TWD - Flaky Apple (And Peach) Turnovers

This week's recipe, selected by Julia of Someone's in the Kitchen, is Flaky Apple Turnovers.

We'd gone apple AND peach picking the other day, so I decided (as I'm sure a lot of other TWD bakers did) to make a couple versions.

I made the dough on Sunday and baked the turnovers yesterday.

All in all, it was, for me, a pretty straighforward operation.  I liked the sour cream dough, and didn't have problems with the texture.  (I read in the P&Q section that for some other bakers, the dough was really crumbly.)  I think the only problem I'm having at all with this recipe is that my husband and kids are eating the turnovers so fast I'll need to bake the ones in the freezer ("for next week") much sooner than I'd planned.  I should have just quadrupled the recipe, obviously.

Anyway, here we go.

As I said, on Sunday, I made the dough.  Julia helped.

First, we've got the flour and salt.  I added some cinnamon and ginger to it.  Just for kicks.

 And here we've got the sour cream and sugar.

Julia blended those together.  Look at her smile.  Please don't look at the state of her hair.  Or the mess in my kitchen.  Thanks. 

 Next, I put the bits of butter on top of the flour mixture.

And at this point, I gave my camera to Julia so she could take pictures of me as I worked the butter into the flour by hand.  So yes, my five-year-old took the next bunch of pictures.

I could have put all this in the food processor...but then I'd have the processor bowl, blade, lid, and those two plastic pusher parts to clean.  By hand, I just have the bowl.  And my hands.  So this was better.  Plus I had used my food processor for something else already, which I've guessed right now because I can see the bowl upside down in the sink just behind my arm there.   

Anyway, there I go, mixing and smushing...

Ooh, look at this next one!  Now there's an elegant look...my fingers actually seem to be arching backwards.

Ah.  At last.  The butter is sufficiently (for me) worked into the flour mixture.  And it smelled pretty good at that point, with the cinnamon and ginger worked in. 

But Julia still has the camera...so go ahead and take some Dramamine at this point.

Wanna know what this is?  Besides a blurry shot of part of the kitchen?  Julia was trying to take a picture of the pumpkin on the counter.  It's the green and orange blob near the middle of the shot.  We grew it.  Yay.  Okay, moving on...

Oh, wait!  There's my big fat arm on the left!  Yay!  Thanks, Julia!  (See?  This is why I don't post pictures of myself.  I'd spend far too much time wallowing in self-criticism.)

Back to the recipe...I'm adding the sour cream and sugar mixture to the flour and butter mixture now.  Look, you can see the food processor a bit better!  And other sink debris!

And then there's this.

What the heck?  I had no idea what that was until this morning.  And then I was horrified. 

HORRIFIED, I tell ya!

It's me.  Well, a portion of me.  I think it's almost time to take the camera away from Julia.

I will, right after I blend the sour cream into the flour.

Hey, it's Flaky Apple Turnover Dough!  Starring:  My thumb!

Okay, I can't take this any more.  Time to give me the camera, Julia.  You can have the fork and the bowl.

Thank you!

I dumped the whole mixture onto the counter and worked it together a bit until I could form a ball with it.

I divided that in half, wrapped each half, formed them into sort of rectangles, and put them in the fridge for about an hour. 

Then I rolled each portion out into another sort of rectangle. It's supposed to be about 9 x  18, I believe.  Not sure what mine was.  Then I folded this into thirds, like a business letter ready to go into an envelope, wrapped it, repeated with the other portion of dough, and put them back in the fridge.

And then I made gnocchi, as part of our dinner.  Here's arecipe, in case you want to know what I did.  Only I added a bit of sour cream to it because I had more potato than the recipe called for but not enough eggs.

And that was Sunday.

Yesterday (Monday), I made the filling and baked the turnovers.

I used half apples and half peaches.  Yes, the recipe calls for 4 apples.  I have 6 pieces of fruit.  I thought they were smaller than what I'd find in the store, so I used 3 and 3 instead of 2 and 2.

I mixed the flour, sugar, and cinnamon together, then divided that between two bowls.

Now, as usual, I was trying to do several other things at the same time.  I was, of course, taking pictures of the process, for this post.  But I also had my laptop open and I was posting a bunch of photos to my "in the garden" site, and IM-ing back and forth with my sister, and keeping an eye on the clock because I'd have to get the kids from school at some point.

And I don't know about you, but sometimes when I'm trying to do too many things at once, I get further distracted and forget about everything else, and just...get my macro lens attachment out and start taking other pictures...

Because some things just look beautiful to me.  And I want to capture them.  And share them.

And so I set up these other little shots, that have nothing to do with the post I'm working on, really (unless you demand proof that I peeled the apples), but to me they ARE related, because they're part of MY process.

And then, that part of me sated, I get back to work.  I mixed the apples with their share of the flour/cinnamon/sugar and set that aside, preheated my oven, and got one portion of dough out of the fridge.

I rolled the dough out nice and thin and cut some circles out.  (I had to cut this portion of dough in half and roll it in batches - not enough counter space for the whole thing in one go.)

And I spooned some of the apple mixture on each circle and dotted them with bits of butter.

Next time around I'll cut the apple bits smaller.  Some of the bigger ones poked through the dough.  Lesson learned.

 I moistened the edge of each circle, folded them over and pressed the edges together with the tines of a fork.  And I poked some little holes in each turnover as well.

Then I brushed them with egg wash, sprinkled them with sugar (don't know what happened to those pictures) and popped them in the oven.  Mine baked for 22 minutes. 

They smelled fabulous.

And, yes, the juices seeped out a bit.  Oh well.

And then it was time to fetch the children.  Julia had a lovely day, as always, and Alex had a nosebleed for some reason in gym class.  His teacher told me no one had bumped into him or anything; it just happened.  But he was fine now.  He had a little ziploc bag with mostly melted ice. 

We got home and I begged the children to try a turnover.  Okay, I didn't have to beg.

And would you look at that mess over to the left?  Stuff is about to fall off the shelf of that little desk.  Yes, I could have cropped this so you wouldn't even know about it, but I AM my own reality series, so I left it there.

And Alex liked the turnover.  A lot.

So did Julia.  Look at that "I'm older than my years and I'm reassuring you that your baking doesn't suck because I don't want you to cry and please let me finish chewing and I'm very mature and can I have a puppy?" expression on her face.

 Success.  Time to make the peach version.

We'd picked both white and yellow (is that the official color?) peaches.  Or would that be white and peach peaches?  Shut up, Jayne.

I love peaches.  They smelled so good when I was cutting them up.

I wanted to be able to tell the difference between the two versions, so I folded and sealed this one differently.

 I brushed on the egg wash and sprinkled on the sugar, and into the oven they went.

They also baked for 22 minutes.

Oh, and I re-rolled the dough for each batch, and I think I ended up with a total of around 16 or so of each flavor.  I baked 8 of each version and froze the rest.

(Here's a look inside an apple turnover.)

Which seem silly now, as most of the turnovers disappeared quite rapidly yesterday.

(And here's a look inside a peach turnover.  I don't know what that reddish string-like thing is.  Looks like a long saffron thread, but I assure you it's not.)

And that was Monday.

The kids liked both versions. 

Bill liked both but preferred the apple. 

I think I like the peach better. 

 

Thanks again to Julia for selecting this recipe!  She's got the recipe posted on her site, Someone's in the Kitchen, so go check that out, and then go dive into the Tuesdays with Dorie site and start looking at all the other Flaky Turnovers produced this week!

Comments

[Margaret]

Beautiful turnovers. Looks like they were just perfect. Great job.

Yeah, Dorie hasn't done my waistline any good either. LOL But, hey, you only live once - ENJOY!!!

Cute kiddies.

[Lauryn]

This post just made me smile and laugh and I feel like I was in your kitchen with you having a blast!!! Your turnovers look amazing! So flaky and beautiful!!

[Clivia Gardens]

Beautiful photo essay! Glad you all enjoyed the turnovers.

[Michelle]

I love this post and really love the photos of your daughter helpig and both of your children eating! Your daughters picture taking cracked me up! Your turnovers look so good and Im glad you loved the recipe!

[Tanya Brillhart]

OH...they look so wonderful.

[jules]

What gorgeous turnovers! And kids. ;-) So glad this was enjoyed. I think the peach version looks amazing. Thanks for baking with me!

[Susan]

Gorgeous photos, as per usual!
Maybe we can get together in a couple of weeks when I am up your way and you can see what a "fat arm" really does look like.

[Nic]

I love the ones you folded up like little pot stickers... very cute, I might steal your idea. I like the look better than the flat sort

[Tracey]

Your posts are always so entertaining and this one was no exception. Love the photos, especially the ones Julia took :) Great job on the turnovers - they look awesome! This weekend I am dragging my husband to the orchard you mentioned the other day. Can't wait!

[Tonya]

Love the writing - I look forward to coming home and reading after dinner with a cup of tea. Of course a turnover or two would have been nice :)-apple not peach, the fuzz of a peach makes the hair on my arms stand up.I know I'm strange. What about a strawberry/rhubarb or a mixed berry (rasp/blackberry)??

[Kim]

Both versions look wonderful. I want a peach one. Love the photos (even the blurry ones). Great post.

[Jayne]

I'm sure pretty much ANY kind of filling would work!

[Jayne]

I'd love to get together!  By then it should be cold enough that we can wear longer sleeves and there need not be any arm comparison at all.  :)

[Jessica]

Beautiful turnovers, beautiful pictures...and I love seeing your little girl helping out. Mine loves to help in the kitchen too, and her hair is usually much messier than that!

[Elizabeth - Cake or Death?]

Oh, yum! Peach sounds amazing. Apple was good, but I feel like I would have enjoyed juicy peaches even better. :)

[Katrina]

What a lot of fun pictures and I have to say, although I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have noticed had you not pointed it out, but your fridge looks just like mine (yay!), even down to the missing kids thingy from school (well, except mine have my kids on it! ha) and your shelves, same shelves here! I feel relieved to know this kind of thing and you are better at documenting YOU than I am, because I try to crop all I can out of my photos!
Cute little helper and great looking turnovers! I need to stop seeing other's turnovers, especially days after TWD and I don't have any more of those to go take a snitch of. Sigh. I should look at next week's recipe sometime soon, huh.
Great post, Jayne!