Mini Apple & Cinnamon Turnovers
Easy to make, with a lightly spiced apple filling encased in a delicious cream cheese pastry. These turnovers are the perfect bake for the autumn months.
Servings: 20 turnovers
Equipment
- 10cm diam plain round Cookie Cutter (see note a below)
Ingredients
For the Pastry
- 250 g plain flour (9oz)
- 200 g Butter (7oz) chilled
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
- 200 g full fat cream cheese (7oz)
- Icing sugar for rolling out
For the Apple Filling
- 5 medium Eating Apples (we used Braeburn & they weighed about 300g (10½oz) once thinly peeled & cored
- 2 tablespoon caster sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (see cook's tips)
- 2 teaspoon cornflour
- 25 g butter
To Finish the Turnovers
- milk to brush
- caster sugar to sprinkle
Instructions
To make the pastry
- Place 250g flour in a large mixing bowl. Add 200g chilled butter, cut into cubes and rub in until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
- Stir in 1 tablespoon sugar. Tip 200g of cream cheese onto a plate and cut into slices, then add to the bowl. Use a palette knife or the back of a dinner knife to cut repeatedly through the mixture, moving the bowl around as you do so. Gradually, the cream cheese will become coated in flour and will resemble coarse breadcrumbs again.
- Next, bring the dough together with your hands and form into a ball. Divide into 3 or 4 pieces and flatten. Wrap each piece and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Make the apple filling
- Peel, core and chop 5 eating apples. Place into a saucepan and add 3 tablespoons water, 2 tablespoons sugar and ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon. Heat gently so the sugar dissolves, then increase the heat sligtly and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are just beginning to soften.
- Mix 2 teaspoons cornflour with 1 tablespoon water until smooth, stir into the apple mixture and continue to cook stirring until the juices thicken. Then stir in 25g butter until melted. Set aside to cool.
To make the turnovers
- Remove one of the chilled pastry packs from the fridge. Allow it to warm up slightly for a couple of minutes. Unwrap the pastry and place onto a clean work surface liberally dusted with icing sugar. Roll out the pastry 4 - 6mm (⅙-¼in)thick.
- Cut out 10cm rounds of pastry with the cookie cutter. Ball up the off cuts, wrap in clingfilm and place back into the fridge. Place a teaspoon of the cold apple filling on one half of the pastry disc, leaving a border of about 5mm (¼in). Brush a little water around the edge of the pastry. Fold the pastry over to enclose the filling and press the edges together to seal.
- Carefully lift the filled pastry a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Gently press the tines of a fork into the pastry crust. Repeat until all the filling and pastry is used.
- Chill the turnovers for 20 minutes before baking. Preheat the oven to 280℃ (180℃ fan)/350°F/gas mark 6.
- Brush a little milk over the top of the apple turnovers and sprinkle with a little sugar. Use a sharp knife to make a hole in the top of the pastry for steam to escape. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown and the pastry is cooked through. Allow to cool on the baking tray. Enjoy either warm or cold!
Notes
Cook's Tips
Making the pastry :- Take care not to over work the pastry. If you like to roll your homemade pastry extra thin like me, do try to keep this cream cheese pastry a little thicker. This will allow the pastry to puff and create a lamination effect due to the high percentage of fat in this pastry.
- This pastry is very soft. If you have a lot of trouble rolling the pastry try rolling between 2 sheets of cling wrap or baking parchment and try keep the pastry as cold as possible
- The pastry can be made up to 2 days ahead of when required.
- The apple filling can also be made 2 days ahead of time.
- Assemble the pies upt to 24 hours in adavnce of baking
- Use a sweet short-crust ready-made pastry if you prefer. You will need about 600g 1lb 5oz) for the quantity I made here.
- I used used ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon for a subtle flavour. Use up to 1 teaspoon if you prefer a more defined cinnamon flavour.