Mincemeat Turnovers

Every New Year's Eve I crave oliebollen, but since these require deep frying and hence too much faff, I make appelflappen. Apple turnovers are the only traditional Dutch New Year's Eve food that isn't deep fried, but baked in the oven instead.



Last year I made the filling for the appelflappen from scratch. This year I used a jar of mincemeat instead. Far from traditional, but if the number of these minceflappen that my daughter ate is anything to go by then it was a success! Using a jar is definitely easier than making the filling from scratch, but I thought the mincemeat turned out a bit runny. I think I prefer the more traditional apple turnovers, but think that the ease of using a jar will probably win me over to make these again next New Year.

500gr puff pastry
400gr mincemeat
1 beaten egg
About 2 tsp sugar

Pre-heat fan oven to 200°C.

Roll out puff pastry thinly.

Cut pastry into twelve squares of about 12cm.

Place small heap of filling in centre of each square.



Fold each square over to form a triangle.



Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.



Bake in oven for about 10-15 minutes.

1 January 2017

I made two batches yesterday for a party, but because I only had one jar of mincemeat I made one version with a more traditional apple and sultana filling.

For the mincemeat version I heated the mincemeat in a pan and drained the liquid off through a sieve. This helped the consistency of the mincemeat turnovers, but not necessarily the flavour!

For the apple and sultana turnovers I used one cored and peeled and chopped apple and an inexact amount of sultanas and currants soaked in sherry with speculaas kruiden (cinnamon would do). Before folding the pastry over the filling I put a thin marzipan sausage on the filling.
This version was much tastier than the one with mincemeat and is the one I will be making in the future.