Crab Turnovers

So as I mentioned before, I had a request for my crab turnovers for the baby shower today. To be honest, I was more than a little worried about making them and bringing them in. I felt like there was this huge burden of proof that I needed to achieve. Everyone's expectations are high (including my own).

I had this nightmare the other night that all of a sudden the recipe would fall apart and nothing would work right! The dough would be a gooey mess, the filling would be over seasoned, the oven would burn every last one, it would taste awful and everyone would come down on me for creating such a terrible recipe. It was actually really stressing me out. I want everything to be just right so I can be proud of all the hard work I have put into this and all the other recipes I submitted to the Real Women of Philadelphia.

I actually made the dough on Wednesday night and let it rest in the fridge overnight, rather than just 30 minutes. I knew time would be tight last night and needed any advantage I could get. After work, I walked the dogs and finished up the icing on the cake and cut the fudge into small squares, made dinner, made the crab filling, made my lunch for today, fed the dogs and put away dishes.

I let the dough come to room temperature for about 10 or 15 minutes before rolling it out. I only rolled out so much at a time to prevent over working the dough. Surprisingly, I do not own a 3" cookie cutter so I just use a glass. It doesn't cut quite as well as a cutter would, but it works well enough. I think I will have to add the cookie/biscuit cutter to my birthday wish list (which is actually quite long this year, and its all somehow baking/cooking related...I guess I am making up for all those years when I couldn't come up with any good ideas!).

I used my cookie scoop to add the same amount of filling to each round and gently spread it over half the dough. I brought the other side of the dough up and over the filling and sealed the edges with a fork. Each turnover then went onto an ungreased baking sheet and then into a hot oven. The really nice thing about these is that you can fit so many on one baking sheet, which means a lot fewer pans that go into the oven. While one batch cooked, I rolled out the next set, which worked out well.

I got a little distracted and the first set came out a tiny bit darker than I would have liked. My perfectionist self was mad...I know to watch closer! Since I knew I would need to refrigerate these overnight and rewarm them the next day, I did not add the cheese on top at this point. Rather, I put all the cooled turnovers in a container and shredded a bunch of cheese into another.

I made sure to taste one last night (with added cheese) and was very happy with the results. There was no huge disaster that occurred...no terrible dough, no over seasoned crab. The dough is very flaky and the warm crab definitely transported me back to my childhood. My husband laughed so hard when he saw just how relieved I was once I tasted this batch. We all have fears that everything will go wrong, but I am very glad to say that my fears were unfounded.

The party will be in an hour, I will let you know just how the reheating and addition of the cheese works. And how everyone reacts. Until then, I will just have to hold my breath!