This recipe for homemade cherry turnovers is one of the simplest and best pastry recipes around. They can be made with pre-made ingredients or homemade ones, and they can be fully prepped ahead and frozen for a quick-bake easy dessert.

These flaky cherry turnovers make an especially great option for Christmas morning or a breakfast for another special occasion. I also love them as a quick thing to bake fresh for last-minute guests!

However you choose to serve them, I am confident that these will be enjoyed, and your effort will not be wasted!

The best cherry filling

As with most things, the best cherry pie filling is always homemade. You can make a homemade cherry filling, or you can do as I have for this tutorial and just use canned cherry pie filling (for convenience).

If you’re wanting to use fresh cherries during cherry season to make your own filling, I recommend using this recipe for cherry pie filling made with sour cherries (my favorite cherry pie filling!). (Also, bonus, if you don’t have a cherry pitter, check out this tutorial—here’s how to pit cherries without one!)

Other filling ideas for this recipe

In addition to cherry filling, you could use my cream cheese filling recipe to make these into cherry-cheese turnovers! Other ideas would be to make them as apple turnovers, blueberry turnovers, or you-name-it. Any homemade jam or pie filling should work great for this recipe!

Perfect turnover pastry

Turnovers are made with a type of unleavened pastry called puff pastry. This is usually a laminated dough (much like croissants), but you can also make puff pastry with a “Cheater’s” method, which is how I like to do it. You can get that recipe Here.

Puff pastry has lots of layers of butter, which melts between the layers of dough and high heat, forcing the layers apart. This creates those gorgeous, paper-thin, buttery, flaky pastry layers that we all love!

You can make your own puff pastry, or purchase store-bought puff pastry dough from frozen pastry section of your local grocery store.

Can you freeze unbaked cherry turnovers?

Yes, and this is one of my favorite things about them! This is a great recipe that can be completely prepared and then frozen (unbaked). Once they are frozen solid, they can be stored in freezer bags or an airtight container.

How to bake frozen homemade turnovers

Frozen turnovers can be baked according to the exact same directions as fresh ones, with an additional 5 minutes or so to accommodate thawing time. Just bake your frozen turnovers until they are golden brown and bubbly. There’s nothing like fresh cherry turnovers, right out of the oven!

How to make easy cherry turnovers

Here’s the breakdown on how to make this recipe!

You will need

Ingredients

Puff Pastry

You can buy puff pastry sheets pre-made (which is definitely the easiest way to do it), or you can make your own. Here’s my cheater’s recipe, using chunks of butter mixed right into the dough (rather than traditional laminating). This recipe calls for a 1/2 batch of my homemade flaky puff pastry.

If you decide use store-bought puff pastry, you can use 1 sheet for this recipe (and cut it into 9 squares instead of 16).

Cherry Pie Filling

As I mentioned earlier, I recommend a good homemade cherry pie filling for the best results, but you can always pick up a can of pre-made pie filling as well (which I did for this recipe)! Sometimes convenience is everything, am I right?

Egg

Beaten egg is used to brush on the tops of the turnovers to give them a nice glossy sheen and to allow the coarse sugar topping to stick. You can omit the egg wash and use water or milk instead, but I highly recommend using the egg for the sake of making the turnovers look beautiful.

Coarse sugar

You can purchase coarse sugar at a local bulk food store or order it online. This is the sparkly sugar that you usually see in bakeries on turnovers and other pastries.

In a pinch, you can substitute coarse sugar for regular white sugar, or sprinkle your finished turnovers with powdered sugar instead.

Instructions

Heat the oven

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Roll and cut the pastry

On lightly floured surface, roll your pastry out into a 16″ square, about 1/8″ thick. Cut into 16 smaller equal squares. (If you want to make larger turnovers, cut the square into 9 pastry squares instead, or for store-bought puff pastry, cut the sheet into 9 as well).Tip: If you’re having trouble rolling the pastry thin enough, try turning it over on your work surface with a fresh dusting of flour and rolling it again from the other side.

Fill the turnovers

Spoon about 1/2 Tbsp. cherry pie filling (or 1 Tbsp for larger turnovers) into the center of each square, and brush 2 of the edges with a little bit of water (not too much, just enough to moisten them).
Fold the pastry over, corner to corner, sealing the moistened edge to the plain one and forming a little triangle shape. Pinch the edges lightly to encase the filling, and then use a fork to crimp the edges and seal them really well. It’s important not to over-fill the turnovers so that the filling doesn’t spill out and damage the seal.

Bake

Place the triangle shapes onto prepared pans, brush the top of each turnover with egg wash, and sprinkle with a little sugar (coarse sugar is recommended). If desired, cut a little slit into the top of the pastry.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and puffy. Cool on wire racks. Serve the day they are made.

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