Some of my favorite books will forever be the Little House books. I remember the first time I read them being utterly taken with the amazing descriptions Laura Ingalls wrote of her pioneer life. And though they were written as fiction, the stories were true! I still love to take out my battered copies of the books every once in a while and peruse the well loved pages.

One of the aspects of Laura’s writing that I have always loved are her descriptions of food! 🙂 Everything from a prairie hen supper out on the Kansas plains to the maple sugar party and the Christmas, Thanksgiving and Fourth of July celebration dinners.

Being the foodie that I am, I have always wanted to try a recipe of Laura’s from her books. First, I wanted to try the famous “Vanity Cakes”, but then decided that Almonzo’s apple turnovers would be more enjoyed by myself and my family.

“Eliza Jane opened the dinner-pail on her desk. It held bread-and-butter and sausage, doughnuts and apples, and four delicious apple-turnovers, their plump crusts filled with melting slices of apple and spicy brown juice.
After Almonzo had eaten every crumb of his turnover and licked his fingers, he took a drink of water from the pail with a dipper in it, on a bench in the corner.”
Farmer Boy, Chapter 1

I do have this wonderful cookbook in my collection, but didn’t really want to use the recipe that they have for apple turnovers. We don’t really love the idea of using a lot of lard in our cooking around here though I am sure it is very authentic.

So, I ended up using this recipe and the turnovers came out perfectly and were most delicious! I might have made more filling or made the dough triangles smaller though. I honestly tried to get pictures, but we ate them all before I had a chance! I promise, they were that good! 🙂