Apple Turnovers
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 25 minutes plus 30 minutes chilling time
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Serves: 6
For Filling
- 3 large Granny Smith apples (around 375g/13ozs)
- 30g/1oz butter
- 100g/3.5ozs white sugar
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Pinch salt
- 2 teaspoons cornflour/fine cornstarch mixed with 3 teaspoons cold water
Pastry
- 1.5 sheets butter puff pastry, thawed in the fridge 1 hour before using
- 1/2 beaten egg
- 1 tablespoon raw sugar
- pinch of ground cinnamon
Step 1 - Peel and core the apples and then cut into into small pieces. Place them in a medium sized saucepan with butter, sugar, water, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 8-10 minutes until apples are soft but not mushy. Reduce the heat to low and mix the cornstarch slurry together and then add to the pot and stir and allow to thicken. Cool and refrigerate. You can make this filling up to 5 days ahead of time and keep in the fridge.
Step 2 - Take out the pastry and thaw it in the fridge. Cut into 6 squares (around 12x12cms or 4.7x4.7inches each) and brush the edges with egg wash. Place 2-3 teaspoons of the apple filling in them and then gently press down to seal the edges. Crimp the edges with a fork pressing down around the edge. Lightly score the tops with a knife trying not to cut too deep. Brush the top with beaten egg. Combine the raw sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of the pastry. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes while the oven heats up.
Step 3 - Preheat oven to 220C/440F/Gas mark 7 and bake the apple turnovers for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Personal Note
These apple turnovers are a wonderful snack in the afternoon and at times I've served them for Mr NQN's breakfast as well as dessert with a scoop of ice cream. We also ate these as a little snack before seeing a movie. One of my favourite 80's films is Top Gun and I was so excited to learn that the sequel was coming out this year. It's hard to convince Mr NQN to go to the movies as he sees them as a seething bed for COVID but I convinced him by using up the last of our Discover vouchers (for anyone outside of NSW the government gave everyone vouchers to spend at businesses affected by COVID). "Should we see it in 4DX?" I asked him. I figured that since I don't really watch action movies we should probably give it a go with Top Gun as I'm unlikely to ever try it again.
We ended up absolutely loving it and it really added to the cinema experience. 4DX is like a Disneyland ride where the seats move, you get sprayed in the face with water, there are gusts of wind, lights flash and they tickle your legs according to the scenes. It was so exciting and slightly exhausting too. I told my friend Dorothy about it and she laughed and said that her 87 year old father had just watched it in 4DX except that he didn't know what 4DX was and started freaking out when the seats started moving and he got sprayed in the face with water! Poor guy!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever seen a movie in 4DX? And have you watched anything good lately?