Plastic Free Apple Turnovers

With Covid-19 rampaging around the globe, it can be tough to find food that isn’t wrapped in plastic. Many zero waste refill stations are shut, coffee shops are refusing reusable cups, and even reusable grocery bags are being turned away.

While this is understandable due to the pandemic, that doesn’t mean we can’t do our best to cut plastic where ever possible. This week the Rinexii team got a hankering for apple turnovers, but not for the plastic clamshells they are sealed in at the market. We decided to give baking our own a go.

We used this recipe by the Brown Eyed Baker, with just a couple of changes. Since obviously we are trying to reduce plastic waste, instead of wrapping the apple turnover dough in plastic wrap we opted for putting it in an airtight reusable container instead, and I just used the apples I had instead of granny smith.

Here’s a look at the ingredients, minus the ice water which I forgot in the freezer:

Pastry dough and I are not friends, but I chose this recipe specifically because it included a recipe for the dough also. This helped me avoid the enormous amount of waste associated with buying puff pastry dough premade.

I followed the instructions to the T, except I dumped all the liquids in at first because I wasn’t reading it properly. The dough ended up taking so long I split it into two days, and had them all prepped on the baking sheet in the fridge to bake for breakfast in the morning.

The apple turnovers were great! The crust was flaky and buttery. My daughter who hates any kind of bread product or sweet thing ate 3. My son who loves all things baked but is highly suspicious of homemade products ate and loved them.

I will probably make these again, especially as my cherry tree, blueberry bushes, and raspberry bush start providing fruit.

All in all, these did a great job of helping me avoid plastic, and they were fun to make if time consuming. I highly recommend stopping by this blog to use the recipe.