Pear Turnovers

We had 6 pears that were too ripe to eat and I had a package of the DuFour Puff Pastry in the freezer. I thought it would be fun to make pear turnovers. They were easy to make and Abby had a great time "painting" the pastry dough and sprinkling sparkly sugar to the top.

To make pear turnovers:
Peel, core and dice 6 pears ( I used my Vidalia chop wizard) and add to a large mixing bowl
Add 2 tsp. cinnamon and 1 tsp. ground ginger or apple pie spice
Add 4-5 tsp. sugar or brown sugar
juice from 1/2 lemon
2 Tbs. flour

Stir to combine and let sit for a couple minutes

For egg wash:
1 egg
2 tbs. milk

Stir to combine.


Unwrap the pastry and cut into 4x4 squares. I am bad at measuring and made rectangles, they work fine also, but you won't get the traditional turnover shape. As long as the top half covers the bottom half you're fine.

Brush the edges of the puff pastry with the egg wash and a pastry brush. Add 1 large Tbs. of the pear mixture to the lower half of the puff pastry square (or rectangle) and fold the other half over the pear mixture to completely enclose the mixture. Press down firmly to seal the turnover. Brush the top of the turnover with more of the egg mixture and sprinkle with demerra sugar or regular white sugar.

Continue until you run out. I got 8 turnovers from 1 box of the DuFour Puff Pastry and had lots of leftover pear mixture.

Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes until turnovers are golden. Remove and let cool as the pear mixture will be VERY hot.

Baked apples with maple syrup and dried cranberries

It has been a very busy week here and sad to say, we have been eating out more often this week. We went to the diner one night, the kids had eggs and bacon, and last night we ordered in Chinese food, a delicious soup with chicken, soba noodles and veggies.

I had the kids try bok choi, one didn't like it (surprise, surprise...) and the other one loved it and asked for more. After Saturday, things will slow down a little. Thankfully, we have some frozen turkey chili (I made a while ago ) that we will eat tonight.

I wanted to share a baked apple recipe that I taught today in a soup's class.

1 ½ cups pomegranate juice
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tsp. candied ginger, chopped
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
4 medium Honey Crisp apples, cored
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans

Preheat oven to 375°.
Combine first 6 ingredients. Stir well; set aside.
Peel top half of each apple; place in a shallow roasting pan. Fill centers of apples evenly with cranberries and pecans. Pour cranberry-maple mixture over apples. Bake at 375° for 30-40 minutes or until tender, basting apples twice with syrup from pan. To serve, drizzle with remaining syrup.

Gingerbread trifle

Happy Holidays to everyone. I am teaching a holiday hors' d'oeuvres and desserts class tomorrow and wanted to share my recipe for a gingerbread trifle that is really, really easy.

Gingerbread Trifle

Gingerbread cake-prepared
12 oz. whipping cream
2 tbs. powdered sugar
½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
3 tbs. crystallized ginger
Sliced strawberries
Toffee Bits


Cube gingerbread and store in an airtight container. Whip cream with a hand mixer for 4 minutes in a cold metal bowl. As cream thickens, add powdered sugar and pumpkin pie spice and continue whipping until stiff peaks form. Can be prepared and stored in the refrigerator over a bowl of ice for 2 hours. Slice strawberries and toss in diced crystallized ginger. Let stand at least 1 hour to macerate. Can also be made 1 day in advance.

Layer in a trifle bowl gingerbread, strawberries, toffee bits and whipped cream in alternating layers. Top layer should be whipped cream and toffee bits. Serve cold.

We went to a friends house tonight and ate steak and roasted salmon. She prepared is very easily, a little olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper and 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary on top. She baked it in the oven (covered I think) for about 20 minutes on 375. We had couscous and green beans with it.

I'm working all day tomorrow and tomorrow night, so Kirk is on his own for dinner, my guess is he'll either make ramen soup for the girls with some fresh fruit or order Chinese!! :)