BRATBASA! - Cookies, Actually...
Ellie
Somehow, I decided that macadamia nuts, chocolate chips, and apple chunks were the optimum filling for turnovers. Still wondering about my thought process that day.
The Mysterious Alien Turnovers were my attempt at finding something tasty to bring for my last day at work. My mom suggested more of those cookies, but I'd brought the original tasty batch to work and it just seemed redundant to bring them again. So I decided to improvise. [Editor's note: That's what pulpexplosions are made of!]
That weird noise you just heard was all the pastry-bakers of the world laughing simultaneously at the idea of improvised baked goods. They know better.
I was inspired by a recipe in a cookbook that's at least twice my age. Seriously, it's so old that it spells cookie c-o-o-k-y. The recipe was for chocolate-filled pastries. Somehow, I decided that even if I changed the filling and pastry recipes significantly, it would somehow magically remain the same recipe. Not sure how I came to that conclusion.
The original filling was a ganache of some sort, but at that time I had no idea how to even go about making ganache, so I decided that chocolate chips would work fine.
Looking back on my thought process, I must have been really burned out from work. That's the only way any of this makes sense.
Here's the filling I used:
Now, you might be wondering about the white chunks amongst the chocolate chips. Macadamia nuts, my friends.
One thing not in the above photo of the filling was the apple chunks. That’s right. Somehow, I decided that macadamia nuts, chocolate chips, and apple chunks were the optimum filling for turnovers. Still wondering about my thought process that day.
The pastry was based on my old standby pie crust recipe. I won't divulge it here except to say that Crisco is involved. Yes. Between the Crisco and the macadamia nuts, you could feel your cholesterol increasing with this particular dessert.
Many of you are probably wondering about my use of the word "alien" to describe these. This picture should explain it quite well: they look like a fleet of UFOs, invading my oven.
Here's a closeup of one of them, so you can see what they looked like a little better. Usually, my pie crust browns more than that, but I wasn’t sure how hot to make the oven and I didn't want anything to burn.
So how did they taste, you ask?
Not too bad. The crust could have been crisper, and the apple kind of got lost among the nuts and chocolate.
This picture shows how tiny they really were. I wasn’t really eating that one, just posing. They're better shoved in your mouth all at once.
That's what she said.
Sorry, I won't do that again.
This concludes my kitchen adventures for now. Until next time, this is Ellie, Brat Basa, and the Alien Turnovers signing off. Seeya!
P.S. – My mom finally figured out what "flattering" means. Yay, mom!
