M: Fruit Turnovers and An Announcement!

So I know it’s not strawberry season…yes, I know this. But when I walked into Whole Foods the other day to get groceries, this fantastic smell caught my attention. Low and behold, these beautiful and fragrant strawberries were right inside the front door. “Oh yes”, I said… “These will be mine”. And so they were.

Maybe it’s just my lame attempt to pretend it’s not 40 degrees outside…That it is, in actuality 80 degrees and sunny and at any given moment I can walk to my neighborhood pool and take a dip. Ok, I digress.

Back to these turnovers. So I wanted to use these little puppies in some type of simple baked goods recipe, and I came across this very simple fruit turnover recipe on Martha Stewart’s website. Yep, I love Martha.

This recipe is super easy – it calls for just a frozen puff pastry from your grocer, but if you wanted to make your own pastry, you can certainly do that. I didn’t have the time to make my own, so Pepperidge Farms it was!

These little gems turned out SO tasty – the strawberries were perfect, but any fruit would of course be fantastic. You could do frozen or fresh. As the website says, just add a little more sugar if you use frozen fruit. And, if you’re using a fall fruit – like pears or apples, then adding some cinnamon would be a great addition!

I think these would also be ideal served at some sort of get together, they are so simple and you could even cut them a little smaller and make them more bite-sized. I will say, they will go quickly – I’ve already eaten like 5 of them – yea…addicting. You could also freeze these things after you’ve assembled them until you’re ready to bake them up!

Ok, let’s do this…

Fruit Turnovers

from Martha Stewart

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp. cornstarch

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 lb. fresh or frozen fruit, cut into small pieces

Zest of 1 lemon

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

2 large egg yolks

Coarse sugar (optional)

In a medium bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add fruit and lemon zest and toss to coat. On a lightly floured work surface, roll each sheet of pastry into an 11-by-18-inch rectangle and cut into eight equal sized rectangles.

Place even amounts of the fruit filling lengthwise on one half of each rectangle, leaving about a 1/2-inch border around the edges. Combine 1 egg yolk with 1 teaspoon water. Brush border with egg wash. Fold dough over filling and press edges to seal well. I crimped the edges with the tongs of a fork just to double seal and make a prettier edge. With the tip of a sharp knife, cut vents into pastry. At this point, you can freeze your turnovers if you want.

After your frozen turnovers have thawed or with your freshly prepared pastry, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place desired number of frozen turnovers on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (These pastries WILL leak out, so you don’t want to put on a bare baking sheet) Combine 1 egg yolk with 1 teaspoon water and brush egg wash on top of turnovers and sprinkle with coarse sugar (if using). Bake until turnovers are deep golden brown and juices are bubbling, 14 to 17 minutes (mine baked for 14 minutes – I have a hot oven), rotating sheet halfway through.

Enjoy!

Ok, and for the important part of this post. We will be making a very important announcement here at Itzy’s Kitchen in the next few days, so stay tuned!! I know, I teased you a little with the title, but I promise you’ll know very very soon =)

Happy Saturday!!