By Jen Inglis 

If you've been following this series of recipes, you'll know I love a fruity puff pastry combination, and these flaky and tempting individual pastries have a few extra little improvements that make them irresistible.

The caramel for the apples is spiced with cinnamon and the silky custard filling is adapted from a beautifully rich and fancy sounding crème patissiere, which is sneakily easy to make. As always, they can be adapted to whatever you have or feel like experimenting with. For example, if you use a shortcrust pastry instead of puff these little guys become poptarts! 

As I was a little low on time this week, I have bought the pastry again but I promise I'll share a homemade version in the future as it's so satisfying to have rolled it yourself, but definitely not for a quick fix. To make up for it I've made two different fillings. They're both simple enough that they can be prepped at the same time and you just have to decide once baked whether you’re caramel apple or raspberry peach? Or make a better choice and have one in each hand.

February is pretty tricky for seasonal local fruit (except rhubarb) unless you can source some well stored apples or pears so I've gone with tinned peaches and frozen raspberries to give a little pop and flash of the summer that we might actually be getting this year. These little pockets smell incredible while baking and feel like a little hug when you eat them hot from the oven. Bring on July! 

Caramel Apple or Raspberry & Peach turnovers

Ingredients 

250g puff pastry (makes 4) 

For Crème Patissiere/custard 

250ml non-dairy milk (I used Brose – local new business - barista oat milk to bake with for the first time on these recipes and it was great! Totally recommend for creaminess and flavour. If you're East Lothian based give them a shot!) 

1 tsp vanilla essence 

25g cornflour 

Pinch turmeric 

50g caster sugar 

2 tbsp dairy free spread 

Caramel Apple filling 

200ml non-dairy milk 

75ml soft light brown sugar 

1 tsp vanilla essence 

½ tsp cinnamon 

1 apple cubed (I used a pink lady and removed the core but left the skin on. You can peel if you want. In the assembly pic they are sliced as I was trying that out, but cubed gives a much better quantity of apple filling!) 

Raspberry Peach filling 

1 peach or 8 segments of tinned peaches (well drained) 

Handful of frozen raspberries 

Extras 

Extra non-dairy milk to glaze 

Demerara sugar to sprinkle on before baking (optional) 

Icing sugar for dusting 

Sugar glaze of equal parts water and sugar to brush on after baking for maximum shine! 

Equipment 

Baking Tray 

Baking parchment 

Chopping board 

Jug 

Whisk 

Sieve 

Pans 

Bowls 

Spoons 

Rolling pin 

Sharp serrated knife 

Pastry brush 

Fork 

Cooling tray 

Method 

Crème patissiere/custard 

Starting with the crème patissiere, put the milk and vanilla essence in a pan and gently heat till just about to boil. In the meantime, place the cornflour, sugar and turmeric in a heatproof jug and whisk together till combined. Once the milk is ready add roughly a third to the jug and whisk well, making sure it’s smooth and there are no lumps, then add this whole mixture to the milk in the pan. Return to a low heat and continue to whisk, being careful to make sure it doesn't start to catch and burn on any part of the pan. The mix will slowly begin to thicken and after a few minutes of constant stirring you'll have a thick custard like consistency. Remove from heat and whisk in the dairy free spread. If it becomes very thick as it cools you could whisk in a tablespoon extra of milk to loosen. Allow to cool. 

Caramel 

Add all the ingredients except the apple to the pan and bring to gentle boil for 20- 30 mins stirring often. You want it to be bubbling quite ferociously for several mins by the end.  It should thicken a bit and be a dark caramel colour but not smell burnt! Remove from heat and add apple. Give a mix and allow to cool and it will thicken. 

Turnover assembly 

Prepare a baking sheet with baking parchment and roll the pastry out on a floured surface. Cut into 4 large squares and place on baking tray. Use pastry brush to run milk around the edge of each square. Imagine a diagonal line running across the centre of each square then add a tablespoon of custard to one side of this line in each. Top 2 of the custards with a tablespoon of caramel apple mix (you can add more if looks not enough) and add 4 segments of peach and a few raspberries to the others.

Then ‘turn over’ the other half of the pastry so you end up with 4 triangles. Seal the edges by pressing the tines of a fork along them and them make some slices in the top of the pocket to allow steam to escape.

Brush the triangle with milk and sprinkle a little demerara sugar on top. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes till puffy and golden. Remove from oven and brush with sugar syrup if using or allow to cool a little before dusting with icing sugar.

Eat while still warm!