It’s been a while, so I thought I’d break us in gently with a nice, simple turnover.

We’ve been through a lot you and I.

We’ve made good things and bad things, sown stuff and grown stuff, been places and filled our faces. I feel sad that I’ve not been sharing, but there are times when the days are just so short and the daylight too weak for me to be inspired to cook and photograph other than for my work. It’s at these times that the distance grows between new recipes.

There’s another, more exciting, reason why things may continue to be quiet in January: We are getting the fabled ‘new kitchen’. I know the 2 weeks that the fitter promised will most likely turn to 3…or 4 weeks, so it may well be nearly February before I am back in business, literally. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen and it feels that it’s in use almost constantly so it’s going to be an interesting time. We will be eating out a lot, microwaving and cooking on a camp stove.

We’ll get through it with the excitement that we will have a spangly new kitchen at the end of it all. Maybe I’ll write updates on here as the work progresses, to keep you in the loop. We’ve been making do with our current kitchen since we moved in 10 years ago so it will be so nice to have something that’s brand new. I might even try and keep this one a bit cleaner.

So today, whilst dreaming of my new, clean stove and feeling thoroughly bored of mince pies and their evil candied peel and raisin pips, I made apple turnovers.

I used the last of Grandad’s cookers and a couple of Pink Lady apples. I always use half cooking apples and half eaters for pies and pastries because the Bramley’s make a good ‘sauce’ and the eaters give you a bit of form and texture. I add a little cornflour to keep the filling from going too runny. I also sometimes add cinnamon and sultanas, because it feels like you should do things like that at this time of year.

As always my aim is to make life simple and use everything I have available to me (as well as make things dang tasty) so this is designed to use a pack of ready-rolled puff pastry with no waste. Hence you simply slice the pastry into 6 equal squares. I had ideas of making teeny-tiny-turnovers but I seem unable to make anything delicate and small: A pâtissier I am not.

When it comes to how much filling to add, do you see how much I have put in here?

Well, that’s too much.

I tried to fold the first one over and it squidged all over the place.

Not that a bit of squidging is a bad thing. I don’t mind a bit of apple seepage. It all adds to the rustic homemade-ness. I removed a teaspoonful from the rest and inserted said teaspoonful into my mouth.

The following amount of leaking is within my turnover tolerance limits:

At this point I brush them with egg and dust with icing sugar which gives them a golden glaze.

Then I have a tendency to drizzle a load of vanilla icing over the top. Just to make sure everyone gets their hands good and sticky.

Serve, randomly, on a chair by a window, catching the last rays of light on a grey December day.

It’s good to be back.

Things{we}make Apple Turnovers

I hesitate to call this a recipe really, it’s more of an assembly job but it makes me feel useful and motherly to have a warm apple turnover for my offspring when he arrives home cold and hungry after a day at school.

1 Sheet of Jus-Rol All Butter Puff Pastry*
2 Bramley Cooking Apples – medium sized
2 Eating Apples – Braeburn or Pink Lady
1 Handful of Sultanas and a pinch of cinnamon (optional)
2 teaspoons of cornflour
½ Cup (around 80-90g) Golden Caster or Soft Brown Sugar
1 Egg beaten with a spoonful of milk
Icing Sugar
Vanilla Extract

Peel and dice the apples and put them in a pan with a tablespoon of water.
Put the lid on and shake occasionally until the apples start to break down.
Add ½ cup of caster sugar (more if your apples are sour) and stir
Stir the 2 teaspoons of cornflour into a splash of water then mix this into the apple.
Cook and stir until the apples are all softened and the sauce is thick.
Add a handful of sultanas and a pinch of cinnamon if you fancy then allow to cool.
Take the pastry out of the fridge 10-15 minutes before you need it.
I sometimes roll it a little bigger to get more room for manoeuvre.
Cut the dough down the middle and divide each strip into 3 squares.
Put a spoonful of apple on each one and brush round the edge with the egg and milk.
(any spare apple mix is good spooned over greek yoghurt)
Fold the pastry over, press down the edges with your fingers, then a fork.
Brush with egg all over and pop in the fridge for 20 minutes if you have time.
With a sharp knife stab 2-3 little slashes on the top.
Dust well with icing sugar (the egg and icing make a shiny glaze)
Bake at 200ºC for 12-15 minutes until they are dark golden.
Cool until barely warm.
Mix some icing sugar (around 1 cup) with a splash of water and ¼ teaspoon of vanilla.
Drizzle icing across the turnovers with a spoon.

*If you don’t have Jus-Rol pastry I think the sheet was around 660mm by 240mm, so my squares were around 120mm square but I rolled them a little bit bigger.