About National Apple Turnover Day
History of the Turnover
The concept of fruit-filled pastry and portable pies is thousands of years old. While the Egyptians were the first great bread bakers, the Greeks upped the game to cakes and sweet doughs.
In ancient Greece, baking first became a profession. We don’t have a date for the first turnovers, but a printed recipe for “Apple Pasties to Fry” appears in England in 1753.In England, printed recipes start to appear around 1750.
But given the paucity of printed cookbooks (and the literacy level of the general public), they may have been popular for centuries. The rule of thumb in centuries past is that when a printed record is first found, the recipe could be generations older.
Add to that a challenge: Turnovers were often called apple pies, apple being the most popular and widely available fruit filling. By the end of the century, turnovers were being wrapped in puff pastry, and were called puffs in the U.S. By 1874, Cassell’s Dictonary of Cookery, published in London, calls them fruit pasties or turnovers. By 1902, Mrs. Rorer’s New Cook Book features a recipe for Apple Turnovers, and the term sticks.
Read more about turnovers at the Nibble Blog
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