I love cheating, well sometimes. By the way, I am specifically referring to cheating in the culinary sense - for today's gorgeous blueberry turnovers, I used store-bought puff pastry sheets which I think is totally fine as making puff pastry from scratch may be an arduous and not always rewarding task since puff pastry can be rather finicky. But, if you have the time and the inclination, do check out my photo tutorial for the homemade version. These turnovers were very popular by the way and I was just so delighted at the fact that they took such a short time to make, can you tell that this was actually my first time baking with store-bought puff pastry? Will I do it again? Definitely - the payoff is just way better than the 'work' involved.
If you are a beginner in baking, I think these turnovers will be right up your alley. The filling was a simple affair where I dressed fresh blueberries with some sugar, a splash of lemon juice and some lemon zest - the sweet and tart filling was perfectly complemented by the buttery and flaky pastry layers. The pastry sheets I used were already cut into squares so it was just a matter of assembling the turnovers. All you need for these pretty little turnovers are blueberries, lemons, sugar and of course puff pastry sheets - sounds so easy right? Of course, if you prefer, you can substitute the blueberries with apples, nectarines, pears and the like. Your guests will just love these pretty turnovers (that took you almost no time to make assemble) and be duly impressed which will be especially true if you omit the store-bought part :O.
Note from Jen:
When you brush eggwash on top of the puff pastry turnovers, do not brush the sides of the turnovers (since the egg acts as a glue) since this will impede the full rising of the pastry layers while in the oven.
If your pastry sheets require cutting, remember to use a very sharp knife as a blunt knife will effectively smash the layers of the pastry together and prevent full rising.
Makes 10 turnovers
Ingredients:
10 puff pastry squares (about 5x5 inches)
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
2 tsps sugar or to taste (note that I did not want my filling to be overly sweet so please adjust according to what you prefer)
1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp of water for eggwash
Method:
Firstly, pre-heat your oven to about 180 C (356 F) and prepare a tray for baking, lined with baking paper or foil (lightly grease the sheet with some butter).
Mix the blueberries together with the lemon juice, zest and sugar. Taste one of the berries and if not sweet enough, add more sugar.
Now, it's time for the assembly. Lay one piece of puff pastry sheet flat on your work top. Place about 4-5 blueberries on the sheet towards your right - remember to leave space for sealing the pastry.
Brush the edges of the pastry sheet with the eggwash and fold the sheet over to cover the blueberries while gently pressing down at the edges. With the edge of a fork, seal the edges again, making indentations as you press down. Repeat with the remaining squares.
Lightly slice the tops of the turnovers with a sharp knife. Brush the tops with eggwash.
Bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until the pastries turn a lovely golden hue. You can serve these hot out of the oven or cool. The pastry should stay crispy at least for 1 day.
Short-cut Blueberry Turnovers Recipe (Puff Pastry)
Thursday, August 25, 2011 | Labels: Baking, Desserts, Western |
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Based on a work at www.smokywok.com.
5 comments:
Me too! Always there is frozen puff pastry in my freezer :D
A nice keeper for treating our guests even we run out of time : ) .
This isn't cheating at all, it's using your initiative :p so what was it like working in a hedge fund? How often were you able to bake?
This looks great, its nice to make these when you don't have time to spend in the kitchen. really looks nice :)
haha, that's a good way of putting it but yeah making your own puff pastry really takes a lot of time..well it was fun as usual, pros and cons...I think I probably baked once in 6 mths or something haha
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