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Apple Turnovers
Sometimes served as a "sweet entree;" more suitable to put in place of pie; best for luncheon, pic-nic parties, and for sale; a favorite form of pastry everywhere.
Make the flaky pie paste with about 12 ounces of butter to a pound of flour, roll it out to a thin sheet and cut out flats nearly as large as saucers, with the lid of a baking powder can or similar cutter.
Place a good spoonful of dry stewed apple in the middle of each piece of paste and double over in half-moon shape. Press the two edges together and crimp them with the thumb and finger. When the the baking pan is full of the turnovers brush them over with egg and water and dredge granulated sugar on top. Bake slowly till they are crisp, glazed, and of a fine reddish brown color. These large sizes have generally to be cut in two. They contain more fruit and are better eating than when made small.
A working bakeshop formula rather than a home recipe: it assumes you can make flaky paste and stew apples down without being told. Two things decide the outcome — how dry the filling is and how the oven is managed.
- Dry stewed apple means dryThe filling should be a thick, spoonable apple compote with no free liquid at all — stewed apples cooked down until a spoon drawn through leaves a track. Any juice will boil, force the crimped seam apart and glue the turnover to the pan.
- The pasteTwelve ounces of butter to a pound of flour is 340 g to 450 g, a rich flaky (not full puff) paste. Keep the butter in visible flakes, work cold, and rest the rolled sheet before cutting so it does not shrink.
- Cutter size"Nearly as large as saucers" with the lid of a baking powder can as the improvised cutter suggests rounds of something like four inches across; the exact size, and so the yield from a pound of flour, depends on the can and on how thin the paste is rolled.
- "Bake slowly" is relative"Bake slowly" -- The original gives no temperature; it asks for slow baking until the pastry is crisp, glazed and a fine reddish brown. That is the test to work to, in a moderate oven, rather than any figure that can be read off the text.
- Sealing and ventingPress the edges with a little water before crimping, then cut one or two short slits in the top. The original relies on the crimp alone; a vent keeps steam from lifting the seam.
- Egg wash and sugarEgg beaten with a little water, brushed thinly, then granulated sugar dredged over; apply the sugar immediately after the wash so it sticks. Wash and sugar together give the glazed finish described.
- Chill before bakingNot in the original, but useful: fifteen to twenty minutes in the refrigerator once the pan is full keeps the butter firm and improves the lift.
- ServingThe note that the large sizes "have generally to be cut in two" reads as a serving instruction: one large turnover halved serves two at luncheon. They are best the day they are baked.
Turnovers belong to the old European family of hand pies — pastry folded over a filling so it can be eaten without a plate — and the English name appears simply to describe turning the paste over on itself. This entry is plainly written with trade in mind: it mentions luncheon, pic-nic parties and sale, and says the large size holds more fruit and is better eating. The improvised cutter — the lid of a baking powder can — points the same way, toward a practical shop instruction rather than a genteel one. The passing mention of the "sweet entree," the formal dining-room course, set against the advice to put turnovers in place of pie, suggests the same working orientation.