Chausson aux pommes

Chef Philippe’s selected apple turnovers enclose a butter-and-vanilla apple compote in inverted puff pastry made for this version. An egg-yolk wash seals and glazes their folded pastry.

Flour, cold water and salt form the inner dough. Separately, butter is worked with another portion of flour into a rectangle, then wrapped around the flattened dough to begin the inverted pastry.

Two double folds and a final single fold build the pastry layers, with chilling between stages. Peeled, cored apple pieces cook with the filling’s butter, sugar and liquid vanilla until they become a compote, which is cooled before filling.

The chilled pastry is rolled and cut into ovals. Compote goes in the centre, the washed edges fold together, and the tops receive the same egg-yolk wash before being scored and baked golden.

An optional thin coat of cane-sugar syrup gives the baked turnovers a shiny finish after a brief return to the oven. The finished turnovers are then left to cool.