Learn how to make perfect homemade turnovers with puff pastry. With a delicious apple and pear filling, these flaky turnovers with a cinnamon-spiced pear and apple filling are the perfect Autumn treat. With tips to prevent soggy puff pastry and step-by-step recipe instructions.
(This recipe was first published in June 2020 and has been updated)
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These homemade apple and pear turnovers are so much better than store-bought! They are made with a cinnamon-spiced apple and pear filling and with store-bought puff pastry, making this one of the easiest apple-based treats you’d ever have! I love to make these for a snack as they come together so quickly and without much effort. These would make a fantastic low-effort dessert for a Thanksgiving party as well. If you are looking for more apple-based dessert ideas to use up your apple stash this season, try out my recipe for apple jam or apple bundt cake too.
How to prevent turnovers from getting soggy?
Don’t you just hate soggy bottoms in pies and puff pastry? This happens very often due to a few common mistakes made while baking with pastry. If your filling is still hot while you wrap it in puff pastry, the steam releasing from within will make the puff pastry soggy and prevent it from crisping up. Also, if you filling has lots of liquid, the filling will release moisture while it bakes in the oven – making the puff pastry damp and soggy.
To avoid this from happening, make sure you are handling the filling only after it has cooled down. In this recipe, we add a little flour to the cooked apples and pears – which reduces the liquid content in the filling, allowing the buttery, flaky puff pastry to shine!
List of Ingredients
For this recipe, we will need the following ingredients:
- Apples
- Pears
- Puff pastry
- Lemon zest
- Brown Sugar
- Butter
- Raw sugar (for sprinkling over the puff pastry)
- Flour
- Egg - For the egg wash. This can be substituted with milk + water.
Step by step instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) and ensure the puff pastry is cooling in the fridge. Start by peeling, coring and chopping the apples and pears. Keep aside. In a saucepan, heat the butter.
Once the butter melts, add the chopped apples and pears. Mix well and add the cinnamon powder, brown sugar, lemon zest, and mix well.
Continue cooking until the apples and pears have softened (around 8 minutes). Then turn off the heat, add the flour and mix well.
The fruit mixture will become thick like below. Let this mixture cool down before you assemble the turnovers.
To assemble the turnovers, cut out squares from the puff pastry sheets. Ensure that the puff pastry is cold and the filling has cooled down before you handle them. Place around 2 tablespoons of the filling in the center of the puff pastry square. Then using a pastry brush, brush some egg wash around the filling. This is an optional step, you can also use a mixture of milk and water for the wash.
Fold the puff pastry squares into a triangle, and using a fork, seal together the edges firmly. Using a knife, score the surface of the puff pastry, so that there is a vent for the steam in the filling to escape.
Finally, brush over some of the egg wash, sprinkle some raw sugar over the tops. Bake in the preheated oven at 350 F for 15 minutes, until the puff pastry is golden.
Apple and Pear Turnovers
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Oven
Ingredients
- 2 Apples Use honeycrisp or Gala or any sweet apple variety
- 2 Pears
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon powder
- 1 cup Light brown sugar
- 1 Lemon for lemon zest
- ⅓ cup all purpose flour
- 2 sheets Puff Pastry, pre-rolled
- 1 Tablespoon Raw cane sugar To sprinkly over the puff pastry
- 1 egg for the egg wash - optionally, replace with milk and water
Instructions
- Start by peeling, coring and chopping the apples and pears.
- In a saucepan, heat the butter until it melts. Add the chopped apples and pears, followed by the cinnamon, brown sugar and lemon zest.
- Cook on medium heat, until the apples are softened, around 7-8 minutes.
- Add the flour and mix well. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool down completely.
- Prepare the puff pastry sheets -roll the out and cut into 8 squares.
- Place 2 tablespoons of the filling in the center of each rolled sheet of puff pastry. Using a brush, brush some fo the egg wash around the filling.
- Fold each square into a triangle, using a fork to seal together the edges of the pastry.
- Brush some of the egg wash on the top of the puff pastry, sprinkle some of the raw cane sugar over the puff pastry and transfer toa baking sheet lined with aluminum foil or baking paper.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 15 minutes, until the puff pastry is crispy and golden.
- Let the turnovers cool and serve.