Chaussons aux Pommes (Apple Turnovers)

I have great memories of eating chaussons aux pommes when I lived in France. It was definitely one of my favorites from the Patissier (bakery). The soft, sweet aplles surrounded by the buttery puff pastry is just a wonderful combination.
I won't lie, making the puff pastry dough (it was my first time), was not easy. It's a very involved and delicate process. But I found a youtube video that shows how to do it and it makes it much easier to understand and execute. There is also the recipe to go along with it. I decided to do the apples caramelized in sugar/butter rather than the raw apples shown on the video.

The first step is to make the "detrempe" dough. This is very easy. No need for a stand mixer or anything, just use a spatula at first to mix the ingredients, and then your hands!

Here's the detrempe. This took less than 5 minutes to make.

Just like it is explained in the video, you have to roll out the sides of the detrempe to make it look like a cross:

Now, from what I have read, one of the keys to succeeding at making a puff pastry is the type of butter that you use. It needs to have a high percentage of fat and low moisture. In France, it's called "beurre sec" but good luck finding such a thing in the US! What you need to do is to find a butter with more than 83% fat. I found this one, and it's just perfect, as it has 85% fat!

The butter needs to have been out of the fridge long enough so that its consistency will be about the same as the detrempe dough... but not too soft! It still needs to be somewhat cold!

Mine was too hard/cold the first time I put it on the detrempe so I had to re-do the whole thing...

Here is the "little package" of butter. Make sure that the dough is well sealed around the butter otherwise it will come out when you roll out the dough.

Roll out the dough very carefully:

Fold in thirds and put in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.

While the dough is in the fridge, start preparing your apples. Peel them and cut them into small cubes.

In a pan, on medium high heat, melt some butter and sugar. Add the apples.

Add some cinnamon and vanilla extract on the apples.

The result is nice sweet buttery apples that will melt in your mouth.

Let the apples cool down and get back to your dough. Do all the turns (don't skip!) described in the video/recipe.
This is the dough after the final turn and ready to be cut:

I recently purchased a pastry cutter that worked wonders but you could use a number of things, like a round cookie cutter, or even a cup. I made my circles about 4 inches in diameter.

Put them on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and press each one of the only in the middle to make them oval:

Distribute the apples evenly in the middle of the dough:

Wet each one in a semi-circle, it will help to stck together:

Make sure they are well sealed otherwise they will pop open while in the oven.

Brush some egg white:

The recipe says 10-12 minutes in an oven set at 375 F but that did not work for me. I had to up the temperature to 395 F and they were in the oven for a good 20 minutes. If the oven had been at 395 F from the start, I can see how it could have been 10-12 minutes though. I was surprised because I used an oven thermometer so I know the temperature was not off.

All done! I was very happy with the result! It tasted just like I remembered them from France. Not too bad for a first try at puff pastry :-) Maybe it's not as hard as people think!