sides together and to make that nice ribbed design along the two sides. Also make two sets of steam holes in the top.

Place on cookie sheet with parchment paper on top. Greasing or flouring can work, but it will not work as well as the parchment paper will. Cook until brown about 22-25 minutes. When cooled, put on royal icing. (Recipe below)

Royal Icing

2 egg whites
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Place all ingredients in bowl and beat on medium high for a full 10 minutes. Icing will become thick and glossy. Keep covered with damp cloth while using, removing small portions to bowl as needed. Fill a Ziplock or other plastic baggie. Move contents to corner of bag, using scissors, carefully snip a small — repeat, small — area of the corner. Gently squeeze the icing to and fro across the top of each tart to make wavy pattern.

Good news, it worked. Bad news, you’re going to have a lot of icing left to figure out what to do with. (I’d cut in half or quarter it but then how do you get 1/16th of vanilla extract?) So I suggest save in the refrigerator a few days and find something else to make and use up the icing on.

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