Flaky Apple Turnovers
posted by virtual chef on Sep 15, 2009 | Bakery |
It’s time for Tuesdays with Dorie and this week’s recipe, chosen by Julie of Someone’s in the Kitchen, is one of my favorite snacks: apple turnovers. Dorie’s version, on pages 316 – 317 of her book Baking: From My Home to Yours promised to be a quickly-made, tender, flaky pastry. She didn’t disappoint! I’ve made a quick puff pastry before and even baked my version of apple turnovers but this recipe is definitely flakier and softer. The secret ingredient is sour cream, which according to Dorie, made the dough more tender. Check Dorie’s book or Julie’s website for the complete recipe.
Here’s how I made the dough:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, very cold and cut into small pieces
To make the flaky puff crust, combine the sour cream and sugar and set aside. Then combine flour and salt then add butter. Using a pastry blender or your fingers mix until it resembles coarse meal or sand. Add the sour cream mixture until it forms a soft dough. At this point, I divided the dough into two and wrapped them in plastic. Flatten the dough into a rectangle then refrigerate for at least one hour. The fun part is when you start rolling and folding to make the puffy pastry. Work with one dough at a time and roll it out into a larger rectangle (Dorie suggests about 9 x 13 inches). Fold the dough into thirds, like folding a business letter then refrigerate for at least one hour. I repeated this rolling and folding 3 times, refrigerating in between to keep it cold (very important!!) before cutting into circles or rectangles for filling.
You can use just about any filling you want like jam or fruit spread. Or you can use my apple cinnamon fillilng which is similar to Dorie’s in the book. Just make sure you don’t put too much or the pastry will not seal properly.
I made my dough yesterday, refrigerated it for hours before finally cutting into circles and filling with apple cinnamon mixture. From the pictures, you can tell that I used too much of the filling! I was able to make 8 pieces, the first 4 were folded into semi-circles and the rest into triangles. I wrapped and froze them last night and baked them (at preheated 375F oven) this morning straight out of the freezer. It was wonderful with a cup of espresso!
Notes: The baked pastries are best eaten the same day as they don’t do well refrigerated but you can definitely freeze the unbaked ones.
Your turnovers look great!! Love the triangles—going to do that next time!
thanks, nina! i found it easier to cut squares and make triangles..LOL..i still couldn’t put in more filling though..:)
Mmmm…Yummy turnovers. They look perfect. I’d love to have one for a snack right now. Yes, I think that’s what I need to kick up the lull of the afternoon.
I love the first and last shots very much. The fillings is oozing out. Oh my. So yummy looking. Great recipe:)
Oh, these look scrumptious!
Your turnovers look good… I imagine the pastry is wonderful with the sour cream. Beautiful!
Lovely option now that the weather gets cooler and Fall is just around the corner. I love almost any kind of dessert with apples.
This recipe is pretty simple! I can do this. Thanks for sharing lovely!
These look wonderful. All of these apple turnovers are making me crave them!
Yummy Turnover. Thanks for sharing. Cheers !
I love apple turnovers anytime of the year. I would love to have one with the tea I am currently drinking at the moment
How did you fold the dough like that? That is one of the things that’s always been mind baffling! Looks like the perfect dessert…or lunch…or breakfast.
Yum…looks wonderful!
tried this and the pastry was dry and crumbly. Looked for similar recipes and they all had more sour cream. What was my problem. Followed it to the letter as this was my first time trying this. Anyone else have the same problem?
Hi Bernadette: my pastry got dry and crumbly when i worked it too much (too much rolling). you can try adding more sour cream as you see from other recipes to see if that helps. flaky crusts, if i remember correctly from doing this recipe with other TWD bakers, require really cold butter and not too much handling. puff pastry requires lengthy rests in between turns/folds and also important to be kept cold (thus the rest in the refrigerator in between folds or turns). it is when the butter steams when baking that causes the layers of dough to separate into layers or “puff”. let’s see if other TWD bakers can give us more tips on how to avoid dry and crumbly pastry.
Thanks so much for getting back to me so soon! I was really impressed. I should have mentioned that I am a very experienced baker, having made real puff pastry many times as well as other difficult pastry and baking items. I worked at the pastry as little as possible, so to not warm it too much. It just would not come together?