Move over apple turnovers. Here comes pumpkin.
Begin with a can of pure pumpkin puree, and it’s amazing how some sugar and spice can make everything nice. Pie crust helps out, too.
Grab-and-Go Sweet Pumpkin Turnovers are a little bit cookie and little bit pie. When refrigerated pie crust is sprinkled with chopped walnuts and cut into rounds, then mounded with a filling that will remind you of pumpkin pie, it’s hard to know what it should be called. Most certainly, it is a turnover.
The use of refrigerated pie crust speeds up the process of creating these turnovers. Pressing chopped walnuts into the dough adds crunchy texture and gives the pastry a homemade flair.
When the turnovers are eaten on the day they are baked, your teeth will crack through a crunchy topping of cinnamon and sugar. Once the turnovers have been stored in an airtight container, that crunchy shell will become melt-in-the-mouth soft. Either way, they are delicious.
Grab-and-Go Sweet Pumpkin Turnovers
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking spice blend, pumpkin pie spice blend or your favorite baking spice
1 (14.1 ounce) package refrigerated pie crusts
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
Milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg white, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon water
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar and spices. Set aside.
Unroll one pie crust on work surface. Sprinkle with half of the chopped walnuts. Use a rolling pin to roll over dough, pressing the nuts into the dough.
With a 3 1/2- to 4-inch round cookie cutter, cut 8 rounds from the dough.
Repeat with remaining pie crust in package.
Spoon one tablespoon of pumpkin mixture onto the center of each round. Moisten edges with milk, fold in half and press edges together to seal. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Brush turnovers with egg white. Sprinkle each with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place on ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake in preheated 450-degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 16 turnovers.
Tips from the cook:
You will have some filling leftover after making 16 turnovers. Put it in a freezer container and store in freezer until next time you want to make turnovers. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Lining the baking sheets with parchment paper will make clean-up much easier.
I like these best when they are still just a little bit warm, or at room temperature before they’ve been stored. Once stored in an airtight container, the crust on the little turnovers becomes soft. I prefer the crust a little crunchy.
Sue Doeden is a popular cooking instructor, food writer and integrative nutrition health coach. She is the host of Good Food, Good Life 365 on Lakeland Public Television. Her own hives full of hardworking bees and her love of honey led to the creation of her recently published cookbook, Homemade with Honey.