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Parisian Turnovers of Apples

A puff pastry turnover filled with apple marmalade, brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Parisian Turnovers of Apples

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Roll out the puff pastry and cut it into circles.

Fill and shape

  1. Place a spoonful of apple marmalade or preserves in the center of each circle.

  2. Fold the pastry over to create a turnover and seal the edges by pressing them together.

Bake and finish

  1. Brush the tops with beaten egg.

  2. Bake until golden and lightly colored, about 15-20 minutes.

  3. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with finely sifted sugar.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Apple + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,461 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Layers of butter and dough puff apart in the oven, giving a flaky, crisp structure.
Apple marmalade or preserves
Provides concentrated fruit flavour and sweetness, and moisture that fills the turnover.
Egg
Beaten egg brushed on top promotes browning and a glossy golden surface.

The step that matters

Sealing the edges. If the edges are not pressed firmly shut, the filling can leak and burn on the tray. A tight seal keeps the filling inside as the steam and butter in the pastry expand.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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