Pear and Raspberry Turnovers

I made these turnovers back in December, but had my month all planned out blog-wise – for a change – so here I am posting the recipe now! It’s a really simple one that takes only a few steps and is done in a jiffy.

Back in December 2013, I also made turnovers, but those were the more traditional apple turnovers. For some reason I felt the need to make turnovers again (probably because they are delicious), but I wanted to try something different than the usual apple. Pear came to mind straight away, and I always love pear in combination with some red fruit, so I settled on raspberry quite quickly too. Add a little bit of ground ginger and wrap it all in some puff pastry, and you’ve got yourselves some delicious turnovers!

You’ll need… (for 10 turnovers)

• 3 pears
• 100 g raspberries (I used frozen ones)
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon lemon juice
• ½ tablespoon cornstarch
• 10 leaves of puff pastry (in the Netherlands puff pastry comes in the right size for these turnovers if you buy them in the supermarket)
• 1 egg
• some more sugar to sprinkle over the turnovers
• baking tray
• parchment paper
• and an oven, of course! These turnovers need to be baked at 200 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!

So, let’s get baking!

1. Prepare the filling Peel and core the pears, and slice them into little cubes. Put them in a bowl and add the (defrosted) raspberries, sugar, ginger, lemon juice and cornstarch. Mix it all together, and drain the excess liquid by taking the mixture through a sieve. You probably don’t have to do this with fresh strawberries, but if you use frozen ones I recommend doing it, since otherwise you’ll end up with quite soggy turnovers.

2. Put the stuff in the stuff Now, it’s time to bring in the puff pastry. Put some of the filling on one half of a pastry leaf, but leave a little room at the edges. Brush some of the egg on these edges (it works as glue, basically). Then fold the pastry closed diagonally. Press the edges down a bit with a fork. Do this for all ten of the pastry leaves.

3. Brush egg on the turnovers and sprinkle sugar on them You’ve got ten turnovers now, but before you put them in the oven there’s one step left! Put all of the turnovers on your baking tray (which should be lined with parchment paper) if you hadn’t done so yet. You’ve now got to brush some more of the egg onto the top sides of the turnovers, so that they’re nicely covered. Then sprinkle some sugar onto the turnovers. It’ll make them nice and crispy!

4. Bake ’em! All that’s left to do now is to put the baking tray with your turnovers into the oven and bake them for 25 to 30 minutes. Take them out of the oven when they’re done and let them cool for a little bit. They’re really good while still warm, so I recommend trying them! While they will last for one or two days, they’re definitely at their best on the day you’ve made them, so I wouldn’t bake these in advance.

Enjoy your pear and raspberry turnovers!