Tender cream cheese turnover pastry is wrapped around a Apple Cranberry filling to make these Apple Turnovers that are the ultimate fall dessert recipe. Serve these Apple Cranberry Turnovers with a bowl of vanilla ice cream.
Allow the butter and cream cheese to soften on the counter at least an hour before starting.
Separate the egg white and yolk, set the yolk aside and refrigerate the egg white until your ready to bake the turnovers.
With a hand mixer beat the softened butter and cream cheese together until creamy and smooth.
In a bowl with a fork beat the 2 tablespoons of the water into the egg yolk. Gradually add the egg yolk mixture to the cream cheese and butter, beat until combined.
Slowly add the flour about ⅓ at a time, beating with the mixer until the batter becomes too thick, switch to a wooden spoon to mix in the remaining flour.
Once the flour is completely mixed in scoop the pastry dough into a zip top bag or wrap in plastic wrap tightly, and chill for at least one hour so it can firm up. The dough can be chilled overnight if needed.
To Make the Apple Filling
Prep all of the filling ingredients and measure them out. Peel, core and dice or slice the apples. You can toss the apple pieces with Fruit Fresh or the orange juice to keep them from browning.
Rinse the cranberries if you are using fresh berries before adding them to the bowl.
Transfer the apple pieces, cranberries, sugars, and cinnamon to a large skillet.
Stir and cook the filling on medium until the apple pieces are tender, about 10-15 minutes.
Add the cornstarch to the skillet and cook until the juices have thickened. Once thickened remove from heat and set aside to cool before making the turnovers.
Making the turnovers
Use a fork to beat the reserved egg with with a tablespoon of water.
Prep the work surface with a dusting of flour and place the chilled dough down on the flour.
Roll the dough out on the floured surface to ⅛th to ¼ inch thickness. Using a 4 or 5 inch circle cookie cutter cut circles out of the turnover dough.
Move the dough circles to a cookies sheet covered with parchment paper or greased with butter.
Add a tablespoon of filling in the center of the circle of dough, dampen the edges with your finger dipped in water.
Gently fold and pull the dough over the filling and gently press the edges together.
Carefully press the tines of a fork into the edges to seal, being careful not to pierce the turnover dough.
Brush the tops of the turnovers with the egg white wash and sprinkle with some white sugar.
Bake the apple turnovers for 15-20 minutes in a preheated 375 F. degrees oven until golden brown.
Cool to room temperature before eating.
Store leftover turnovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The dough will soften from being refrigerated.
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Recipe Expert Tips
Makes 4 inches turnovers or hand pies.
If you have a little filling left over spoon it over a bowl of vanilla ice cream. This filling made a delicious topping for the ice cream.
The orange juice will help keep the apple slices from browning as you slice them. Or you can use a product like Fruit Fresh to keep them from browning while you are cutting them.
Today I am dicing the apples. You can also cut the apples into thin slices. I've done both and both ways work well.
You can use dried cranberries or fresh cranberries to make this recipe.
If you are worried about adding the dried corn starch to the filling you can mix it with a tablespoon of water before adding it.
Allow the turnovers to cool to room temperature before eating.