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Turnovers
Make some good pastry, roll it out to the thickness of a quarter of an inch, and stamp it in rounds from four to seven inches in diameter, lay fresh fruit and sugar, or jam, on one half of the pastry, moisten the edges, and turn the other half right over. Press the edges closely, ornament them in any way, and brush the turnovers with white of egg. Sprinkle a little powdered sugar over them, and bake on tins in a brisk oven. Serve on a dish covered with a neatly-folded napkin. Time to bake, fifteen to twenty minutes. Probable cost, 1d. each. Sufficient, one pound of pastry will make two dozen turnovers.
A bare-bones fruit turnover from the era when "good pastry" needed no further explanation. The instructions are sound; only the oven language and the stated yield need translating.
- "Brisk oven"Read this as a hot oven, roughly 400-425F. Fruit turnovers want high heat so the pastry sets and puffs before the juices soak through the base.
- Which pastryThe recipe says only "good pastry" and leaves the choice open. Rough puff or a bought all-butter puff sheet gives the lift the egg-white glaze and sugar are there to flatter; plain short crust gives a sturdier pasty-style turnover.
- The yield does not add upOne pound of pastry will not make two dozen turnovers at four to seven inches across and a quarter-inch thick. A pound rolled that thick yields roughly eight to ten four-inch rounds. Expect that, and scale up if you are feeding a crowd.
- Fresh fruit needs helpRaw apple, plum or rhubarb releases a great deal of liquid in twenty minutes. Toss the fruit with a teaspoon of cornflour or ground almonds along with the sugar, or cook it down first and cool it, or the seam will leak and the base will be sodden.
- Do not overfillTwo tablespoons of filling on a four-inch round, with a clear half-inch border. Jam in particular boils and forces the seal apart; a small steam vent cut in the top is worth the minor loss of neatness.
- SealingMoisten with water rather than egg. Press with a fork or crimp with the thumb, then chill the assembled turnovers 20 minutes before baking so the fat is firm going into the hot oven.
- Glaze orderEgg white then sugar, as written, gives a crisp frosted crust rather than the deep brown of a whole-egg wash. Use caster or granulated sugar; icing sugar dissolves and disappears.
- ServingThe folded napkin was presumably there to absorb steam and keep the pastry from sweating on the dish; a wire rack does the same job. Let the filling cool at least ten minutes — jam straight from the oven is scalding.
The turnover is often traced to the medieval baked pastry parcel, food designed to be carried and eaten in the hand, and it survived into the Victorian kitchen as a use for leftover trimmings after a pie or tart was made. It is a method rather than a dish: whatever was ripe or whatever jam was open went in. The costing is characteristic of the New Dictionary of Cookery, which priced dishes for readers running a household to a weekly budget, and it marks the turnover as everyday baking rather than company fare. The four-to-seven-inch range of the cutter reflects the same practicality.