Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Apple Turnovers

It has been about a thousand degrees here in San Diego for the past few days, and yet here I am posting about apple turnovers. These were delicious, but would be much better in colder weather.

With the last of our leftover phyllo dough from Election Night and, coincidentally, Inauguration Day we decided to make Apple Turnovers from Elie Krieger's The Food You Crave. We had all the ingredients on hand, and now that we are ol' pros with phyllo (or as Brett told me, "You don't freak out anymore"), it really came together quite easily.

I got the brown sugar and cinnamon measured and in a skillet along with some freshly grated nutmeg, while Brett thinly sliced the apples.  Some of them were so thin that he was holding them up to his eye to see if he could see through them. If I had been slicing they would have been much thicker and done quicker, but I probably would have had a bleeding finger.

When Brett was (finally) done slicing, I sauteed the apples in the sugar and spices until they were soft.  It is quite possibly one of the best smells in the world. Mmmmmm.

We prepared the phyllo with melted butter (even though the recipe says to use canola oil to cut out some of the fat.) And between the second and third layer we crumbled up some Vanilla Wafers.  Here I go again with my store brand follies. I have tried reduced fat Nilla Wafers and they are terrible. When I was at the store this week it was either reduced fat, mini, or store brand.  I went with the store brand. They are good, but do not taste like true Nilla Wafers. They kind of tasted like fortune cookies.

Once the phyllo was prepared we cut it into four strips and spooned a fourth of the apple mixture in little piles at each end of the dough strips. Brett did the honors of wrapping them up into little triangles. He compared it to folding up a paper football.

I brushed each turnover with more butter and then they went into a 350 degree oven.

They came out golden and flaky, with an ooey gooey apple center that was as hot as magma! We both decided to eat two servings. Oh well, no leftovers.

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