The perfect breakfast treat! Raspberry Bakewell Turnovers. Fresh raspberry ‘quick jam’ and moist nutty frangipane encased in buttery flaky puff pastry.
I absolutely love freshly baked pastries for breakfast, but let’s be real. They can be so time consuming! The folding and turning of the pastry, making lots of intricate fillings, the folding and plaiting of each individual pastry before baking. It’s a lot. So for these raspberry Bakewell turnovers I decided to forgo the homemade pastry and use shop bought. The quality of shop bought puff pastry is honestly so good, and for a delicious weekend bake so so worth the saved time! Of course the fillings are handmade, but they are still nice and speedy! So let’s get breakfast going!
Key Ingredients You’ll Need
- Raspberries – Fresh raspberries are a must here, especially when they’re in season! They are so delicious and make the best quick jam, you’ll want to just eat it from the spoon!
- Ground Almonds – The fundamental component to frangipane is ground almonds. But if you can’t find them, you can make your own by finely blitzing whole almonds.
- Demerara Sugar – The sugar isn’t essential to how the turnovers will bake, but I just love the additional crunch and sweetness it gives pastries!
How to make raspberry bakewell turnovers
Inside these delicious flaky turnovers are a tart ‘quick jam’ and a nutty almond frangipane. The classic bakewell flavours that go so well together. Both fillings take hardly any time at all to create, but elevate this pastry so much! Your friends will be so impressed, seriously. They’re flaky, nutty, tart and buttery. What more could you want!?
Making the ‘quick jam’
I’m calling this a ‘quick jam’ as it will look, feel and taste exactly like jam except it’s not a true jam. There is less sugar used than would be in a jam and there’s also the addition of cornflour to help thicken! This is perfect when you just need to make a small amount as a filling for a pastry or tart etc.
So firstly you need to combine the fresh raspberries and sugar into a saucepan. Then in a small bowl, combine the cornflour and lemon juice together before pouring that into the saucepan too.
You might be wondering why I didn’t just say to add the cornflour into the saucepan with the raspberries and stir everything together. Well, if you’ve ever worked with cornflour before you’ll know that will be a lumpy mess! Cornflour needs to be combined with a liquid first otherwise it will just stick to everything. Cornflour is actually a really fun ingredient to play around with, as the tiny starch particles within it help it to be liquid and then also hard when force is applied. Science brain on for that one!
Once everything is combined in the saucepan, it needs to be cooked over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes. You do want to stir this pretty often so it doesn’t burn! You’ll then be left with a gloriously vibrant raspberry ‘quick jam’.
Now you don’t want the jam to be hot when you’re adding it to the pastry, so pour it out on a plate in a thin even layer and leave to cool. Pouring it onto a plate will speed up the cooling process!
Making the frangipane
Frangipane is one of my favourite things to eat, and is absolutely one of the simplest to make. You need to start with room temperature butter, and combine this with sugar as if you were starting to make a cake. Then the egg should be mixed in, before finally adding the ground almonds. And that’s literally it! Told you it was easy 😉
Assembling the turnovers
Onto the fun part, assembly! At this point make sure your ‘quick jam’ is cooled to room temperature. If it’s still warm to the touch, wait until it’s cooled down. Otherwise you’ll just melt your pastry!
Then unroll your pastry, or roll it out if you have a block, directly onto baking paper and cut it into six even squares. You don’t need to be too accurate about this, so just do it by eye.
Then place a dollop of frangipane directly into the centre of each pastry square. You need about a tablespoon on each square. You may not need to use all of the frangipane mixture in the pastries, as they can overflow if too filled!
Then on top of the frangipane, place a tablespoon of jam onto each. Again, you may not need to use all of the jam.
Now you can start the slightly more messy part! First, beat an egg in a small bowl and glaze the edges of your pastry squares to act as a ‘glue’. Then fold the pastry squares in half on the diagonal, so you’re left with six triangles. Then using a fork, use this to press down the edges to ‘seal’ and create a pretty pattern.
If it’s a hot day your pastry may be getting too warm, so act quickly and confidently. Dithering and being delicate with pastry makes matters worse in my opinion! So show it who’s boss!
Then you can brush each triangle with the glaze again, sprinkle generously with Demerara sugar and you’re ready for the oven! No chill time needed, just get them straight in. They’ll be ready once they’re a deep golden brown colour and your kitchen smells glorious!
Just don’t dig in toooo quickly, as the filling will be as hot as lava!! I sprinkled mine with some icing sugar, but that’s totally optional. I just like how it looks!
Tips & Tricks
Like with most pastries, these turnovers are best eaten on the day of baking. So I wouldn’t advise purposefully making them in advance.
Yes! I think strawberries or blueberries would work just as well.
Make sure you added the correct amount of cornflour, and that you cooked it over the heat until well thickened. It may take more than 3-4 minutes with different saucepans/hobs etc.
These raspberry bakewell turnovers are flaky, buttery, tart, nutty. Just the perfect way to start the morning with a freshly brewed coffee! And doesn’t take you 3-4 hours of turning and folding pastry!! Now that’s the real winner right? 😉
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Raspberry Bakewell Turnovers
Ingredients
'Quick Jam'
- 130 g fresh raspberries
- 60 g caster sugar
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
Frangipane
- 50 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 50 g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 50 g ground almonds
Pastry
- 320 g puff-pastry roll chilled
Glaze
- 1 large egg
- demerara sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas Mark 6 and line a baking tray with baking paper.
- For the 'quick jam': Place the raspberries and sugar into a small saucepan. Then in a small bowl, combine the cornflour and lemon juice, then pour into the saucepan. Stir together using a silicone spatula or wooden spoon. Place over a medium heat and cook for 3-4 minutes until thickened, stirring often – helping to break down the raspberries with your spatula. Then remove from the heat, and pour onto a plate to help cool down quicker. Set aside.
- For the frangipane: Beat the sugar and butter together in a medium bowl using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula until light and fluffy. Add the egg, beating again until fully combined. Finally, add the ground almonds and mix to combine.
- To assemble: Unroll the pastry and cut into six even squares. Spoon on about a tablespoon of the frangipane into the middle of each square. Then spoon about a tablespoon of the cooled quick jam on top of each dollop of frangipane. You may not need to use all of the jam/frangipane.
- In a small bowl, beat the egg and then using a pastry brush, glaze the edges of each pastry square. Then fold the squares in half to make triangles, and seal the edges with a fork. Then glaze each pastry triangle and sprinkle with Demerara sugar. Then bake in the oven for 20minutes until golden brown.
