I originally published this recipe in 2013 and have since added new photos, a few more success tips, and have given the option for homemade dough. Have you ever tried making apple turnovers before? If not, let me encourage you. They’re much easier than a full apple pie, but with all the same apple and cinnamon goodness. These make a great dessert, or an indulgent breakfast—you can prep them ahead and bake fresh in the morning! Consider these the fall version of fresh berry turnovers.
Why You’ll Love These Caramel Apple Turnovers, Too:
Like apple hand pies, but with a crispy, airy rough puff pastry dough instead of pie crust An extra special breakfast treat, perfect for crisp fall mornings Can use homemade or store-bought puff pastry dough Easy 5-ingredient filling Delicious for dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce
Start With the Puff Pastry
You can absolutely use store-bought puff pastry dough. Be sure to thaw it before using. I encourage you, however, to try from-scratch puff pastry dough. I use a simpler “rough puff” method to make it. Hundreds of readers have tried it and have been pleasantly surprised with its ease. If you have a few hours (that can be broken up over a couple days!), try the homemade dough. It’s so flaky, and so worth it. 😉 I use it so often that I created a separate page for rough puff pastry with a video tutorial just in case you want it for other recipes that call for it—like butternut squash tart, cinnamon palmiers, cranberry brie puff pastry tarts, savory mushroom tarts, or even this honey pear tart. Make the rough puff pastry dough ahead of time, because it needs to chill for a while before it’s ready to use in a recipe. I always make it the day before.
5-Ingredient Apple Filling for Turnovers
You’ll cook down the apples with the other ingredients on the stove. In just a few minutes, the apples will soften, and the juices will transform into a gooey, cinnamon-y sauce. YUM. Set the filling aside to slightly cool while you roll out your puff pastry dough. This shortcut method for making puff pastry dough—known as “rough puff”—has become popular with professional and home bakers alike because it produces bakery-style puff pastry with oodles of buttery, flaky layers. Unlike breakfast pastries dough, this dough does not require any yeast; and unlike croissants and traditional puff pastry, this dough does not require laminating with a separate layer of butter. Rather, the layers and crisp flakiness come from the particular mixing and folding methods. This recipe simply relies on large pieces of cold butter (lots of it), cold water, and folding. You’re going to carefully work cold butter into your dry ingredients, hydrate with ice-cold water, and then fold and flatten the dough many times to create countless flaky layers. The dough comes together with just 5 ingredients: flour, sugar, salt, cold butter, and cold water.
How to Assemble Apple Turnovers
Once you have your store-bought dough thawed, or the homemade dough refrigerated (after the second refrigeration as detailed in the rough puff pastry post), it’s time to shape it. For the homemade dough, roll it into a square that’s about 12×12 inches in size. Cut 9 squares, about 4×4 inches each. I always use a pizza cutter to do this. For the store-bought dough, cut each sheet into 4 squares. Spoon the filling into the center of each square. Fold one corner diagonally across over top of the filling, to make a triangle. Crimp the edges with a fork to seal in the filling. At this point, I strongly recommend refrigerating the shaped pastries for 15 minutes to help them hold shape in the oven. Brush the chilled pastries with egg wash, so that they bake up beautiful and shiny. Be sure to cut a couple small vents into the top, so steam can escape and allow the pastry dough to puff up perfectly. Don’t be surprised if some of the filling’s juices seep out on the baking sheet—that’s normal and expected. Drizzle each with caramel sauce as the topping. You can reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon to make regular caramel sauce, or stick with 1 teaspoon for the salted variety. Instead of caramel, you could lightly dust them with confectioners’ sugar, drizzle with vanilla icing, or enjoy plain. Here are the turnovers made with store-bought puff pastry. If you’re short on time, they’re extremely quick and easy this way!
More Caramel Apple Treats
Salted Caramel Apple Pie Apple Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie Homemade Caramel Apples Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars
