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If there is anything I always have in my refrigerator, it’s Fuji apples. I love how sweet and crisp they are. So I was excited to see that Dorie suggested them for her flaky apple turnovers. It’s not often that you see a sweet variety of apple as the star of a pastry-enveloped treat. Usually, pies and such call for tart apples… which I can’t stand.

But while the apples were stellar, alas, my flaky apple turnovers were not. Actually, I take that back: They were delicious… but in a crumbly-pie-crust sort of way. They were not flaky.

I did have a lot of trouble with the dough. It never really came together for me. And rolling it out was another mess. By the time I’d gotten the dough cut into circles with my cookie cutter, the butter got pretty soft—and I know that soft butter is not good if you want a flaky crust. Then I couldn’t fold the dough over the apples, so instead, I just put another circle of dough on top of the apples and pinched the sides. What should have been a beautiful, light and flaky apple treat ended up being a heavy, apple-filled hand pie.

Oh well. Another Dorie fail for me, *sigh*. That’s OK though—B, my sweet little garbage disposal, said he liked them!

Thanks to Julie of Someone’s in the Kitchen, who picked this recipe this week. Sorry I didn’t do them justice! If you’d like to try your hand at Dorie’s Flaky Apple Turnovers, the original recipe is below!

Recipe: Flaky Apple Turnovers
From Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

For the dough:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 sticks (12 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the filling:

• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 Fuji or Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into small chunks
• 3 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small bits
• 1 large egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water, for egg wash sugar, for dusting

To make the dough: Stir the sour cream and sugar together; set aside.

Whisk the four and salt together in a large bowl, then toss the butter bits over the flour. Working with a pastry blender, two knives or your fingers, cut the butter into the ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Don’t worry about being thorough – it’s better to have an uneven mix than an overworked dough. Switch to a fork and, using a lifting and tossing motion, gently stir in the sour cream. The dough will be very soft.

Divide the dough in half. Put each half in a piece of plastic wrap and use the plastic to shape each piece into a rectangle (don’t worry about size or precision). Wrap the dough and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour, or for up to 2 days.

Remove one piece of dough from the fridge and roll it into a rectangle about 9 x 18 inches. The dough is easiest to work with if you roll it between sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap – if you want to roll it traditionally, make sure to flour the rolling surface. Fold the dough in thirds, like a business letter, wrap it and refrigerate it. Repeat with the second piece of dough, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or up to 1 day.

To make the filling: Whisk the flour, sugar, and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Add the apples and toss to coat.

Getting ready to bake: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds, and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicon mats.

Roll out one piece of dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch, and cut out 4 1/2 inch rounds with a large cutter or the edge of a tartlet pan. Repeat with the second piece of dough. If you’d like, you can gather the scraps together, chill them, and make additional turnovers. (The turnovers made from scraps will taste good, but they won’t be as pretty and light as the first rounders.) You’ll get 7 or 8 rounds from each piece of dough.

Place 1 to 2 tablespoons apples in the center of each round and dot with the butter. Moisten the edges of each round with a little water and fold the turnovers in half, sealing the edges by pressing them together with the tines of a for. Use the fork to poke steam holes in each turnover, and transfer the turnovers to the baking sheets. (At this point, the turnovers can be frozen; wrap them airtight when they are firm and store them for up to 2 months. Bake them without defrosting, adding a few minutes to their time in the oven)

Brush the tops of the turnovers with a little of the egg wash and sprinkle each one with a pinch of sugar. Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back after 10 minutes. When done, the turnovers will be puffed, firm to the touch, and golden. Gently transfer them to racks and cool to room temperature.