This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie treat is Flaky Apple Turnovers. My boyfriend is particularly fond of desserts in the apple and flaky category (it’s really a good thing we don’t live close to a good bakery, I think he’d get a pastry every single day), so I was definitely looking forward to making these. I did have my reservations, though: back in April when the Sweet Melissa group made apple turnovers, a recipe that called for pre-packaged puff pastry ended up taking me almost two days to complete and some minor frustrations due to various mistakes I made and I did not want a repeat of that. I think I subconsciously began the process on Friday evening in anticipation of disaster, so I’d have time to start over if the recipe didn’t work the first time. This is what my dough looked like after chilling overnight: a big crumbly mess!
I was afraid of “overworking” the dough, so I may not have mixed it enough before it went in for its first chilling period, figuring it would be cohesive after resting for a night in the refrigerator. Instead of tossing it, I hydrated it by adding a tablespoon of water and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (a good dough tenderizer), mixed it back up, and refrigerated it again. When I took it out ten hours later, it pleasantly rolled and folded for me – I guess it’s pretty forgiving dough. In addition to apples, I filled a few with some jumbleberry jam I made the previous weekend; the turnovers seemed like such a fall recipe, but technically we still have a tiny bit of summer left, so it seemed appropriate. I thought it would be fun to make some minis with a three-inch biscuit cutter; unfortunately, though cute, I could hardly get any filling in them at all. I also had a little problem sealing the turnovers and it didn’t occur to me until filling my second-to-last turnover that putting a little egg wash on the inside would help seal them up. Oh, well – next time. And I would definitely make these again (though I didn’t do it this time, I love that you can freeze them and bake them up when a pastry craving strikes) since any problems were easily remedied and we thought they were fantastic little treats. The pastry was nice and flaky and I liked the simplicity of the apple filling.
This recipe rated an 8.5 for Deliciousness and a 4 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 2.12. Many thanks to Julie of Someone's in the Kitchen for selecting this wonderful dessert (or breakfast or snack). You can find the recipe HERE on Julies’s site and see what the other bakers thought via the TWD blogroll.
