This recipe had my dad written all over it. He loves every and any type of turnover ever created. I thought I would take a stab at making homemade apple turnovers because I knew he would be in favor. I saw this recipe on a few different fellow bloggers' websites, (I think it was a recipe in some baking club called TWD--but I still haven't figured out what it stands for or what it actually involves:)). Anyway..These are worth the time it takes to make and roll out the dough, because they can be frozen for like ever and then just pulled out of the freezer and popped straight into the oven for fresh baked turnovers in a very short time. This recipe has to be made in stages, however. (you have to refridgerate the dough a couple times before cutting into rounds for the turnovers).
Ingredients:
DOUGH-
1 c sour cream
1/2 c sugar
4 c all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3 sticks unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (I used a little less)
FILLING-
1 T all purpose flour
1/2 c sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
4 large apples, peeled, cored, chopped
3 T cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tsp water (for egg wash)
Sugar, for dusting
FROSTING: optional
I mixed powdered sugar+milk+vanilla
Directions:
For dough:
Stir sour cream and sugar together; set aside
Whisk flour and salt together in large bowl. Toss butter bits into flour. Working with pastry blender, or a fork, cut the butter into the engredients until resembles course meal. (don't be too particular about this part-better to have uneven mix than overworked dough). Switch to a fork and gently stir in sour cream. Dough should be soft--this is the point where I had to change the recipe. My dough was far too crumbly and not moist enough, so I just added water by Tablespoon fulls until a moist dough was formed.
Divide dough in half. Put each half in a piece of plastic wrap and use the plastice to shape into a rectangle. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for @ least 1 hour or up to 2 days. (I left it in over night)
Remove one piece of dough from fridge and roll into a large rectangle. (@ least 9x13) I rolled it between two sheets of the plastice wrap dusted with flour. Fold the dough into thirds, like a business letter, wrap and refrigerate again. Repeat with 2nd piece of dough and refridgerate for @ least 2 hours or up to 1 day.
Filling:
Whisk flour, sugar, cinnamon together in large bowl. Add apples and toss to coat.
Preparing to bake:
Position racks to divide oven into thirds; preheat to 375.
Roll out 1 piece of dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. (make sure it's pretty thin). Cut 4 1/2 inch rounds with a large cutter (I used a small pot lid). Repeat with second piece of dough. I gathered the scraps of the dough back into a ball and refridgerated again to make use of the extra. Then I brought it back out later and make more turnovers from the leftover scraps.
Place 2 T of apples into center of each round; dot with butter. Moisten the edges of each round w/ a little water and fold in half, sealing edges with fork tines. Use the fork to poke steam holes in each turnover(I forgot to do this and they turned out fine). **This is the point where the turnovers can be individually wrapped in plastic, placed in an airtight freezing container and frozen for up to 2 months. When ready to bake simply add a few more minutes to the baking time if frozen. Otherwise..Place turnovers on a sprayed baking sheet. Bake them without frosting.
Brush the tops of turnovers with a little egg wash and sprinkle each one witha pinch of sugar. Bake for about 20 minutes. When done, the turnovers will be puffed, firm to touch, and golden. Gently transfer to racks to cool.
I opted to drizzle the turnovers with a simple powdered sugar frosting mixture of milk+powdered sugar+ vanilla and sprinkled with cinnamon.
