Life has gotten very dark and dreary here, again! What better way to brighten life up than fill your home with the scent of apples, cinnamon and brown sugar? Not feeling too guilty about it is an additional bonus, thanks to Ellie Krieger. Ellie is the queen of healthy cooking and baking on The Food Network and these are her apple cranberry phyllo turnovers.
I had four Granny Smith apples that were looking kind of sad and knew they would be perfect for these turnovers. I peeled them, sliced around the core of the apple (I hate using that apple core tool, always end of hurting myself) so I would have four wedges and then I sliced those into 1/4″ slices.
You throw the apples into a large saute pan with some dried cranberries, brown sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of freshly ground nutmeg. No butter! You just cook the filling over medium heat stirring now and then and let the filling do its thing. You also add a cornstarch slurry to help thicken the “sauce” but my apples were not very moist but I added it anyway .
This is the only part I really changed when it comes to the recipe and did so out of necessity. The recipe called for crushed lady fingers and I did not have any so I crushed some of my Maple Sugar Pecans instead and they worked brilliantly! In fact I would not make these again without doing do, they added fabulous flavour and crunch. I also misted the phyllo sheets with Pam instead of brushing them with canola oil. This is my second time working with the phyllo and it is starting to dry out and working with Pam is much faster.
You place another sheet of phyllo on top of the crushed pecans and then slice into four equal lengths. Add some of the filling and then roll like I did when I made spanakopita. I sprayed the top with Pam too and then put them in the oven.
I opened one up so you can see all the layers, the dried cranberries glistening inside and the pecans wedged throughout. Making these definitely brightened up my day.
These were very delightful to eat. My only complaint is that you need to eat these right away because the phyllo dough loses that fabulous crunchy flakiness by the next day. I give this recipe four out of five wooden spoons.
I still have some phyllo dough leftover, any ideas on what I should make with it? I have already made spanakopita and baklava. What shall I do next? I would love to hear your suggestions!
Spanakopita-Spinach pies! or Baklava!
Those apple-cranberry turnovers look fabulous! One tip I learned about phyllo is to keep it covered with a damp tea towel and just take out the sheets you need to work with at that moment, leaving the rest under the towel so they won’t dry out. You do still have to work quickly though, it’s true.
These look sooooo good!
xxMK
http://delightfulbitefuls.blogspot.com/
These look delicious. I think I would eat the filling just by itself, lol.
I think brie and the apple filling would go really well together.
Awesome combo of using the maple sugar pecans with the apples mmmmm good. Healthy yet still indulgent, kinda like have some apple pie minus a bunch of calories.