Easy Breakfast Turnovers

These Easy Breakfast Turnovers use puff pastry to create a flaky shell…fill ’em with a homemade apple or cherry filling!

Every once in a while, you just stumble across a recipe idea that is so simple, yet so incredibly delicious.  Well, that happened to my wife and me this past summer when we were traveling in Scotland.

After spending several nights in B&B’s around the Scottish countryside, we made our way into Edinburgh for some late summer festivities.  While Edinburgh was amazing (one of the top 3 cities I have ever visited!), we definitely missed the homemade breakfasts that we had gotten used to out in the B&B’s.  (The recipe for these Chocolate Espresso Muffins came from one of those B&B’s up in the Scottish Highlands.)

So there we were in Edinburgh looking for somewhere to grab a bite for breakfast.  All I can say is thank goodness for Yelp!  We checked out some popular breakfast spots near our hotel, and we ended up in a little bakery called the Pie Maker.  All they made were, well…pies, and they were incredibly delicious!  So needless to say, I’ve had these breakfast pastries in my mind ever since that trip, and I finally got around to creating my own version.  And man, are they delicious…and easy!

I’ve included my recipes for homemade cherry pie filling and homemade apple pie filling, but you could use the canned versions to save even more time.  (Although the homemade versions are really not that hard…and taste 100x better in my opinion!)

The key to these Easy Breakfast Turnovers is the sprinkling of sanding sugar that goes on top prior to baking.  (If you’ve never used sanding sugar, then you are in for a treat!)  This coarse sugar gets nice and crispy in the oven and gives the turnovers a wonderfully sweet crunch when you bite into the tops.  Of course, the icing helps out, too!

These Easy Breakfast Turnovers look incredibly impressive when they come out of the oven, and they are so super easy to make.  If you have company visiting for New Year’s Eve, then I suggest grabbing the ingredients for these tasty treats so you can whip up an extra-special breakfast on New Year’s Day.  Talk about getting the New Year started off in the right way!

Easy Breakfast Turnovers

These Easy Breakfast Turnovers use puff pastry to create a flaky shell...fill 'em with a homemade apple or cherry filling!

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 685kcal

Ingredients

For the Turnovers

• 1 package puff pastry sheets thawed
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 1-2 Tbsp coarse sugar such as turbinado or sanding

For the Apple Filling

• 3 cups Granny Smith apples peeled and diced (~3 medium apples)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• ½ Tbsp unsalted butter softened

For the Cherry Filling

• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• ½ cup water + 2 Tbsp divided
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2½ cups sour cherries, pitted and halved

For the Icing

• 1½ cups powdered sugar
• 3 Tbsp milk

Instructions

For the Apple Filling

• Toss the diced apples, lemon juice and sugar in a medium bowl until apples are well coated.
• Grease a sheet pan with the 1/2 Tbsp butter and spread the apples evenly on top.
• Bake at 400°F for 12 minutes. Let apples cool before filling turnovers.

For the Cherry Filling

• In a small bowl, combine 2 Tbsp of water and cornstarch. Mix until fully combined.
• In a medium saucepan, heat remaining ½ cup of water on medium-high heat. Once it begins to boil, add the water/cornstarch mixture and continue to boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
• Remove mixture from heat and add sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and vanilla. Stir until fully mixed. Add cherries and stir until coated well. Place filling mixture in the refrigerator until cool.

For the Icing

• Whisk together the powdered sugar and milk until a smooth icing forms.

To Assemble Turnovers

• Lay out one piece of puff pastry dough on the counter. Using a knife or pizza wheel, cut the piece of puff pastry into 4 equally-sized squares. (Each square should measure approximately 4.5” by 4.5”.) Repeat with remaining sheet of puff pastry dough.
• Place approximately 1/3 cup of apple or cherry filling in the center of one of the pastry squares, leaving ~3/4"-1” border. Brush the border with the lightly beaten egg. Place another square of pastry on top and gently press edges together to seal. Use a fork to crimp the edges. Repeat with remaining pastry squares.
• Place filled pastry squares on a parchment-lined baking pan, and sprinkle tops of squares with coarse sugar. Bake at 375 for 32-36 minutes, or until pastry squares are light golden in color. Remove from oven and allow Turnovers to cool slightly before drizzling tops with Icing.