Another possibility for Battle: Baked Goods on Saturday… Apple-Pear Turnovers!

These little pastries seemed to be easier to make on paper than they were. That was disappointing. At least the ingredients list was relatively simple! Apples, pears, frozen puff pastry, a dab of butter, and some sugar and spice — how could I go wrong?

I have never been much of a baker, have I mentioned that? Yet, here I am attempting things that I have never before attempted, in hopes that I’ll get the hang of it. What I really did not want to have to tackle was trying to make my own dough, especially a puff pastry dough! (Is it even possible to make that at home???) Thankfully, they make frozen dough, so that was the route I took. I left that on the counter for about 45 minutes to an hour to thaw while I caught up on my work email, and went to work on the apples and pears.

Gala apples and Bartlett pears

I started out by peeling, quartering, and coring 2 Gala apples and 2 Bartlett pears, and dropping them into a bowl of water and lemon juice to prevent any browning while I worked. I cut the quarters in half lengthwise, then sliced them into fairly even-sized pieces. The pears were really juicy, so it was hard to actually get them into the bowl without wanting to pop every piece I cut into my mouth! Most of the pears made it into the turnovers…

From there, I went and unfolded the puff pastry dough. It started out as roughly a 9″x9″ square, which I rolled out to about 12″x12″. In hindsight, I might have opted to not roll it out and just made smaller turnovers. I’m not sure if the rolling had anything to do with the final outcome, or if that’s just the way the puff pastry, well, puffs.

I tried my best to fill and seal each little packet, even resorting to using the suggested water trick to get it to stick, but that just did not seem to work on this unruly dough! So, I pinched and folded and pinched some more, realizing that I was probably ruining the puff to come.

I didn’t get any photos of the actual process of filling and folding the turnovers because my hands were dirty and I was too involved to even remember that I was going to document the process. The idea clicked right after I dropped them into the oven that I should probably take a picture, so here you go.

Thirty minutes later, I pulled four golden brown, acceptably puffy turnovers from the oven in a lake of apple-pear-sugar-juice leakage that covered the tray I had baked them on. Thank goodness for the foresight of lining that tray — What a mess! I let them cool slightly before airlifting them from the gooey flooded tray to cool on a wire rack.

Aside from the obvious issue with the turnovers leaking at the seams, they seemed to turn out alright. I was disappointed in the puff of the puff pastry, as it wasn’t as flaky and puffy as I had hoped it would be, particularly in the pastry covering the fruit filling. The corners were flaky as advertised, and I’m really not sure why the rest of the turnover didn’t turn out as well. My suspicion would be that the rolling adversely affected the dough, but that seems somewhat unlikely, since dough was born to be rolled! (Edit: With some confirmation to this suspicion, I have eliminated the rolling of the dough from the instructions below. This supports the idea that these test runs are a good idea!)

Whatever the case, the overall taste of the turnovers (or the one I tried at least!) was pretty good! The spices seemed right on, and the fruit retained a good bite to it. Now, I just have to figure out which will be entered into the Aluminum Chef competition this Saturday. Decisions, decisions.

Apple-Pear Turnovers

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough, thawed per package directions
• 2 medium baking apples (I used Galas)
• 2 medium pears (I used Bartletts)
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1 egg

Makes 4 servings.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Peel & core apples and pears, then cut into small, even-sized pieces.
3. Mix apples and pears in a large bowl.
4. Mix sugar and spices in a small bowl, then add to the apples and pears. Stir to coat.
5. Unfold puff pastry dough, and cut large square into 4 smaller squares.
6. Put 1/4 of apple & pear mixture into the center of each square, and place 1/2 teaspoon of butter on top of mixture.
7. Fold the dough over the filling to create a triangle and pinch edges closed.
   • Tip: If dough is not sticking together, try wetting your fingers and pinching it together.
8. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
9. Beat egg in small bowl.
10. Place turnovers on baking sheet, and brush beaten egg over each.
11. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until golden brown.