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Easy Pie Turnovers
About a million years ago, when I was in junior high, my semi-cool buddies and I would wander to the corner grocery after school and before the bus came. We would buy a snack or two so that we wouldn’t perish before we made it home. When you hit the same store every day at 3:25, you figure out what your favorites are and stick with it. Mine were an ice cream sandwich and a Hostess fruit filled turnover pie, a berry pie.
I’m still not tired of those goodies. But now we make our only little pies. They don’t take long. They’re easy. You can have them in the oven in ten minutes or less.
The secret to speed is a dough press and premade components: A just-add-water pie crust mix and premade pastry fillings. Then there are just four easy steps to making your pies: roll out the dough, add the filling, bake the pies, and glaze them.
Step 1—roll and cut the dough: Roll the dough out until it is no thicker than 1/4 inch—a little thinner is perfect. Using your dough press or a lid from a pan, cut the dough into six-inch circles. Step 2—Add the filling: For the filling, use either a fruit filling—a commercially canned one works fine—or pudding for a cream filling. We used Jell-O® brand pudding mixes in both instant and cooked varieties. Both worked. The cooked pudding seemed to set up a little more. The pudding is less likely to leak during baking if you cool it for an hour before using it. We made lemon turnovers, banana cream turnovers, and chocolate turnovers as well as fruit-filled turnovers. Place a dough circle on the dough press. The dough will follow the bowl-shaped contour of the press. Place 1/4 cup filling in the formed bowl. Brush the edges of the dough with a little water to help create a seal. Using the dough press, fold the dough over to make a turnover and press firmly to seal. (A good seal is necessary so that the filling does not leak out.) Repeat with the other circles.
Step 3—Bake the pies: Place the turnovers on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake in your preheated oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove the pan from the oven and remove the turnovers to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Step 4—Glaze the pies: Make a glaze from powdered sugar and water. One cup powdered sugar is about right for this size recipe. Add enough water, about 1 1/2 tablespoons, to reach drizzling consistency and brush the glaze on the tops of the turnovers while still warm.
What You’ll Need:
You’ve got to have a dough press. One side is your cutter to cut nice round circles. (You can use the cutter to cut pizza dough and the press to make calzones.) When you open the press, it forms a bowl to hold the dough and the filling. Close the press and it crimps the edges together.
You can use a pie recipe to make a filling or you can use a professional pastry filling. The professional pastry filling comes in a tube. Cut the corner and squeeze what you need onto the dough. No mess, no fuss. Fold the corner over and secure it with a clip and save the rest of the filling for another project.
