Turnovers aren’t exactly a complicated dessert, but they’re easy and delicious. Now, if I was making them from scratch, they’d be a lot harder. Have you seen how people make puff pastry? Just watch a few episodes of the British Baking Show, you’ll see what I mean. It’s so much work!
I like turnovers. I don’t know that I’d label them one of my favorite desserts, but I definitely have fond memories of eating these when I was younger. I remember eating these with dad in the evening, in particular. So I decided, why not make some?
The recipe below uses tart cherries to make a filling. My partner calls cherry turnovers his favorite, so that’s where I started. He approves, so I’m doing something right! That said, you don’t have to stick with cherry, which is why I just labeled this post “fruit turnovers.” I made some with blueberries, and you could easily make some strawberry filling too. I’m planning to do some apple cinnamon as well, once apple season rolls back around. Chocolate cream, mousse, or even Nutella would work well too.
Making the turnovers is really easy. All you need is squares of puff pastry, which you can find at any grocery store, and some kind of filling. One tablespoon of filling (no more!) fills a single turnover. I then make a simple icing to go on top. For the cherry turnovers, it’s milk and powdered sugar. For the blueberry turnovers, I used lemon juice instead of milk for a tangier icing.
Customize them however you like! They bake up nicely. Let them cool a bit before icing them or it’ll melt and run, but that’s fine if that’s your thing.
Puff Pastry Fruit Turnovers
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
- Piping Bag (for icing)
- Spoon
- Sauce Pan
- Pastry Brush
Ingredients
For Cherry Filling
- 1 Cup Tart Cherries Pitted
- ¼ Cup Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Corn Starch
For Icing
- 1½ Cups Powdered Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Milk
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
For Pastry
- 1 Box Puff Pastry Thawed
- 1 Egg White Lightly Beaten
Instructions
Make Your Filling
- Mix sugar and corn starch together very well, until no lumps remain.
- Cook the cherries in a small saucepan on medium heat, until they soften and release their juices, about 5-10 minutes.
- Stir in the sugar/corn starch and mix, then simmer for 1-2 minutes.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool. Note that if you want a different fruit filling, you can disregard these instructions and make your own with a different fruit, or even use chocolate.
Make the Pastries
- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Cut your thawed puff pastry into squares. You should get four from each roll of dough, for eight total.
- Place a tablespoon of your filling in the center of each square. You will likely have leftover filling; that's fine. Don't over-stuff the pastries or it will leak out when baking.
- Brush the edges of each square with egg white, all the way around.
- Fold over the pastry in a diagonal, pressing lightly to seal the edges.
- Arrange on baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool before icing.
Make Icing
- Make a simple icing by mixing milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar until smooth. For a tangier icing, replace the milk with lemon juice and omit the vanilla.
- Drizzle, spoon, or otherwise pipe icing onto pastries, as much or as little as you prefer.