The Unintentional Inside Out Blueberry Turnovers

Although Trevor and I both love essentially every type of dessert we have ever encountered, when it comes to our ultimate preferences, I would describe Trevor’s and my dessert tastes in opposing seasons.

I am a winter dessert eater. The desserts from this category would never fail to comfort you while snow collected outside your window. Descriptors related to this would be “rich”, “dark”, “heavy” and common ingredients would include chocolate (the darker the better), caramel, cream and daunting amounts of butter and sugar.

Trevor is a summer dessert eater. The desserts in this category are best eaten with all the windows open, perhaps with a puppy nearby, sunbathing on the carpet. His descriptors would be “light”, “tangy”, “fresh” and his most common ingredients would be fruit (especially citrus or berries), coconut and some sort of flakey and/or fluffy pastry.

After all this raw cookie dough, oreos, heavy cream, butter sauce… I figured it was time I did Trevor a solid and let him pick something. Summer just started afterall.

He picked blueberry turnovers.

Smart man.

Unfortunately things started to go a little awry after that. Well not quite then. My pie dough came out great (it always does ever since I read The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum). But I had the wrong size cookie cutter. Mine was 3 inches instead of the recommended 3 1/2. Also, the original recipe I was working off of was a deep fried turnover and I wanted baked turnovers.

The combination of a smaller dough circle (also meaning less filling could fit in the first place) and baking them (causing the filling to have time to really bubble and ooze out) resulted in… blueberry flavoured pie crust.

Not exactly the little dough pockets bursting with blueberry and mascarpone flavour that I was going for. At least I have a good flake on my pie crust. Look at those layers!

Then Trevor came up with the idea of making a little blueberry dipping sauce to go with them. He came up with the idea too late for me to make the sauce before I exposed my dough-heavy disaster to all my coworkers, but I made some later that night for the leftovers.

It resulted in a messier, super blueberryish (is that a word? Eh, I don’t really care) inside out turnover.

Trevor’s a smart man indeed. No wonder I love that guy.

This recipe consists of two things, a failed Blueberry and Mascarpone Turnover recipe and a Blueberry Sauce that saved the day. Ultimately I would probably recommend just making Giada De Laurentiis’ original recipe as opposed to my failed version combined with sauce, (who really wants to do more steps than necessary?) but if you like things a little saucy feel free to partake in my accidental dish! Or just make Giada’s and add my sauce at the end. That may be the best idea out of the three.

Blueberry and Mascarpone Turnovers

A modified Turnover recipe from Giada De Laurentiis
Pie Crust Recipe from the wonderful book The Pie and Pastry Bible
(I <3 Rose Levy Beranbaum)

Turnover Filling

• 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/3 cup fresh or frozen and thawed blueberries

Pie Crust

• 320 g pastry flour (can be substituted with two-thirds (214 g) all-purpose and one-third (106 g) cake)
• 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 14 tablespoons butter
• 5-7 tablespoons ice-cold water
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Egg Wash

• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon milk

Additionally,

• 1 egg, beaten for sealing turnovers

Directions

Special equipment: a 3 inch round cookie cutter

1. Pie Crust: Place flour, salt and baking powder in a large freezer bag and place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes
2. Separate butter into 3/4 inch cubes. Divide into 9 and 5 tablespoons and wrap each group in plastic wrap. Place the larger amount of butter in the refrigerator and the smaller amount in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.
3. Empty dry ingredients into a food processor with a blade attachment. Pulse for a few seconds to blend.
4. Add refrigerated butter to processor, blending for about 20 seconds, or until mixture resembles a coarse meal.
5. Add frozen butter to processor, pulsing until butter is about the size of peas. (You may need to use a fork or spoon to check the bottom of the mixture for the butter pieces)
6. Add 5 tbsp of water and cider vinegar to processor. Pulse 6 times. Check dough consistency by pinching dough between your fingers. Dough should hold together when pinched but only then.
7. If dough does not hold together, add 1 more tbsp. of water, pulse 3 times and recheck dough. Repeat if necessary.
8. Empty dough back into the freezer bag, and holding each side of the opening with your fingers (to keep dough from spilling while still keeping bag open) knead the dough with the heels of your hands until dough comes together, and seems slightly stretchy in consistency.
9. If making dough into 2 pie crusts, separate dough into two discs, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. If making turnovers, separating dough is not necessary, although it may make it easier to roll out later if a large workspace is not available.
10. When ready to use dough, let sit at room temperature for approximately 10 minutes before rolling out.
11. Turnover Filling and Assembly: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
12. In a small bowl, mix together the cheese, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and lemon zest until smooth. Stir in the blueberries.
13. Using a 3 inch round cookie cutter, cut the pie dough into 12-14 circles. Place the dough on the prepared baking sheet. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the edges of the dough with beaten egg. Place about 1 teaspoon of the cheese mixture in the center of the dough. Fold the dough in half to enclose the filling and pinch the edges to seal. Using the tines of a fork, gently crimp the sealed edges. Use tines of fork to prick one set of holes in the top of the turnover. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
14. Whisk together remaining egg and milk and brush egg wash over turnovers. Sprinkle with sugar. (I love using turbinado sugar for the outside for some extra crunch)
15. Bake turnovers in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Turnover-Saving Blueberry Sauce

My ingredient amounts are small because I only had a few turnovers leftover. I would generally recommend making at least twice the amount.

Ingredients

• 1 cup blueberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1-4 tablespoons water
• 1 teapsoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine blueberries, sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. If you like a thick, pie filling sort of sauce, add less water, if you like a slightly thinner sauce (but not runny!) add more. If you’re not sure, wait until the end to add the water, after the sauce has already thickened, and add water until it is the consistency you like. Crush the blueberries a little to get the sauce going. Bring mixture to a boil and cook until thickened and a deep ruby-red in colour. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Let cool before serving.

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