SMS: Caramel Apple Turnovers . . .

with Sweet Ricotta Filling. Now there's a mouthful!

These luscious apple turnovers were picked by Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures. She's another fantastic, super sweet blogger and no matter how mundane my post happens to be, she always leaves a comment, so nice. Also, the food on her blog is scrumptiously yummy so definitely give it a look-see. I was pretty excited about these turnovers -- who doesn't love a turnover? Butter, sugar, and cheese with a little bit of fruit thrown in? Sign me up!

I picked up the ingredients for these at Whole Foods because I was there picking up some other things and, also, the dreaded (and much maligned by one singleton) Social Safeway is closing its doors and stock is running low on things like puff pastry -- I checked. So, I got my puff pastry at Whole Foods and, boy howdy, when I put it in my cart I thought that it'd better be darn good. It was not cheap. However, it ended up being ok because I only used 1/2 of the package to make 8 mini turnovers and (added bonus) it's really, really good! My previous homemade puff pastry experience was a disaster. When I came back to Texas after spending a bit of time in France I decided that I was going to be God's gift to croissants (and the oh-so-lovely pain au chocolate) in Texas. I had visions of people tasting the ethereal pastry and telling their friends and neighbors. Soon all of Houston would be lining up at my door to taste the wonderful croissants that I made. I researched and researched and selected a recipe and all of my dreams came to a screeching halt. They were awful! And, no, I still haven't gotten back up on my horse to try again. And while I might attempt it someday; if, as CCR likes to sing, someday never comes, I think that this Dufour pastry might be the reason why. It's some seriously delicious puff.

Then again, maybe it's not the puff pastry that makes these so great. Maybe it's the heavenly apple filling. The filling is comprised of one part caramel apple filling to one part ricotta-orange filling. They're both easily made ahead of time, which I did, and then it's sort of a one, two, three job and off to the oven they go. I loved (!!) the apple filling for these turnovers. The cheese part was fine but I think that next fall when apple picking time rolls around I'm going to make these again with only apple filling. For me, the cheese was sort of nice, but not necessary. I made 8 mini turnovers rather than 4 large turnovers because I knew that I wouldn't want to eat a giant turnover all at once.


These turnovers are delcious. I can't wait to make them again with peaches this summer. You can freeze them before you make them and then pop them into the oven for brunch -- how convenient. I loved these turnovers! Thanks, Tracey, for a great pick!

Note: Oops! I didn't mean to freak people out. The Social Safeway is closing ... for a year. They're making it a bigger and better Social Safeway so that people can be even more "social."