I love a good apple pie, and this certainly qualifies–why buy a goop-filled fried hunk-o-dough from some unnamed fast food joint (you guys all know which place I’m talking about) when a few minutes of work can yield these treats?

I’ll tell you why: the dough (although I’ll tell you why NOT again in a minute). I feel like I had just mastered Dorie’s perfect pastry crust on page 442 or 443 of the book (so much so that I keep frozen butter and shortening in the freezer at all times now). Then I get thrown a curve ball with this dough. It’s got sour cream in it. Dorie’s warns us that it’s soft, but I didn’t have too much trouble until actual filling time.

The filling is simple: chopped apples, a touch of flour and sugar and butter…But I worked assembly line style and rolled and cut both halves then filled, by which time the dough was so soft, it fell apart a bit when I folded it over. I also overfilled and had to take about half the filling OFF each dough round (bec. I like a lot of filling)…With hindsight, I should have rolled, filled and started baking one sheet of turnovers, leaving the second half in the fridge until I was ready to roll and fill quickly.

It was a mess.

Fortunately, they taste fabulous and made me look good at a Sunday afternoon football party, so that is always a good thing. I egg-washed them and sprinkled them with raw/turbinado sugar, which gives them a great glaze and nice crunch.

Notes on this recipe?

• Work with only half the dough at a time. 
• For a 4 1/2-inch round, use one tablespoon filling (I used a very heaping tablespoon and had to take about half off)…
• and for efficiency’s sake, make these rectangles or triangles instead of circles: no wasted dough.

The other note? (And why not to make the dough?) I live in South Florida where you can buy flaky empanada rounds in the freezer (and I think if you look for them, you can probably find these in most places)–they are marked “hojaldrada.”
I have made apple turnovers in a jiffy in the past by chopping some apples, filling a few of these empanada rounds, brushing them with egg wash and sprinkling with sugar…No, not homemade, but for the effort and the result? More my speed.

Check out all the other blogs on the blog roll at Tuesdays with Dorie. The recipe was picked and is listed over at Someone’s in the Kitchen with Jules Someone.