Here in Colorado, fall arrives early every year. By Halloween, we’re looking for the first snowflakes! It’s also the time to collect those berries off the vines in the yard. Dwaine has transplanted some black raspberry vines from house to house and this year we finally got a decent crop. With the new crop, I’ve been searching for some new black raspberry recipes, and here’s the first I’ve found while scouring some old cookbooks: Black Raspberry Turnovers.
I tend to be attracted to recipes for hand-held food – cupcakes, bierocks (see my recipe here), and now these Black Raspberry Turnovers. I like the convenience of being able to pack these up for a party or picnic and not have to worry about plates and knives and all that stuff you have to pack along just for serving. So while these might be a bit more labor-intensive on the front end – you do save some time later on.
These came out with a flaky, light, puffy crust and a hot, sweet filling. Serve them right out of the oven for lots of oohs and aahs. Or store them in a container and they’ll keep for a week – but I guarantee they won’t last that long.
When I make them today, I use a larger crystalline sugar, rather than just granulated, and I give each turnover a quick brush of milk wash first before sprinkling on the sugar. This gives them just a bit of a glossy finish and helps the sugar stay put. I prefer the traditional-style pastry brush rather than the silicone brushes that tend to splash and don’t coat nearly as well.
Black Raspberry Turnovers
Ingredients
Ingredients for Dough
- 1 1/2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour I use King Arthur
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 cup Butter kept chilled in fridge until use
- 1/2 cup Sour Cream
Ingredients for Filling
- 2 cups Fresh or Frozen Raspberries black or red – I prefer black
- 2/3 cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
- 3 tbsp Cornstarch
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder.
- Cut the cold butter into small pats and add to the flour. With your fingers, mush the butter and flour together until you get a crumbly flour/butter mixture – like the picture above. You’ll have fairly large chunks of butter, but you shouldn’t have any loose flour on the bottom of the bowl.
- Stir in the sour cream.
- On a well-floured surface (I use a large wooden board with plenty of flour), turn out the dough and give it a few kneads – not more than 4 or 5 (kneading will make the dough tough). Pat it out to a rectangle about the size of a half piece of paper. Flour the top and roll it out until it’s about double that size. Fold it up like a letter, then fold the letter in half again. You should have a piece of dough about the same size you started with. Repeat that whole process again. (This layering and folding is what gives you a flaky crust). Flour the surfaces well and wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. It needs to rest and cool down a bit – at least 30 minutes.
- While the dough is cooling, make your filling. I find frozen berries are easier to work with, but you can use fresh. Put the berries in a sauce pan. Add the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and stir constantly until the mixture is just warm. Mix the corn starch with a little water (3 Tbl or so) until it’s suspended. Quickly pour this mixture into the berries while stirring. Continue to heat just until the mixture starts to thicken – about 5 minutes or so. Remove from heat and cool for a while.
- In a small bowl, lightly beat one egg and set aside. You’ll use this to seal the turnovers.
- Roll out the chilled dough to a roughly 16″ square. I used a measure when rolling out the first few to get my dimensions right. Trim off the rough edges and cut out 16, 4″ squares of dough. Try to get them as square as you can – it’ll save you headaches when you’re trying to fold them.
- Take one square of dough and brush the egg wash on the right and bottom edges. Dab 2 tsp of your raspberry filling off-center toward the upper left corner. Take that corner and join it with the bottom right. Press with your finger to seal, then use a fork along that edge.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (IMPORTANT – these things will stick like glue, so don’t skip this part). I brushed a little milk on top of each turnover and sprinkled some coarse sugar on top.
- Bake the turnovers in a 400 F oven for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
