Apple Turnover

My son LOVES the apple pie we buy in Mcdonalds. those little turnovers with the cinnamon apple inside. He could eat 2-3 in one sitting. So, for the sake of making some at home, I tried making these turnovers. He once asked me to do a WHOLE apple pie. (from scratch!) and he didn't even eat any of it. ( I guess my kids love to see me hard at work in the kitchen.. those little devils!)

The good news is...He loved it!! (hip hip hoooray!!!!)  and it's not as hard as you think. You just have to buy frozen puff pastry. It's available at SANTIS deli. click HERE for their store locations.

The one package of puff pastry I bought actually had about 8 pcs of square pastry you have to separate. I used only about 2 of these. (you have to put the rest back for future use, any puff pastry defrosted cannot be refrozen).

For this you'll need:

2- 3 apples, cored and sliced into cubes
1/3 cup of sugar
1 tbsp of lemon juice
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
frozen puff pastry (thawed as per package instructions)

this is what I bought

each pack contains 8 pcs... you can easily separate the layers

In a saucepan, combine all the ingredients (except the puff pastry) and stir till the apples are soft and the sauce is thick. The apples will give out some juice so don't worry if the dish looks dry at first.
cool. You can also put this in the fridge for a few minutes before you put it in the puff pastry. I tried doing it fresh from the stove and the juice went all runny and I had a hard time sealing the pastry.
 (check the sauce when you simmer the apples, it should become thick, if not, add a little more cornstarch... if it becomes too thick like paste, add some more water. It should have a fair amount of juice that is neither runny nor pasty)

this needs more cornstarch.... it should be THICKER

Preheat oven to 200C (400F)

place the puff pastry in a cookie sheet lined with wax paper , divide the sheet into 4 squares. Put the filling in the middle and fold over. (as I said, it would be best if the sauce was thicker), if it's not, the sauce will squish out of the pastry when you try to seal it. Try to fill the pastry as much as possible. and seal with a fork. (lower right pic)

The lining of the cookie sheet with was paper will help you put it in the oven and not move it after you filled it. It also helps with the sauce clean up if it happens to come out when cooking.

the apple in the lower pic has a runny sauce..

bake in a 200C oven for 25 minutes or till golden brown.

The puff pastry really did puff out a lot that when you bite into it, its came out really flaky (like a croissant actually). The only complaint is that I can't really FILL it to the brim. The puffing of the pastry adds air pockets and when you bite, feels like the pastry is not full. (in actuality, you tried to fill it )

What I loved about this is that I can make it anytime without the hassle of making my pastry from scratch. I just need to defrost pastry for 5 minutes at room temperature, do the filling and VIOLA! fresh turnovers!

Some recipes call for a glaze (consisting of sugar and milk)  but I opted to skip this step. We don't really like the added sugar. If you love apple pie... here is one recipe you can make and not worry about leftovers... there won't be ANY!