Spiced Pear and Fig Turnovers with Cinnamon Maple Cream

by lisa | 21 February 2013 12:53

I feel sad for this recipe. It is deserving of pictures that scream “Eat Me!!” because it truly turned out delicious. Unfortunately, the camera magic just wasn’t with me today and I was disappointed with how the photos turned out. I hope you’ll consider giving this recipe a try sometime because I know you won’t be sorry that you did.

I was originally just going to use pear in my filling, but I only had one and wasn’t sure that it would make enough filling. I am having a love affair with dried figs lately, so I decided to add them in with the pear. Pure genius.

Perfect flavor combination

Pastry Dough Ingredients

I literally couldn’t sleep last night because I was so busy thinking how I could make a good dough for this recipe. I knew what I wanted it to be like, but wasn’t sure I’d be able to accomplish it. It was worth losing sleep over because I was really pleased with how it turned out.

1 1/2 cups almond flour
2 Tablespoons coconut flour
3 Tablespoons arrowroot flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon honey
1 egg
2 Tablespoons coconut oil

Put everything together into a food processor.

Mix it all together

Mix until a clumpy dough forms. remove and roll into a ball. Cover the dough ball with plastic wrap and chill for an hour in the fridge. Make your filling while your dough chills.

Chill for an hour

The Filling

1 pear, diced
4 dried figs, diced
1/2 Tablespoon ghee or butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger

Melt your ghee/butter in a frying pan.
Add in the pears and figs and stir to coat.
Now add everything else into the pan and cook until the fruit is soft and juicy and caramelized.
Yummy filling
Remove from heat and cool. I made 8 little turnovers and had some filling leftover. My husband is planning on adding the filling to his plain Greek yogurt.

Making the Turnovers

Roll your chilled dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness between two pieces of parchment paper. Don’t be alarmed if the pastry is oily…mine was, too.
Use a large round lid or jar as your ‘cookie cutter’ to make dough circles. My jar was 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter.
Transfer the rounds onto a lined baking sheet.
Ready to be filled
Place one spoon of filling on one side of your circle. Don’t put too much or you won’t be able to fold the dough over the filling.
Fill and fold
Fold over to make crescent shapes and seal the edges by pressing down.
Bake in a pre-heated 175 C (350 F) oven for 12 minutes.
I was able to get 8 turnovers from the dough and had to re-roll the scraps after cutting out 4.
They turned out firm and didn’t fall apart!

Maple Cinnamon Cream

This is adapted from a frosting recipe in Paleo Indulgences. It is to die for. It tastes like a Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll with buttery frosting. It went perfectly with the turnovers.