Pork-Filled Turnovers

By darleneandjoel

The cream cheese in the dough and egg yolk in the crust is what forced me to enter this one.

From Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork

Ingredients

• Cream Cheese Dough:
• 6 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 16 tbsp (2 sticks) butter, at room tempurature
• 2 1/4 cups AP flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Mushroom-Sausage Filling:
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 lb pork sausage
• 1/2 cup sauteed mushrooms (my addition)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley
• Egg wash made with one egg lightly beaten with 1 tbsp of cream, milk or water

Preparation

Step 1

To make the dough:
Put the cream cheese, butter, flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse until the mixture just comes together in a ball. Remove the dough and form into 2 disks. Wrap each one and refrigerate for 1 hour, up to 24 hours.

Make the filling:
Heat the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage, break it and cook until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add the cream, increase the heat and stir in the cheese, egg yolks and parsley.

Transfer the filling to a bowl and refrigerate until chilled (50 degrees or less).

Roll out of the dough disks on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8 inch. Let it warm at room temp if the dough is too hard to roll- about 10-15 minutes. Using a 4" biscuit cutter, cut the dough into 8 rounds, gathering scraps and re-rolling. Repeat with the remaining dough disks so that you have 16 dough rounds total.

Place one heaping tablespoon of filling on one half of the dough round, then fold the other half over to make a half moon shape. Seal the edges with the tines of a fork and continue making the turnovers with the remaining dough rounds and filling.

Preheat the oven to 450. Put all the turnovers on one large baking sheet, or 2 if necessary to avoid over crowding, and brush the tops with the egg wash. Bake until the turnovers are golden, about 20 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly before serving.