½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and diced
½ cup vegetable shortening
4-6 tablespoons ice-cold water
Filling:
2 cups walnuts
6 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Other:
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water (for eggwash)
Instructions
Start out by making the pastry. Pulse together the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and shortening and pulse until it looks like coarse meal (the pieces of butter should be about the size of small peas). (Alternatively, this can be done by hand; whisk the flour and salt together in a large bowl, then cut in the butter and shortening with a pastry cutter or a fork until it looks like coarse meal.) Transfer the dough from the food processor to a large bowl. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time, working the dough together with your fingertips just until it comes together, and only adding enough water so the dough comes together when you squeeze it. Gather the dough together into a ball and then divide it into 2 pieces. Flatten each into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes.
While the pastry chills, make the filling. Pulse the walnuts in a food processor until finely chopped (but don’t let them turn into walnut butter; or chop them by hand). Combine the nuts in a medium bowl with the maple syrup, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Unwrap 1 disk of chilled dough and generously flour both sides. Lay a piece of parchment paper out on your work surface and generously flour it. Place the dough on the prepared parchment paper and top with another piece of parchment. Working from the center out, roll the dough out to a circle about 11 inches in diameter. Use a 2¼ inch cookie cutter (or a glass with that diameter) to stamp out circles in the dough; note that the cookie cutter I used was crimped, but a regular cookie cutter is fine.
Place a slightly scant 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of each circle of dough. Use a thin metal spatula to lift up one circle of dough. Fold the dough over onto itself, pressing the cookie closed and being careful to not tear the dough. The cookie will be very full and the dough should just cover the filling as you press the cookie closed. Continue this way until all the cookies are made. Gather the scraps, re-roll them out, and continue this way; repeat this process with the second disk of dough. (You should get about 50 to 60 cookies total.)
Arrange the cookies on baking sheets 1 inch apart; refrigerate until fully chilled, about 2 hours.
During the last 30 minutes of chilling, preheat the oven to 350F. Once chilled and the oven is hot, brush the top of each cookie with eggwash. Bake until the cookies are golden, about 22 to 24 minutes, rotating the trays once halfway through.
Optionally, you can roll the cookies in powdered sugar once they’re cool. Serve with hot coffee or tea.
Notes
Pastry Crust Recipe: This is the recipe I also use for both my sweet and savory pies. If you want to use it for pie, note that this recipe makes enough crust for 1 double-crusted 9-inch pie or 2 single-crusted 9-inch pies.
Recipe by An Edible Mosaic™ at https://www.anediblemosaic.com/mini-maple-cinnamon-walnut-turnover-cookies/