Apple Pie Turnovers

Same old thing someone wants a fruit pie for desert, now you can go to the store and get the pie mix premade, the pie shell off the shelf or ready to roll out. That is the easy way, but here’s some food for thought, where did the fruit come from, and how come the fruit is so mushy almost to the point of no texture. What about the pie shell? Can you make one that’s better and guaranteed to be flaky? The process of making pie is pretty basic. Have you ever made a turnover using fresh ingredients?

Would you feel better about giving the ones you love something that you know is better than processed and they know it tastes better, because face it, anything made with love in the kitchen translates into the food tasting better.

Let’s make apple turnovers that are filled with love and all the other good stuff.

Now if you have a pie dough recipe that you love you should use it. I received this one in one of my pastry classes and I absolutely love it, it seems to turn out right every time.

This recipe makes 3 pie shell crusts it will make about a dozen of this size turnover. The good news is you can freeze or refrigerate unused dough.

This is 4 oz. of dough spread out to 8 inch disks and then filled. I would try it first with 2 – 3 oz. of dough unless you like really big turnovers. So the recipe is as follows:

Basic Pie Dough

16 oz. Butter, Unsalted and chilled

21 oz.  Flour, Pastry or A.P. if you are going for gluten free try rice flour.

4 oz.    Buttermilk, or water (I prefer the buttermilk)

2 tsp.   Salt

.5 oz.   Sugar

1 T.      Vanilla (optional)

1. Cut the butter into medium diced squares about 3/8 in. Sift the flour onto your work surface or in a large bowl.
2. Cut the butter into the flour and work until mealy. (if you are in a hurry use your mixer with the paddle on the first setting)
3. Combine the buttermilk, salt, sugar and vanilla in another bowl and mix with a whisk. Gradually add the liquid to the flour/butter mixture and mix gently until the dough holds together. Do NOT overmix this.
4. Cover the dough and put in the refrigerator until thoroughly chilled. However, since we are making turnovers, bring out your scale and individually wrap 2 – 4 oz. balls. It will make it easier when rolling out the turnovers.

Now let’s make the filling. Fruit fillings are what you make of them. If you are making cherry then you have a couple of things to decide, the type of cherry and how sweet you would like to have it. Apple your decisions are pretty basic, apple, precooked or raw with sugar and a little butter and cinnamon. My favorite apple is a honey crisp and I like to mix the precooked with raw so it has a little texture and tenderness. To make the apples tender, I brown a little butter in a high heat pan, then I add apples, a little sugar and a little brown sugar. Once these are combined and have let go of some of their juice add your other flavors cinnamon to taste and maybe even some raisins. It’s up to you.

Let your filling cool down and thicken (sift some flour into the mix if you want a thicker filling).

Once your filling has cooled down you can pull the number of individual pies/turnover wraps that you want to bake, yes bake, there is no need to deep fry these. 

Roll one of your dough balls into an 8 inch or less circle. Add the filling (about 3 oz. for an 8 inch) bring half of your dough over be sure to seal and leave a little over for a fold over and then seal the fold over. If you would like a better idea of what I am talking about, watch this video Chef John does a great demonstration. http://youtu.be/II2gnuhe0NY

As always make life sweet and Enjoy!