This blog post and recipe comes from Saïd Pastry Nerd. Saïd M’Dahomais a French Comorian baker living in Calgary, Alberta. Saïd was born and raised in Paris, France, eating pastries all the time as he was working towards his Ph.D. in Neuroscience. A few years ago, Saïd got a research position in Canada, and before he realized it, he started missing French pastries so much, that Saïd decided to start to bake his own. Saïd now runs a website called The Pastry Nerd where his main goal is to make sure his followers and website visitors don’t make all the mistakes that he made early on in his patisserie journey and progress quickly. You can find Saïd on Instagram at said.pastrynerd.

There are many staples to French breakfast, the most famous being, obviously, the croissant. But there is another very popular one that is often underestimated in North America: “chaussons aux pommes” or as it is called here, apple turnover.

I personally prefer apple turnover to croissant. This is my favourite French pastry and I know it is for nostalgic reasons. My father used to work in a catering company, and very often, he would bring us leftover unsold items. Among them were tons of apple turnover that I would fight over with my siblings.

Even today, a warm apple turnover, with the crunchiness of its puff pastry, combined with vanilla applesauce is something I fall for every time.

For the puff pastry, we will prepare a simpler version where we will make all the folds in less than ten minutes. I call that the “good enough” puff pastry. It’s a little less flaky than the real deal but flaky enough for us to enjoy without the trouble of waiting for hours between folds!

For the applesauce, I opted for one flavoured with vanilla bean and a bit of cinnamon but you can use any spice you fancy.

Keys to succeeding

Puff pastry

• Make sure that all your ingredients are cold when you mix them in. The temperature will make it easier to make the folds in record time.
• Use good quality all-purpose flour. This will make a difference in the taste of the puff pastry.
• Butter should also be of good quality as it counts for a good amount of the pastry.
• Don’t forget to flour your bench and the dough as you are making the folds. Add more flour if your dough starts to stick to the bench.
• Let your dough rest in the fridge after the folds for about one hour. This is to let the gluten “relax” and allow for rolling it out thin.

Applesauce

• Make sure to cut your apples in small cubes to make it easier for them to absorb the butter and sugar.
• Keep stirring every three minutes.
• The apples have been properly cooked when there is no more liquid in the pan. We don’t want to caramelize them but rather “confit” them. That’s why they are cooked at a low temperature.
• I use pink lady apples, as I prefer their taste in an apple turnover.