Recipe: Melanie Griffith's Macadamia, Chocolate Chip, & Peanut Butter Mini-Turnovers

Cookbook

Melanie Griffith's
Macadamia, Chocolate Chip,
and Peanut Butter Mini-Turnovers

Makes 32 mini-turnovers

Paul Newman Macadamia nuts make the peanut butter filling in these turnovers unforgettable. It is a little like having a mini-candy bar wrapped in a puff pastry case. When you feel the urge coming on for these, there's an easy solution: Prepare a full batch, then freeze some of them. They freeze beautifully, we are glad to say.

2 cups smooth peanut butter
   at room temperature
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup toasted and chopped macadamia nuts
2 sheets (one 17-1/4 ounce package)
   frozen puff pastry, thawed according to
   the package directions
1 egg, lightly beaten
Confectioners' sugar for garnish (optional)
Mint sprigs for garnish (optional)
Vanilla ice cream as an accompaniment

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a bowl, stir together the peanut butter, chocolate chips, and macadamia nuts until well combined.

Work with 1 sheet of puff pastry at a time. Lightly flour a work surface. Lay 1 sheet of puff pastry on the surface and gently roll it out in all directions to thin it slightly. With a sharp knife, cut the sheet into quarters, then cut each quarter into quarters, making 16 pieces total.

Center 1 teaspoon of the filling on each piece of pastry. For the pastry on the diagonal to form a triangle. Press the open edges of the pastry closed. (At this point the turnovers can be frozen. Arrange in layers, separated by sheets of waxed paper, in a freezer container.) Brush the top of the turnover with the beaten egg and place on a baking sheet.

Make more mini-turnovers with the remaining ingredients in the same manner and brush with the beaten egg.

Bake for 15 minutes. If the turnovers are frozen, preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. Bake the pastries on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Lower the heat to 400 degrees F. And bake for 15 minutes.

Serve at once, dusted with confectioners' sugar and garnished with a mint sprig, with the ice cream.

Newman's Own Cookbook
By Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner
Simon & Schuster
Hardback, 240 pages, $25.00
Publication Date: November 1998
ISBN: 0-684-84832-5
Recipe Reprinted by permission.