Firstly, I’d like to apologise for being totally slack the past couple of weeks and neglecting this little blog. I’ve just been so busy with my new job (yay!) and other personal things that are going on. I’ve been itching to get back into the kitchen and bake, but just haven’t had time. Today, I finally found a whole afternoon to myself and I’m back into the swing of things!

I’ve always been a bit hesitant in making pastry for the fear that I would miserably fail and end up with buttery cardboard, but for some strange reason, I woke up this morning wanting to give puff pastry a go and use it for something sweet. After perusing a few baking books, I realised I didn’t have enough butter in my fridge and I did not want to tackle the torrential downpour outside to visit the supermarket, so I had to seek out an alternative.

After flicking through ‘Let It Simmer’ by Australian Sean Moran, I found a wonderful recipe for apple blueberry turnovers and his recipe for the pastry is the easiest flaky pastry recipe ever. It only required whizzing most of the ingredients in a food processor, then letting it rest in the fridge for forty-five minutes. No messy incorporation of butter or multiple folds and turns of the pastry. Just whizz, chill, roll. Easy as that!

Happy baking!

Apple Blueberry Turnovers

Adapted from a recipe by Sean Moran in ‘Let It Simmer’.

2 large golden delicious or granny smith apples

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

100g caster sugar

pinch of salt

1½ tablespoons cornflour

squeeze of lemon juice

100g blueberries

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons milk

raw/demerara sugar, to sprinkle

cream cheese pastry

150g unsalted butter, diced and frozen for 30 minutes

125g cream cheese, chilled

250g plain flour, sifted

pinch of salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ cup iced water

1. For the pastry, blend the cream cheese, flour, salt and baking powder in a food processor until evenly grainy. Add the chilled butter and pulse for several seconds until the mixture is made of pea-sized lumps. Add the iced water and pulse for an extra second. Spoon the mixture into a plastic freezer or ziplock bag, then knead from outside the bag with your heels and knuckles until the dough holds together in one piece (it should feel slightly stretchy when pulled). Flatten the dough into a disc and refrigerate, in the plastic bag, for at least 45 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Peel, core and dice the apples (there should be roughly 300g of fruit). Toss with the cinnamon, caster sugar and salt. Add the blueberries and mix gently.
3. Roll the pastry out on a well-floured surface until 2mm thick. Cut rounds with a 13cm diameter pastry cutter (or simply use a cake plate or bowl). Re-roll the scraps and cut out more rounds.
4. Divide the filling between the pastry rounds, piling it on to one half and leaving a 1cm border around the edge. Paint the edge lightly with egg before folding pastry over to seal. Reserve the egg mix.
5. Place the turnovers onto a baking tray and refrigerate for 30 minutes before baking.
6. Mix the milk with the remaining egg and brush this over each turnover. Poke a few holes into each pastry to allow steam to vent. Sprinkle the raw/demerara sugar on top of each turnover. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the pastry is golden (the sauce will probably ooze out of the holes too). Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 15 or so.