I have always loved apple turnover, or cherry turnovers, or blueberry turnovers or any turnover for that matter.  I have been wanting to make some for the family but hadn’t quite found the perfect recipe. After doing some research in cookbooks and the internet,  I combined several versions and came up with this version that we all loved. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

RUSTIC APPLE TURNOVERS (adapted from recipes from King Arthur Flour and Family Fun Magazine and one other place that I can’t remember)

Ingredients for Turnover Crusts:

• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup cold butter
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Ingredients for filling:

• 3 cups (about 3 good-size) baking apples, peeled, cored, and diced
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

For egg wash: (make two separate washes)

• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons water

To make the crust:

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.  Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture, much as you do for pie crust.  Stir in the sour cream. The dough should pull together; it won’t be smooth but it will pull together. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and bring it together with a few quick kneads. Roll the dough out to an 8″ x 10″ rectangle.  Dust both sides of the dough with flour. Fold the dough into thirds, similar to folding a letter. Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll it into a rectangle again. Fold again using letter technique.  Roll the dough into a rectangle again. Fold it in thirds, wrap in plastic, and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least one hour (or overnight) before using.

To make the filling:

Combine the apples, orange juice, sugars, and butter in a medium-size saucepan. Cook over medium heat until mixture starts to boil; cover pan and boil for 3-4 minutes. NOT A ROLLING BOIL, more like a simmer.

Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Add to the apples and cook  for another minute at a low boil, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat. Cool completely (about 30 minutes).

To assemble the turnovers:

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Roll the chilled dough into a square about sixteen inches. Cut sixteen 4″ squares. For a tighter seal, you can brush two adjoining edges of each square with one egg beaten with one tablespoon cold water. (I did this and they still leaked.)

Place about two teaspoons of filling slightly off-center in each square.  Fold the turnovers in half diagonally, to creating a triangle. Press the edges with a fork to seal. Beat one egg with one tablespoon water.

Place the turnovers on a baking sheet, lined with parchment to catch any spills. Bake in the preheated 400°F oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they’re a deep, golden brown; you may see some of the filling beginning to ooze out. Remove the turnovers from the oven, and cool on a rack.

My notes:

• My turnovers oozed filling all over the place, make sure to line your baking sheet with parchment paper. You will have a horrible clean up job if you don’t.
• I made my turnovers bigger than the recipe and got about 12 from this recipe.
• The coarse sugar I used was Wilton’s White Sparkling Sugar. I am sure you could use granulated sugar if you don’t have the Sparkling Sugar. However, the coarse sugar added to that rustic look.
• These turnovers turned out very flaky and I believe that is due both to the fold into thirds technique used on the dough and the butter in the dough. The folding technique is very similar to the technique used to make croissants which turn out very flaky if done right.
• My only attempt to try to make croissants was on a hot humid July day in Chicago and mine certainly didn’t turn out flaky but I have learned from my mistakes. Make sure to chill the dough. It helps a lot!
• I used Idared apples for this recipe. Jonathans or Northern Spy would also work well. 

This past week or so has seen some good news and bad news, The worst news was the frost that occurred over Mother’s Day weekend. Freeze warnings were issued and of course, because everything got an early start this year, lots of stuff was at risk. Some fruits and vegetables were affected; see the details below.

We have also been busy planting, plowing and planning this year’s planting scheme for the farm. So let’s just cut to the chase and tell you the good, the bad and the just plain ugly news from Magicland Farms.

The Good

• The strawberries survived the frost on Mother’s Day weekend due to the use of sprinklers. So it looks promising that we will have a strawberry crop this year.
• The peas, onions and garlic also survived the frost due to the fact that these crops are cold hardy. They can take a lot of cold and still keep on going.
• The tomatoes in the high tunnel sustained no damage.
• Most of the sweet corn plantings are okay because the early plantings were small and the growing point was still beneath the soil.
• The green beans were just coming up so they sustained no damage. Tom was amazed the other day with how well they are growing. At the rate they are going, it looks like a super early bean year for us.
• We have planted three different varieties of sweet potatoes: Beauregard, Carolina Ruby and Vardaman.  Here is a photo of our sweet potato planting: The row at the right is a row of tomatoes; the rows to the left are the sweet potatoes.

The Bad

• The potatoes sustained some minor damage. On Sunday, Tom and I went to look at things at the farm and you could see new green growth coming from the potatoes so while they might have suffered a setback, the plants are starting to make a comeback.
• The tomato plants we had in the low tunnels out in the field were about half damaged. Interestingly, the side of the low tunnel that received some of the sprinkler water meant for the strawberries survived; the side that didn’t was a loss. Those tomatoes that died have been replaced with new transplants.

The Ugly

• The pawpaws sustained heavy damage from the frost.
• The apples sustained moderate to heavy damage depending on the variety and the location in the orchard.
• Tom looked at the peaches the other day and thinks that there might be moderate damage to the crop. However, we should still have some peaches.

Overall things are looking good. We all wish the frost hadn’t happened but we know that everything happens for a reason. Planting is continuing, we still have lots more to go. Keep on checking back for updates. You can see some more photos at my previous post: Sunday Stroll Around The Farm.

Ever have one of those days where plans get thrown out the window and you still have to come up with something for dinner or dessert? That has happened around here enough that cobblers have become my go-to replacement dessert.

We eat our big meal at lunch so oftentimes dinner consists of dessert and the beverage of your choice. Most everyone in the house is happen with these meals and I enjoy baking so it is a win-win situation.

One of the great things about cobblers is that they can be made using most any fruit.  Since we freeze peaches and store the apples, I can whip up a cobbler in no time even during the winter. Another reason to call it a win-win recipe.

Below is a recipe for the apple filling which is quite good.

Apple Filling Ingredients

5 cups apples, peeled and sliced

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon butter, softened

Combine all ingredients except butter. Pour into buttered 9 inch pan. Dot with butter.

Here is a recipe for a cobbler topping that is very good.

Cobbler Topping Ingredients (covers 9 inch square pan)

1/2 cup flour, sifted

1/2 cup sugar (I like to use a mix of brown and white sugar)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 egg, slightly beaten

Combine all topping ingredients. Beat with wooden spoon until smooth. Drop batter over fruit spacing evenly. Don’t worry about covering fruit, the batter will spread a bit while cooking. Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Enjoy!

Since we usually have our big meal at lunch time, dinner is often just a pizza or something lighter. But usually two or three times a week, we have what we like to refer to as dessert for dinner. Most members of the family have a sweet tooth so having dessert for dinner is not a problem for them. One of the recipes I like that is easy, and tasty as well, is a puff pancake. This recipe is versatile since I can use either apples or peaches (both of which we grow) to vary the taste of this recipe. Both the apple and peach version went over well with my taste testers. Despite the name pancake, it isn’t cooked like pancakes but, rather, is baked in the oven. The batter used for the recipe is very similar to a pancake recipe though.  

Puff Pancake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cups milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 apple or 2 peaches, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp. butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place butter in 9″ pie pan and melt the butter in the oven. When butter is melted arrange fruit in the pan. Mix the remaining ingredients and carefully pour into the hot pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and extra cinnamon if you desire. Bake for 15-20 minutes or till puffed and golden. The pancake does fall after it is removed from the oven. Serve with maple syrup if you like.

My notes:

• This recipe is designed for a 9″ pie plate. I cook in large quantities so I make it in a 13×9 pan. In that case, you simply need to double the recipe.
• We like lots of fruit in our desserts. As you can see, the original puff pancake recipe calls for a small amount of fruit (at least in our opinion). I added a lot more fruit when I made it and it was wonderful.

I like to tease my husband that he is a tree-a-holic. He loves his trees and we have started a new orchard at the farm.  Well, you could call me a recipe-a-holic. I am always printing off recipes from blogs, recipe sites, you name it I print it. Tearing recipes out of magazines is also one of my habits. My problem with all of this is that, unlike the trees my husband orders, I have a bad habit of letting these recipes sit around and gather dust.

This winter I decided to get organized (which would be a whole ‘nother lengthy post) and I went through all of my recipes stacked on my desk. I actually got rid of many but still have tons of them. However, along with my getting organized, I made a vow to cook more of the recipes I run across. So far, so good – I have been making many new dishes – some turned out really well and others not so much.

A couple of months ago, I ran across a Sour Cream Apple Bar recipe on a blog called Culinary in the Desert.  The recipe sounded quite tasty and since the Sour Cream Apple Pie recipe I made last November was a hit. I decided to give these a try.

THE RECIPE:

For the crust

2 cups uncooked quick-cooking oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

For the filling

1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups shredded apple

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk together oats, flour, walnuts, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and allspice. In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

Scoop half of the mixture into a 9″ x 13″ baking pan. Press mixture down over the bottom of the pan to form an even crust. Place into the oven and bake until lightly golden, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together sour cream, sugar, flour, egg, vanilla and apple. Pour filling over the hot, partially baked crust. Crumble remaining crust mixture evenly over the filling and lightly press down to adhere.

Place pan back into the oven and bake until the top is golden and the center is set, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before cutting into bars.

Notes: I didn’t have walnuts so I skipped that in the crust. I used Jonathan apples in order to get the most apple flavor. I didn’t want the apples overpowered by the oatmeal crust.

The Verdict:

Quite good according to my taste testers. However, the only change we would make would be to add more apples. The apple lovers in the house thought that additional apple flavor would make this recipe almost perfect.

We now have apples, potatoes and onions for sale. We have opened up our storage room and found nice quality apples and onions.  We are selling our apples by the half-bushel and potatoes/onions by the half-peck at nice, low prices.

Prices of our apples of which we have a good quantity:

Jonathans, Empires, Red Delicious — $3.00 a half bushel

Crispin(Mutsu), Northern Spy, Idared — $4.00 a half bushel

Granny Smith, Fuji — $5.00 a half bushel

We also have some smaller quantities of other varieties at reasonable prices.

Prices of Onions:

Red Onions — $3.00 a half-peck (just over five pounds)

Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions — $2.50 a half-peck (just over five pounds)

Prices of Potatoes:

Norkotah Russet — $2.00 a half-peck (just over 7 pounds)

As always, please pull up plastic liner and leave basket.

(Sour Cream Apple Pie)

Well, now that the farm season is winding down, we will be posting more on the blog again. Over the winter and spring, we plan to post information about the farm, our plans for next year, recipes you might be interested in and anything else that comes to mind. Once next summer arrives, please subscribe to our newsletter as that is where the most up to date information is provided. (Look on the right hand side of this blog for subscription information.)

For this post though, I am going to stick to the recipe theme. These two recipes make excellent use of the apples we have available now. The first is the traditional apple pie and the second is one with a sour cream-apple combination that makes an excellent change of pace.

One note about making apple pies: Recipes often call for adding lemon juice to the apple slices while making the pie. If you are using one of our recommended pie apples (Northern Spy, Calville, Gravenstein, Idared, Stark Jumbo), any lemon juice or lemon peel is unnecessary. These apples have just the right amount of tartness for baking up a wonderful apple pie. I have been making pies for almost ten years here and haven’t had to use lemon juice once. Of course, if you are using an apple like a Red Delicious, you will probably want to add the lemon juice.

Fresh Apple Pie

• 6 cups thinly sliced peeled pie apples (about 2 1/2 – 3 pounds)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 recipe Pastry for Double-Crust Pie (your favorite recipe)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Milk (optional)

Directions

1. Combine granulated sugar, flour, brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon. In a large mixing bowl combine apples with sugar mixture. Toss until apples are coated. Set apple mixture aside.

2. Prepare Pastry for Double-Crust Pie and line pie plate with 1 crust.

3. Transfer apple mixture to pastry-lined pie plate. Dot with butter. Trim pastry even with pie plate. For top crust, roll out remaining dough. Cut slits in top crust. Place top crust on the filling. Seal and flute the edge. Brush with milk, if desired.

4. To prevent over browning, cover the edge of the pie with foil. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil; bake for 20 to 25 minutes more or until the top is golden brown and apples are tender. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Tip: For taste reasons, it is better for the crust to be a little more overdone than underdone.

Sour Cream Apple Pie

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups apples, peeled and chopped
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch single crust pie
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1. Stir together 2 tablespoons flour, salt, 3/4 cup sugar and nutmeg in bowl. Combine egg, sour cream and vanilla in another bowl; mix well. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients; mix well. Stir in apples and spoon mixture into unbaked pie shell.

2. Bake in a preheated 400 degree F oven 15 minutes.

3. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F and bake 30 minutes more. Remove pie from oven. Increase temperature to 400 degree F.

4. Prepare cinnamon topping and sprinkle over pie. Return to oven and bake 10 minutes more. Cool on rack.

5. To Make Cinnamon Topping: Combine 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon in bowl. Cut in 2 tablespoons butter or regular margarine until crumbly, using a pastry blender.

These both are favorites in our house and we hope you enjoy them.

(Early Redhaven Peach Blossoms)

(Red Delicious Apple Blossoms)

Here are some beautiful photos of some of the fruit trees blooming in our orchard. The blossoms are pretty much gone by now. There were a lot of blossoms on the trees so we are hoping for a bumper crop of fruit. Because of the large number of blossoms, we will have to do some thinning.

Remember our first apple of the season is the Quinte apple which we usually have for sale in mid-July. Quinte is a great tasting summer apple.

I ran across this story on the Slow Food Blog the other day – link here: America’s Apple Traditions Renewed.

Here at Magicland Farms, we grow both the common varieties as well as the antique and rare varieties. We have over 100 different varieties of apples although we do not get crops from all of them each year. Let me describe a few of our rarer varieties to pique your interest:

Ashmead’s Kernel – It apparently is a seedling of NONPAREIL and has crisp yellowish flesh that is tinged green. It is sugary, juicy and aromatic with a tart/sweet flavor.

Calville Blanc D’Hiver – There are two things that cause this apple to really stand out: exceptionally high Vitamin C content and its superiority among the pie apples! This apple was first mentioned in seventeenth century France.

Snow – One of our most asked for apples, it is usually on the small size and, as its name indicates, its brilliant white flesh reminds one of newly fallen snow. It is aromatic with a spicy flavor. Snow (Fameuse) is thought to be one of the parents of the McIntosh.

Gravenstein – The yellowish white flesh is tender, fine grained and crisp with a well balanced acid-sugar content. Our trees are getting on in age and we don’t often have a great crop. For pies, they are fantastic!

Court Pendu Plat - We sometimes refer to this apple as “The Tree of Life” and laughingly refer to it as possibly being in the “The Garden of Eden”! Why? Because it is a very, very old variety perhaps dating to the times of the Roman Empire although it wasn’t until 1611 when it was officially recorded. The translation of the name from French means “suspended, short, flat.” This describes the way this flat apple lays tightly against the branch. This apple was widely planted in Tudor England. It is also known as the “Wise Apple” probably due to its late budding and flowering that allows it to escape late frosts. The flesh is a creamy yellow, firm and fine grained with a rich, brisk, acid flavor. It has a high Vitamin C content.

Hawaii – This apple is a cross of Gravenstein and Golden Delicious. At times, it has a hint of pineapple in its flavor. It stores well and is an excellent fresh eating apple.

Golden Russet – This is an old American apple of unknown parentage. The fine grained yellowish flesh is crisp with an exceptional sugary juice as well as a tasty tartness. It was known in the 18th century and was described in the book Fruits and Fruit Trees of America in 1859. Russets were grown along the shores of Lake Ontario during the 1800s. These apples were prized for their long storage potential in root cellars. Golden Russet fell out of favor in the early 1900s with the development of refrigerated storage and a preference for large, red apples.

Northern Spy - This is the famous pie apple and is also great eating especially for those who love an apple a bit tart. One of the best varieties for storing, this apple is juicy and crisp with a rich, aromatic, mildly acidic flavor. Northern Spy was found in an orchard at East Bloomfield, New York, grown from seedlings brought from Connecticut about 1800. It may originally have been called ‘Northern Pie Apple’ and is also known as ‘Red Spy’ and ‘Red Northern Spy’. This apple has more Vitamin C than average apples and has been in great demand by processors for frozen apple slices, baked goods etc.

One of the things we like to do in the Fall (if we have enough apples) is to set up a display of apples that can be bought by the pound. That way, you can taste many of these rare varieties for yourself and decide what your favorites are. We have many customers who enjoy creating their own taste tests for themselves and their families. We even had a teacher who bought a couple of each varieties to take to her second grade class for a lesson on apples. I bet they had fun!

This is one of the great things about buying local; you won’t find these varieties in any of the supermarket produce sections. You need to hunt out your local orchardist to find these interesting, tasty older varieties.