Recipe: Pear & Apple Turnovers
Eat these still warm from the oven, jammy fruit, almost too hot, oozing from the cracks as you take a bite. A spoonful of cold clotted cream adds just the right contrast to the syrupy apple and a cup of tea completes the moment of pure bliss…
When I think about my favourite parts of the day, food nearly always plays a role. Saturday breakfasts in bed – a perfectly cooked poached egg served with tea and a couple of hours of peace. Family suppers around the table, catching up on each others’ day over a bowl of something warming and restorative. Even lunches at work; microwaved leftovers which often taste even better the next day, enjoyed with a few pages of a good book or a quick catch up with a friend.
Even as a child, coming home after school was one of my favourite times of day – not just because it was good to have finished lessons but because I would come home to a cup of tea and a snack. Sometimes rice cakes and Marmite, fig rolls, ginger cake or once in a while, apple turnovers.
What a treat! What an indulgence! What little miracles these beautiful pillows of buttery puff and jammy apple were!
As a student, living away from home for the first time, I still remember the wonderful day when, shopping in Kwik Save for the usual basics of pasta, cardboard sliced white and tinned tuna, I discovered a pack of apple turnovers for the very reasonable price of 99p! It seemed almost inconceivable that such luxury could be possible for under £1…
Needless to say, this recipe beats the lot. Homemade, eaten still warm from the oven with a mug of steaming tea and if you’re feeling particularly decadent, a dollop of cream, of either the iced or clotted variety.
The recipe makes 6. I recommend starting with a double batch…
- 2 apples
- 2 pears
- 1 tbs lemon juice
- 1 tbs flour
- 3 tbs granulated sugar
- 3 tbs water
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 sheet of ready-made puff pastry
- 1 tbs light brown sugar
- Line a couple of baking trays with greaseproof paper
- Peel and core the apples and pears and chop into cubes of approximately 1.5cm
- Put the fruit into a pan with the lemon juice, water, flour, sugar and cinnamon and mix together
- Pre-heat your oven to 180 C (fan)
- Heat for 5 minutes, stirring until the juices are syrupy
- Leave to cool
- Lay out the puff pastry and cut into 6 squares
- Dollop a spoonful of fruit on one diagonal half of each square and then fold over the other side of the pastry and seal the edges with a fork.
- Use the fork to pierce a few holes in the top of the turnovers and then place them on the baking trays
- Put in the oven and cook for 20 minutes, until crisp and golden
- Sprinkle with light brown sugar once out of the oven
- The pastry is best handled while still cold from the fridge. Once it starts to warm, it becomes much gooier (that's a word!) and harder (or in fact, much softer) to work with.
