These puff pastry strawberry turnovers are super easy to make and totally irresistible. With a soft, tart and sweet filling encased in buttery, flaky puff pastry, they’re scrumptious.
Like little strawberry hand pies, they’re so versatile. The filling is easy and made from scratch. You can use fresh or frozen strawberries and devour them for breakfast, brunch, dessert or even on picnics. What’s more, they can be prepped ahead of time and chilled in the fridge overnight before baking.
The filling is adapted from my strawberry compote (just made thicker) and these turnovers are a take on my blueberry turnovers.
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Ingredients & substitutions
The ingredients list for these easy strawberry turnovers is short so get the best you can.
Detailed quantities and instructions in the recipe card below.
- Puff pastry sheets: You just need store-bought puff pastry dough. You can generally buy it in square sheets or rectangular sheets. If you can buy a block, that’s great too. Whichever you choose will work but the quantity you can make will depend on the size / shape of your pastry sheets.
- Strawberries: You can use frozen or fresh strawberries in the same quantities. If you find your strawberries don’t have a good flavour, you can add a little strawberry extract too to intensify it. Other berries can work too like blueberries, blackberries or raspberries.
- Sugar: A little granulated sugar is used to make the strawberry filling while icing sugar (powdered sugar) is used for the glaze.
- Balsamic vinegar adds a great tang and goes beautifully with strawberries but you can swap it for lemon juice if you prefer.
If you don’t want to make the homemade strawberry filling, you can use strawberry jam.
How to make strawberry turnovers
These strawberry puff pastry turnovers are very simple to make. There are a couple of very important tips (below this section) to make them perfect but all in all they aren’t tricky at all.
Detailed quantities and instructions in the recipe card below.
1. Make the strawberry filling
Combine strawberries, sugar, cornflour (aka cornstarch), balsamic vinegar and vanilla in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly until it’s very thick and jam-like.
2. Shape the pastries
Cut your pastry into 6 squares then add a heaped tablespoon of the strawberry mixture to the centre of each one. If you need to, you can use a rolling pin to roll the puff pastry out a little more so that you’re able to get 6 larger squares (mine are each about 12cm/~5in square).
Fold one corner diagonally over to the other side and carefully press down around the edges to seal the strawberry filling inside. Use the tines of a fork to crimp firmly around the edges to seal the filling in.
Transfer the strawberry turnovers to a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Brush them with an egg wash (this will help to get that lovely golden brown on the outside) then bake for 15-20 minutes.
3. Glaze them
Finally, mix together the icing sugar and some milk, lemon juice or water until it’s thick but pourable. Drizzle it over the baked strawberry turnovers and they’re ready to serve.
Tips & tricks
- Keep the pastry cold: The colder you can keep the pastry, the better it will puff. It also becomes harder to handle if it gets too soft.
- Make the filling thick: The strawberry filling needs to be very very thick so that it doesn’t just ooze straight out of the pastries when you fill them. Make sure to get it thick and jammy in the pan, then chill it until cold before you use it.
- Freeze the filling: If you’re finding it too messy, freeze the strawberry filling in ice cube trays first, then place the frozen filling into the pastry before baking (it doesn’t need to thaw first).
Storage
These are definitely best served fresh however you can store leftovers for later. Once cooled, store the strawberry pastries in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
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Ingredients
- 1 ½ square sheets puff pastry (or 1 rectangular one), (roughly 375g / 13¼oz)
- 450 g fresh or frozen strawberries , hulled and roughly chopped, (3 cups chopped / 1lb)
- ¼ cup white granulated sugar (65g / 2¼oz)
- 2 teaspoons cornflour (US cornstarch)
- 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg yolk mixed with a dash of water or milk
- ½ cup icing sugar (powdered sugar) (65g / 2¼oz)
- 2-3 teaspoons milk as required
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
Instructions
- Thaw the pastry in the fridge overnight. When using the pastry, work quickly. It needs to remain as cold as possible to get the best rise.
- To a medium saucepan add the strawberries, sugar, cornflour, balsamic vinegar and vanilla. Toss well then turn the heat on medium and cook, 10-12 minutes stirring regularly, until thick and jammy. It will start with the strawberries releasing a lot of liquid and will simmer and eventually get to a point where when you drag the spoon through it takes a 5-8 seconds to cover back over again. It needs to be nice and thick and jammy.
- Transfer the strawberry filling to a bowl and chill in the fridge until very cold (or freeze it in ice cube trays for even less mess. You want it to be very cold so that it doesn’t run out the edges while you’re trying to fold your turnovers.
- Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan) / 400F. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
- Lay the pastry out on a clean work surface. Cut the puff pastry into squares using a sharp knife or pizza cutter (From a square sheet, you’ll get 4 and from a rectangular sheet you’ll get 6 squares).
- Add 1-2 tablespoons of strawberry filling to the centre of each square of pastry. The amount you add will depend on the size of you pastry sheet to begin with. Try not to overfill as it can get messy. When folding if you notice the filling pressing out the sides too much, it’s probably too full, so remove some.
- Fold one corner to the other diagonally, pressing lightly to seal and trying not to push the filling out the sides. Use a fork to crimp the edges to seal them tightly.
- Use a pastry brush to brush with egg wash then bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and crisp. Let them cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. If the filling has come out, just push it back in with a spoon.
- Place the icing sugar into a small bowl with a fine mesh sieve over the top. Add 1 ½ teaspoons of milk and mix well. Add a little more milk, or water, if required, and stir until thick but pourable.
- Drizzle the glaze over the turnovers and serve.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- Always keep the puff pastry as cold as possible whilst still malleable.
- The strawberry filling must be cooled before adding to the puff pastry or it will just squidge straight out the sides and soften the pastry.
- If your strawberries are underripe or very tart with not a strong flavour, you can add 1/2-1 teaspoon of strawberry extract (don’t use strawberry essence or strawberry flavouring).
- If your filling isn’t thick enough or cold enough it will ooze out the sides of the pastries as you’re trying to fold them. If you find it too messy, just try freezing it in ice cube trays first and add frozen filling to the pastries.
- A compote made from cherries, blackberries or blueberries also works well.
- Make apple turnovers using my sauteed cinnamon apples recipe.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
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