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Raspberry Turnovers
Cut circles of puff or flaky paste three inches in diameter, having the paste not more than one-eighth of an inch thick. Moisten half the edge of the circle with cold water and in the center lay a teaspoon of thick raspberry preserve. Fold one half of the circle over the other, making edges meet. Press closely and mark with a fork dipped in flour. Brush with beaten egg, prick, and chill before placing in the oven. Dust with granulated sugar before serving. If desired, decorate the top of each with a single preserved berry or a candied cherry. Other fruit may be used in the same way.
BEVERAGES
Punches)
A clear, workable recipe that omits only one thing a modern cook needs: the oven. Everything else translates directly to a sheet of thawed puff pastry.
- The missing oven temperatureThe original assumes you know puff paste wants a hot oven. Bake at 425F until the pastry is puffed and deep golden, roughly 15-20 minutes for three-inch turnovers. A cooler oven melts the butter out before the layers can lift, and the pastry goes greasy rather than flaky.
- Chilling is the hingeThe instruction to chill before baking is the one step people skip and the one that decides the result. Twenty to thirty minutes in the refrigerator, or ten in the freezer, firms the butter so it steams the layers apart in the oven instead of leaking out.
- Puff or flaky pasteFlaky paste in books of this sort is generally a rough-puff with fewer turns and less fat than full puff paste, though the terms are used loosely from book to book. Commercial all-butter puff pastry, rolled to the specified one-eighth inch, stands in for either.
- A teaspoon is not stinginessIt looks meagre in a three-inch circle, but preserve boils and expands. Overfilling is why turnovers split at the seam and weld themselves to the pan. Use thick preserve, not jelly or a loose freezer jam.
- Water, then pressureMoistening only half the edge is deliberate: that is the half the fold lands on. Press firmly with the fingers before crimping with the floured fork, or the seam opens as the pastry rises.
- Prick, and mean itThe vents are what keep the turnover from bursting. Two or three small cuts through the top layer only, after the egg wash, are enough.
- Sugar at the endThe dusting is done after baking, not before, which keeps the granulated sugar from caramelising and burning. If you prefer a crackled top, use coarse sugar over the egg wash instead and skip the finishing dust.
- YieldA sheet of commercial puff pastry (packages run roughly 14 to 17 ounces) rolled thin gives roughly a dozen three-inch circles. Bake on parchment with an inch between them.
- Stray textThe words "BEVERAGES Punches" at the end are a running head or index fragment from the original printing, not part of the recipe.
Turnovers of this kind sit at the thrifty end of the pastry chapter, the recipe specifying circles cut from rolled paste. The Butterick book was published by the pattern company for a readership of home dressmakers and housekeepers. Raspberry preserve is the filling named here, in an era when summer fruit was put up in quantity and a well-stocked pantry meant rows of sealed jars, so the line "other fruit may be used in the same way" is less a suggestion than an acknowledgement of whatever the household happened to have. The decorative single berry or candied cherry belongs to the same period taste that gave American cookery its glacé fruit garnishes and pressed-fork edging, an attempt to make an economy dish look deliberate on the plate.