Butterscotch Pear Turnovers – diced pears, butterscotch sauce, and a pinch of cinnamon are stuffed into puff pastry to make a delicious breakfast treat that might as well be dessert, too!

Pears really don’t get the respect they deserve. They have all the flavor of their cousin, the apple, but have a softer, juicier and, in my opinion, more delightful texture. Since pears are also at their peak this time of year, I decided to make a bigger effort to bake with them more. 

My first pear recipe of the season is this one for Butterscotch Pear Turnovers. Butterscotch also suffers from under-utilization, falling second to the similar but still pretty different, caramel sauce. Butterscotch has a richer flavor from the extra butter. I also think it’s more addictive than caramel. Caramel is really sweet and is hard to eat lots of. Butterscotch, however, is rich and goes down so smooth. 

Therefore, to sweeten up the filling for these turnovers, I turned to butterscotch sauce and a couple of fall spices to make these turnovers just what you needed in your life. 

Turnovers are some of the easiest pastries you can make, for the following reasons:

1. The puff pastry is purchased already made
2. The filling can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be
3. They’re ready in under an hour

This turnover is especially easy because the filling is only three ingredients: diced pears, butterscotch sauce, and spices. I bought my butterscotch sauce from the grocery store but you can easily make it yourself. 

Let’s talk about the process for making these turnovers.

How to make these turnovers

First, we make the filling. I used Bosc pears because their texture is a little more firm than other pears. Bosc pears are characterized by their brown skin and thin neck. If you don’t have Bosc pears available, simply use whichever firm pears you can find. The pears are diced and tossed with butterscotch sauce to sweeten them up and a few spices to tame that sweetness a little. 

Next, a sheet of the thawed puff pastry is rolled into a square and then cut into 4 smaller squares. Add the filling to the center of each square and seal them shut. Repeat this with the second sheet of puff pastry. Finally, the turnovers are brushed with egg wash and covered with coarse sugar to give the turnovers a crispy topping as they bake. 

Tips & Tricks

1. Do not overfill the turnovers with pears or else they will split open while baking and the filling will ooze out. 
2. Make sure to keep the turnovers baking until they turn brown all over. If you remove too soon, the centers won’t crisp up and they will get soggy. 
3. Speaking of soggy, you must cut 3 slits in the center of each pastry to help the steam escape while baking. This ensures that the pastry gets crispy and not soggy. 
4. Another tip for baking a crispy pastry is keeping the pastry super cold. This ensures the butter in the pastry does not melt and produces steam as it bakes. The steam creates air and causes the pastry to puff up. 
5. For an incredible dessert, drizzle some butterscotch over the finished pastries and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

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