Cheating Tastes So Good

I had a peck of apples. I thought about pie, I really did, but crust scares the be-geebies out of me. I'm sure I could make it, I'm just not sure I could get it right the first, second, or third time. And I was just not feeling a 10-tries-to-get-it-perfect recipe tonight. So I cheated. I bought puff pastry and made these AMAZING apple turnovers instead.


Holy moly, I don't know if I'll ever even bother with pie after these bad boys. They were light and crispy, tart and sweet, so good I actually thought about not taking them to work to share. (But then I remembered I was supposed to be training for a marathon. I can see these really improving my time.) Nic and I rarely get really excited about sweets. We're more of savory people. But we're both in love with these. There probably won't be many more apple recipes on here in the near future. I might just dedicate all my apples to these. Seriously. SO GOOD. Make them immediately.

Apple Turnovers
Inspired by Williams-Sonoma (A kid's recipe, I might add, that started with "make sure a grown-up is nearby." Check.)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 large, TART apples (1 1/4 lbs.)
juice of 1 lime
1/3 cup granulated sugar+some for dusting
1 tbs. all-purpose flour+some for rolling pastry
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
14 oz. puff pastry, thawed
1 egg
1 tsp. water

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet (or two, mine's huge) with non-stick cooking spray.
-Squeeze lime into medium sauce pot. Peel, core, and cube apples and put in pot with lime to keep from browning.
-Stir in 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tbs. flour, and a pinch of salt to apples and lime juice.
-Cook apple mixture over medium heat, covered, for 5 minutes. Stir once or twice. Cook until the juices start to thicken into a syrupy liquid and the apples get a little bit softer. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
-Sprinkle flour on a work surface to roll out puff pastry. (Keep it in the fridge until the very last minute.) Sprinkle more flour on top of pastry and roll out until double in size. (My puff pastry came in one, large 14 oz. piece. To make this easier, I cut the pastry into four parts first, then rolled out each part individually until double in size.)
-Cut the puff pastry into eight even squares. They should be about 5-6 inches wide.
-Beat one egg with 1 tsp. water for egg wash.
-One by one assemble the turnovers on the baking sheet. Place the puff pastry on the sheet. Spoon about 1/3 cup of apple mixture onto one half of the square, not too close to the edge. (Don't over fill. Make sure you can actually turnover the dough.) Brush two edges of the pastry square with egg wash. Fold half the square over the filling to form a triangle. Use a fork to seal the edges. And repeat seven more times. (There might be a little extra apple filling.*)
-Brush all the turnovers with egg mixture and sprinkle lightly with sugar. Poke a hole in the top of each turnover with a paring knife.
-Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown, firm, and dry.
-Cool for 10 minutes.

Try not to eat them all before they cool.

*I used mine in a mini-apple crumb. Just top with oatmeal+brown sugar+butter mixture in a very small baking dish or souffle cup.

Peek-a-boo.