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baked cherry turnover on cooling rack
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4.53 from 21 votes

Cherry Turnovers With Homemade Puff Pastry

These cherry turnovers with homemade puff pastry are the real deal. They are made using an easy-to-follow homemade puff pastry recipe. If you've ever been intimidated by making your own French puff pastry you'll definitely want to try these! The process takes a bit of time, but it isn't hard and your patience will reward you with buttery and flaky pastries that are to die for.
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Keyword homemade, easy, puff pastry, french
Prep Time 3 hours 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 3 hours 30 minutes
Servings 9 pastries
Calories 491kcal

Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons chilled butter 3 1/4 sticks, divided
  • 1 cup ice water plus more as needed
  • 1 can cherry pie filling
  • sugar for sprinkling
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbsp. water

Instructions

  • Measure out 6 tablespoons of butter and place back in the refrigerator.
  • Place the remaining chilled butter on a work surface, in between two pieces of waxed paper. Using a rolling pin or the heal of your hand, smash the butter into the surface until pliable, taking care not to over work the butter as it should stay chilled. Work butter into a 5-inch square. Wrap and place in refrigerator.
  • Sift together flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Dice the 6 tablespoons of chilled butter.
  • Remember the 6 tablespoons of butter that you set aside? Go ahead and get that out and dice it into small cubes. Place the diced butter into the mixing bowl and, using a pastry blender, blend until the mixture is a coarse meal.
  • Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the water. Use a rubber spatula to gradually blend the water with the flour mixture, mixing just until a rough, sticky dough is formed. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
  • Remove the rested dough from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured work surface. Roll out dough into a 12-inch circle, being careful not to pull or tear the dough.
    Unwrap the butter square and place into the center of the circle and fold the edges of the dough over the butter, pressing to seal the edges.
    puff pastry rolled out with a square of butter on top
  • You should now have a square of butter wrapped in dough.
    dough wrapped around square of butter
  • Now we will begin the rolling process. The dough will be rolled out a total of 6 times.
    Using a rolling pin, roll the square into a 16 by 8-inch rectangle. (The dough may need to be pounded with the rolling pin several times to allow the butter to become more pliable.) Be careful not to tear the dough. Sprinkle any sticky areas with a tiny amount of flour.
    puff pastry dough rolled out to 16x8" rectangle
  • Fold the rectangle into thirds, as you would a business letter.
    rolling puff pastry dough into thirds
  • Rotate the dough a quarter turn and roll into ANOTHER 16 by 8-inch rectangle.
  • Fold again as you would a business letter.
    puff pastry rolled up into thirds
  • Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Note: you can write a "2" on the plastic wrap with a permanent marker to help you remember that you already rolled the dough out two times.
    puff pastry dough wrapped in plastic wrap
  • Return the rested dough to a lightly floured surface and repeat the process of rolling the dough into a rectangle, making business-letter folds, giving it a quarter turn and rolling and folding once more.
  • Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least another 30 minutes. Note: you can write a "4" on the plastic wrap with a permanent marker to help you remember that you already rolled the dough out four times.
  • Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured work surface. Roll into a 16 by 8-inch rectangle and fold again like a business letter. Roll out again and fold again. You have now rolled and folded the dough a total of 6 times. Wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
    Now the pastry is ready to be rolled and used in the desired puff pastry recipe.
  • Roll dough 1/4" thick and cut it (using a pizza cutter) into 5" squares. Add 1-2 tablespoons of filling in the center, then fold the square in half to form a triangle.
    dough cut into squares with filling in the center
  • Dip a finger in water and run it along the seam and press to close.
    Place pastries on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
    Mix egg and water to create an egg wash and brush the tops of pastries using a pastry brush. Sprinkle with sugar. 
  • Bake @ 400 degrees for 22-25 minutes or until golden.
    baked cherry turnover on cooling rack

Video

Notes

Make ahead instructions: If desired, dough can rest refrigerated for up to 2 days after the 4th roll out if you'd like to make it ahead of time. When ready to use, roll the dough out on a floured surface two more times and refrigerate for 30 minutes. The dough will be ready to use in any puff pastry recipe at this point.
You can make smaller turnovers if you'd like using 3"-4" squares of dough. Bake for 15-17 minutes. 
These turnovers are also delicious sprinkled with powdered sugar or drizzled in vanilla glaze!

Nutrition

Calories: 491kcal