HOLY-MOLY I am not an apple person but WOWZA! The extra step to make homemade caramel sauce was the perfect addition to the gooey cinnamon-nutmeg flavor of these apple treats. Of course, store bought or no sauce is okay, too. The brown sugar in this recipe gives the hint of caramel already. Delish either way! Dessert made easy!
Tip: if making Homemade Caramel Sauce, I suggest you do this first!
Spiced Caramel Apple Turnovers
Ingredients
For the turnovers:
- 1 large apple, diced into small chunks
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 3/4 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 egg
- 1 1/3 sheet semi-thawed puff pastry*
Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Take out puff pastry, keep folded and set aside.
- Peel and dice apples into small chunks.
- Place apples, spices, sugar, butter, cornstarch, lemon juice in a small pot over medium heat.
- Occasionally stirring, bring mixture to a boil allowing filling to thicken. 5 or so minutes.
- Once your mixture has thickened and you can see your brown sugar is gooey goodness coating the apples, remove from heat and set aside.
- Unfold both puff pastry (you should have 1/3 sheets) and cut down vertical center lines so you have 4 long vertical sheets.
- Place 2 unused sheets back in freezer. (see my notes later)
- Cut one line horizontally through the middle of each sheet so that you are left with 8 rectangles. A top and a bottom.
- Crack open egg into dish, beat with a fork to break. This is your “glue.”
- Spoon 1 heaping tablespoon neatly in a line down the center of one rectangle. using your finger dip in egg wash and run along each edge of your rectangle.
- Place an unused rectangle on top to cover your mixture. Using a fork, gently crimp by pressing down half way top layer down in bottom layer to seal edges.
- Brush egg wash over entire shell. Using a knife, make 3 tiny slits so this vents the turnover and doesn’t explode in your oven!
- Place on baking sheet and repeat next 3. If your surface gets too sticky, sprinkle with flour. If there is too much filling popping out of the side use less, if not enough use more.
- Bake 18-20 minutes.
- Let cool at least 10 minutes. Serve warm with my Caramel sauce over a bed of ice cream!
*I like a semi-thawed crust so it holds its’ shape while I crimp my edges. It is still a little firm and will thaw while assembling each turnover. I work pretty fast with these.
Side note- my pet peeve is wasting ingredients or mixtures. Use the any extra filling as a warm topping for ice cream! For a fun snack, you can use the left over puffy pastry for chocolate hazelnut bites (recipe to come)!
After baking, scroll down to leave a comment!
