blueberry apple turnovers

I’m all about the pie. This time, it takes the shape (roughly!) of a turnover. I opted for my favorite pie dough recipe instead of a store-bought puff pastry, because, well, homemade. Duh.

With all those apples I bought in Hood River last week, I needed to find ways to use them up. Enter, a turnover, sprinkled with lemon sugar. It’s all those little touches that make it so fun to bake.

It’s really easy to go crazy and eat everything in sight when you bake for a blog. I mean, look at all that goodness. Blueberries from my garden, frozen for just this kind of emergency.

I’ve seen – and even think I own a couple of – those little contraptions that help you fold the dough over and crimp the edges. But it’s more work getting them out and mama just ain’t got time for that. I used a Pampered Chef mini pie cutter. It came with a kit. But these cutters would be just as good, and the set includes 11 different sizes. I put them in the freezer to firm up a bit, then rolled them a little more. If the dough isn’t really thin enough, you get a mouthful of crust. I like my pie even. I’m weird like that. I want a good ratio of filling to crust. But hey, if you like more crust, by all means do that!

Take a look at those adorable scissors! I bought a set of garden scissors from Barebones Living. They have the most beautiful products. Drooling over here. Usually I drool over food – but in this case, it was stainless steel and bamboo. When you sign up for their mailing list, you get a coupon code to use on the site. Check them out! Even the box is beautiful.

What I also love about them, is their genuine giving nature. Go to their website and see how acts of compassion have fueled their passion to help those in need. It always amazes me that it’s the smaller companies that seem to give the most. They sent tents to people in Nepal after the devastating earthquakes. They sent people to help villagers in Africa farm the land, giving them the tools necessary to forge a better life. What a great reminder to be thankful for the things we have.

Back to the turnovers. I grated about a half of a honeycrisp apple into the blueberry filling. And if you know how big honeycrisps are, you can see you don’t need a lot. It’s just to add bulk to the filling. Plus apple goes great with just about every berry.

I imagine these freeze fairly well – but I never got to test that theory because my husband and daughter love pie. They can smell pie before I even bake it. They’re little pie-leeches.

Hope you enjoy the recipe and leave a comment if you happen to bake it and love it! Or, just leave a comment because I’m getting pretty lonely here.

Blueberry Apple Turnovers

• Author: heidi | fig+fork

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the dough:

• 4 cups | 20 ounces all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 7–8 tablespoons ice water
• whipping cream

For the filling:

• 4 cups frozen blueberries
• 3/4 cup grated apple, peeled and moisture pressed out
• 1/2 cup | 3.5 ounces sugar
• 4 tablespoons King Arthur Pie Filling Enhancer
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• lemon sugar for decoration (see note)

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Instructions

To make the dough:

1. Place flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse to mix. Add the chilled butter, pulsing until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add a couple tablespoons of ice water at a time until the dough comes together when pressed.
2. Divide dough into 3-4 pieces and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 60 minutes, overnight works well, too.
3. Remove one dough at a time to work with. Lightly flour a work surface and roll dough to 1/8″ thickness. Using a large circle cutter (like this), cut out as many circles as possible. Place cut dough on parchment lined baking sheet and place in freezer for about 10 minutes. Continue with remaining dough.

To make filling:

1. Combine sugar, spices, and pie enhancer in medium bowl and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, toss grated apple with blueberries and stir in lemon juice and melted butter.
3. Add dry mixture to fruit mix and thoroughly mix.

To assemble turnovers:

1. Remove dough from freezer. Continue rolling dough until it measures approximately 6 inches in diameter.
2. Brush one half edge of dough with heavy cream. Scoop 1/4 cup of filling into center of dough. Spread out to the edge where you brushed the cream.
3. Fold circle in half, pressing the edges together to lightly seal the dough.
4. Brush tops of turnovers with heavy cream; use the ends of a fork to seal the edges; sprinkle lemon sugar over tops of turnovers; make several slits to release steam.
5. Bake turnovers at 425 degrees for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350 and cook for an additional 35-45 minutes. The tops should be light brown and the filling will bubble out of the slits you made.
6. Let cool on wire rack for 20 minutes. Can be eaten warm, but even better the next day.

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Notes

To make lemon sugar: combine 4 tablespoons decorator’s sugar with zest of one lemon. Mix thoroughly and let sit while preparing dough and filling.

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Food for thought: Never say ‘no’ to pie. No matter what, wherever you are, diet-wise or whatever, you know what? You can always have a small piece of pie, and I like pie. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like pie. If somebody doesn’t like pie, I don’t trust them. I’ll bet you Vladimir Putin doesn’t like pie.
Such wise words from Al Roker. Keep on keepin’ on people.