Turkey and Brie Turnovers

I was watching a past episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives last week on the DVR and Guy was visiting “The General Store” in Silver Springs, Maryland. Chef Gillian Clark was showing how she made several southern style menu items – Chicken and Waffles and a few others – including Turkey and Brie Turnovers.

I have always loved Monte Cristo sandwiches – especially the ones at the “Blue Bayou” at Disneyland. These turnovers had the same sweet and savory vibe and I knew I wanted to recreate them. The one thing about Triple D – they don’t always give the measurements or there are sometimes “secret ingredients” – I was up for the challenge. I googled everything possible and couldn’t find the recipe. There was indeed some guess work on amounts and some substitutions – seeing as I wasn’t down for cooking an entire turkey, gobble… gobble.

Dan and I both went to my parent’s place yesterday. Dan helped my Dad with a house project and my Mom and I spent time in the kitchen. A perfect Sunday indeed.

The Ingredients: (8 turnovers)

1/2 Stick of Butter
3 Shallots
Handful of Fresh Thyme
1/4 Cup White Wine
1/4 Cup Chicken Stock
1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
1 Pound of Roasted Turkey – I got a Columbus Turkey Breast from Trader Joe’s
Salt and Pepper
8 Slices of Brie Cheese
1 Package of Puff Pastry – 2 sheets
1 Egg – for the pastry egg wash
1 Large Orange  – zested and juiced
Powdered Sugar – just keep adding until the consistency was thick enough

My Mom (and Dad) preheated the ovens to 350 degrees F. while I got the shallots and thyme prepared for the pan. Dual ovens… oh what I’d give to have those.

I sauteed my shallots and thyme in the butter until everything softened up.

Mom worked on the green bean side dish while I continued with the turkey filling.

The turkey was already cooked – so I just cubed it up and heated it in the pan with the butter, shallots and thyme. I think this recipe would be PERFECT with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. Shredded turkey would probably work better with the puff pastry, but this was a fabulous substitute and way less work.

I added a 1/4 Cup of white wine (Thanks Dad) and a 1/4 cup of chicken broth and gave it a good stir.

I then added a 1/3 cup of heavy cream. I let the turkey simmer in the sauce for a good 10 minutes until it thickened.

It bubbled away at medium/high heat.

It was time to break out the puff pastry sheets. I had them in the fridge defrosting for several days. I even transported them in a cooler bag with ice. It’s really important to not just set them out on the counter for defrosting – the sheets will become too soft and they will stick together. I got the surface and rolling pin coated with flour and I began rolling. My original thought was to just get the creases out. Then I realized that I needed each sheet to equal 4 squares. I had to make the rectangle into a bigger square. I definitely think they used bigger squares on Triple D – but this is what I had and it turned out great.

I used a heaping spoonful of turkey filling on each square and topped that with a slice of brie. I took the rind off 4 of the slices and left it on the other 4. The chef left it on at The General Store. I honestly couldn’t tell a difference.  I used an eggwash to coat the outer edges of my turnovers before sealing.

Seal the edges with a fork and make a few slices in the top to vent.

Coat the turnover with more egg wash before placing onto a non stick baking sheet. I thought there was enough butter in the puff pastry – one sheet was fine, the other needed a spatula to lift – but they didn’t stick too bad. Parchment paper would probably be good – the brie will leak out a little bit.

Definitely not as pretty as the ones on the show – but it was my first time and I think they turned out great. There were some thin pastry areas and a few small tears – but all in all, pretty successful.

We got them into the 350 degree oven for 25 minutes and I started on the sauce.

Zest 1 orange and then juice the orange into the same bowl.

Nice neon orange photo – what can I say? I used my iPhone for all of the photos in today’s post and I wasn’t used to the lighting in my parent’s kitchen. No biggie, it was still fun messing up somebody elses kitchen, hah!

Once you get the juice from the orange into the bowl, add powdered sugar. It took a good 4-5 shakes of the box – totally forgot to measure for the blog recipe. Whoops!

It took a while to whisk the sugar beads out of the sauce. The idea behind the sauce is to top the turnovers with some sweetness and I have to say, it was brilliant. The absolute key to the turnover success. The orange flavor was incredible.

I drizzled the sauce over the turnovers, placed some of my Mom’s green beans on the plates and wow, what an incredible dinner. I made 8 turnovers, but one was plenty for each person.  I took a photo after I cut into one of them, but it turned out too blurry to post. I normally take a million photos of each dish, but I wanted to make sure we ate them while they were hot. I did take a close up photo (in my own kitchen) of one of the turnovers I brought home for lunches this week.

This was a turnover without the sauce – looks kind of like a fish fillet 😉

I will definitely be making these again – especially with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. You could also easily substitute chicken and many different cheeses and fillings. Too rich to be in the weekly rotation, but for sure will be used again and again.