Apple Turnovers -Apfelmaultaschen Potato Dough

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Apple Turnovers or “Apfelmaultaschen” is a traditional and historic German recipe. The specialty is rumored to have been invented by monks of the German monastery Maulbronn (located in Baden-Würtemberg) to conceal the fact that they were eating meat during lent. The monks hid the meat inside of the Maultaschen, believing that God couldn’t see it that way (This is reflected in the humorous alternative Swabian name “Herrgottsbescheißerle” (which means roughly: “Little ones to cheat on the Lord”).

The fillings of these Maultaschen are varying. You can add a meat filling or a sweet and fruity filling.
Maultaschen could also derive from the words “Maultatzen” or “Maultatschen” which is antiquated for a slap in the face. Thus the name could refer to the similarity between a swollen cheek and a “Maultasche”. A cook book from 1794 contains several recipes for Maultaschen, but these are recipes for sweet desserts. It takes some time to make this dish and you should have some baking experience. This recipe is using potatoes for the dough. See the notes and Tips.  Happy Cooking!
Find here the recipe for the Bavarian Apple Maultaschen – It is different from this recipe.

Ingredients Apple Turnovers

6-7 medium size (1 kg) potatoes
6 tbsp flour
2 eggs
1 dash salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
6 tbsp sugar
125 g butter as needed
1 tbsp lemon juice (to be used if the apples are sweet)
8 medium size  apples (more on the sour side), peeled, and cut in small slices.

Cooking Instructions Apple Turnovers

– Boil potatoes the day before or let them cool off for at least 4-5 hours (this is very important!). If you make them the day before don’t place potatoes in the fridge. They should not be cold.
– Peel potatoes, grate them, and mash really fine.
– Add flour, eggs and some salt to the grated potatoes and knead until you get a dough. Potatoes contain different starch amounts, so you might need more flour because the dough should not be sticky at all.

– Form the dough into a roll (diameter 5cm or 2 inches) and cut in 1 inch thick slices (12-14 pieces).
– On a wooden board sprinkle flour, flatten each piece first with the hand, then roll each piece until you get a thin layer of dough (20cm diameter, so it needs to be pretty thin).
– Melt butter and spread over each dough piece.
– Peel apples and cut them into thin slices or chop roughly.
– Let them sit in the bowl for 5 minutes.
– If they are too wet drain them and keep the juice, we don’t want too much apple juice.

– On each dough piece add some apples, sprinkle them with sugar.
– Option: make a cinnamon-sugar mix and sprinkle it on apples.
– By using a spatula lift each dough piece on one side so you can roll it.
– Melt butter in a fire-proof form, place rolls tightly to each other.
– Spread melted butter on top of the rolls.
– Pour drained apple juice along the form.
– Bake them for 45-60 min on 180 C or 350F until golden brown.

If you touch the turnovers they should feel like a fresh German roll crust. But inside they should be soft.

Serve them with vanilla sauce, vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream. 
– Go to RECIPE: How to make Vanilla Sauce –

Tip
You can re-heat them again, they still taste delicious.

Notes:
Some add an egg to the potato dough, some say it is not needed.
You need a lot of lour in order to get the dough smooth and not sticky. It’s almost like a strudel dough which needs to be thin too.
Cut the apples roughly.
Add a tbsp of sour cream on top of the apples and also a handful of sugar.
After 30 min take the form out of the oven and add 3 tbsp sour cream on top. This creates  a nice brown crust.