Arby’s Cherry Turnovers

Love warm cherry turnovers with their crispy pastry, and the tangy-sweet filling of cherries? Make Arby’s Cherry Turnovers are at home.

homemade Arby's cherry turnovers with glaze


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Cherry Turnovers With Puff Pastry

Turnover recipes often begin with puff pastry. Yes, you can make homemade puff pastry; it just takes a long time to do. If you want to try your hand at making your own puff pastry from scratch, Martha Stewart has a really nice recipe for homemade puff pastry.

However, like many of us, it’s easier and far less time-consuming to take a stroll down the frozen food aisle and grab some frozen puff pastry for your puff pastry turnovers. I personally like Trader Joe’s and Pepperidge Farm, and sometimes my local store will have another brand. Any of them will work well.

three homemade Arby's cherry turnovers on a wire rack

Cherry Turnover Filling

This cherry turnovers recipe uses canned pie filling. Choose a better quality cherry pie filling. This is one of those times to bypass the store brand and go for Solo, Musselman’s, or Comstock. Each one of these brands is quite good.

Easy Cherry Turnovers

You will be amazed at how easy it is to make this copycat Arby’s Cherry Turnovers recipe. Baking these puff pastry turnovers at home is so simple, and you only need a few ingredients – frozen puff pastry, cherry pie filling, egg, milk, and powdered sugar.

7 Steps for Working With Frozen Puff Pastry

  1. Defrosting Your Puff Pastry: Read the box for defrosting directions and follow them implicitly. You can ruin your puff pastry by leaving it out on the counter for a long time – you may end up with a hunk of dough that is hard to use.
  2. Unfolding Your Puff Pastry: Frozen puff pastry comes neatly folded in a package. You need to unfold the pastry in order to use it, but don’t do this too early! If the pastry begins to crack when you are unfolding it, wait a few minutes before proceeding.
  • 3. Flattening Your Puff Pastry: The next step is to roll out your pastry. Before doing so, lightly flour your work surface and your rolling pin. This will help to roll the pastry out smoothly with no sticking or pulling.
  • 4. Be Careful With Your Rolling Pin: Puff pastry requires some delicacy. Don’t overdo your rolling or use too much force. If you do, you’ll roll out some of the flakiness, and your pastry won’t puff as much.
  • 5. Cut With Care: Use a sharp-edged paring knife, pizza cutter, or cookie-cutter, depending on what you are using the pastry for. 
  • 6. Keep Your Pastry Chilled: After cutting your puff pastry shapes, refrigerate them so they stay cold (this will help your pastry puff). As soon as you’ve assembled one, return it to the fridge while working on the next one. 
  • 7. Do not assemble your turnovers ahead of time (unless freezing – see below), or they will tend to turn out soggy.

Variations on Cherry Turnovers Recipes

If cherries are not your favorite, you can make turnovers with your favorite fruit pie fillings. Here are some other ideas for great turnovers:

  • Add a little dollop of softened cream cheese to each turnover before you add the cherry filling. 
  • A little cinnamon goes well with apples and pears. You can also use apple pie spice, nutmeg, a pinch of cloves, or a tiny bit of allspice. Even a smidge of ginger tastes great.
  • Drizzle some caramel over the filling or add a few raisins.
  • Add a splash of bourbon.
  • Fill with lemon cream or lemon curd
  • Try blueberries and lemon curd
  • Sliced bananas with nut butter makes a wonderful turnover.
  • Add nuts–roughly chopped pecans, walnuts, or pistachios.
  • Mix in chocolate pieces or caramel bits. 

Variations on Icing for Turnovers

  • Top your turnovers with chocolate syrup
  • Give the icing a little pop with some vanilla and perhaps a little cream cheese.
  • Drizzle some caramel over the top.
  • Tip: Try deep-frying a turnover – it’s insanely delicious! It only takes a minute or two in 350°F oil until the pastry is golden brown on both sides.

If you have some puff pastry leftover, one way to use it up is to add it to soup as in this copycat chicken pot pie recipe. 

Storing Leftover Puff Pastry Turnovers

Keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 1-2 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat in the oven or toaster oven at 375 F for 5-10 minutes until crispy and warm.

  • Freezing Unbaked Turnovers: Assemble the turnovers but do not brush with egg wash. Arrange them in one layer on a sheet pan and freeze. When frozen, place them in freezer-friendly resealable bags. Frozen turnovers are best used within 3 months. 
  • Baking Frozen UncookedTurnovers: Do not thaw. Brush with egg wash and bake frozen at 400 F per the recipe instructions until the filling is bubbling. You may need to allow an extra 5-10 minutes of baking time. If the turnovers start to brown too quickly, loosely cover with foil.
  • Freezing Baked Turnovers: Allow the turnovers to cool completely, then wrap in aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. 
  • Baking Frozen Cooked Turnovers: Do not thaw and bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes until warm and crispy. They may not turn out as flaky as when freshly baked.

Recipe Ingredients

Here’s a list of what you need:

  • Frozen puff pastry – Pepperidge farm is easy to find, but I have also found some other brands in upscale grocery stores.
  • Cherry pie filling – buy a good quality brand here, you want lots of cherries in the can!
  • Egg – I use large or extra large sized eggs.
  • Milk – I have used whole milk and 2% with good results
  • Powdered sugar – if your powdered sugar has sat around for awhile, you may want to sift it before using.
Arby's cherry turnovers ingredients

How to Make Cherry Turnovers

  1. Defrost puff pastry and lay out the pastry sheet on a baking sheet.
  2. Cut the pastry into 4-inch squares.
    puff pastry squares on a baking sheet
  3. Place a couple of tablespoons of pie filling into the center of each square.
    puff pastry square with cherry pie filling in the center of each one
  4. Brush egg wash on the edge of the puff pastry except for 1 inch in the center of each of the sides.
  5. Fold the pastry squares to make triangles.
  6. Gently press the edges together.
  7. Brush egg wash on the top of the turnovers.
    cherry turnovers on a baking sheet before being baked
  8. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
  9. Combine milk and powdered sugar in a small bowl.
  10. Drizzle the icing over the turnovers.

Recipe Variations

If you do not like cherries, you can make turnovers with other pie fillings:

  • Apple
  • Blueberry
  • Lemon Cream or Lemon Curd
  • Mixed Berry
  • Peach
  • Raspberry

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

three homemade Arby's cherry turnovers and a small bowl of cherry pie filling

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homemade Arby's cherry turnovers with glaze

Arby’s Cherry Turnovers

Make Arby's Cherry Turnovers at home with this easy copycat recipe.
4.43 from 7 votes
Print Pin Rate Add to Collection
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Arby’s Recipes, Cherry Turnovers
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Servings: 6
Calories: 649kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 package puff pastry, defrosted
  • 1 21-ounce can cherry pie filling
  • 1 egg white lightly beaten with a teaspoon of water
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375°F.
  • Lay out the puff pastry sheets on an ungreased baking sheet, and cut the dough into 4 x 4-inch squares.
  • Place about 2 tablespoons of pie filling into the center of each square. Ideally, there will be about 5 to 6 cherries in each turnover. Do not overfill, as the filling may leak out while baking.
  • Brush egg wash on all the inside edges of the puff pastry, except for 1 inch in the center of each of the sides. This will allow the puff pastry to vent while cooking.
  • Fold the turnover in half diagonally to make a triangle. Gently press the edges together. Don’t press too hard, or the edges won’t puff as they should.
  • Brush the top of each turnover with egg wash and bake for 25 to 27 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove the turnovers from the oven and allow them to cool slightly.
  • Make the icing by combining the milk and the powdered sugar in a small bowl. Drizzle the icing over the turnovers.

Video

Notes

Store cherry turnovers in an airtight container.
These are best eaten within 1 or 2 days.

Nutrition

Calories: 649kcal | Carbohydrates: 84g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 233mg | Potassium: 172mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 215IU | Vitamin C: 3.5mg | Calcium: 28mg | Iron: 2.3mg

About Stephanie Manley

I recreate your favorite restaurant recipes, so you can prepare these dishes at home. I help you cook dinner, and serve up dishes you know your family will love. You can find most of the ingredients for all of the recipes in your local grocery store.

Stephanie is the author of CopyKat.com's Dining Out in the Home, and CopyKat.com's Dining Out in the Home 2.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. George Moy

    5 stars
    These turnovers that Arby makes is must be made in phyllo dough and the reason why? They have a good amount of filling inside and the outside flakes like the texture of a spinach pie and when you compare the quality with the ones you buy from Kroger,Walmart,those turnovers looks and taste like the pie you get from McDonald’s.So THERE IS A big difference in using certain dough when you make these turnovers.

  2. Baral'heia

    Just FYI: When I worked for Arby’s in the early 2010’s, the turnovers were actually just Pepperidge Farms turnovers, except we got them in bulk cases instead of the little 4-pack from the grocery store. There was talk about switching suppliers at the end of my employment there, so I’m not sure what they use today – but that’s how it was when I worked there.

    Pro tip: Try deep frying one sometime. It’s ridiculous! If memory serves, it only took a minute or two in 350°F oil. Just make sure the pastry has turned golden brown on both sides before pulling them from the oil.

    • Karina

      I was here to say the same thing. But, I worked there in the 80s and instead of icing, we used rock sugar. I talked to on of the local arby workers about this and she said they did still use Pepperidge Farm

  3. Dai

    Thanks for the recipe it’s very good. The icing recipe needs more though. It’s not the same as the turnovers in my area of Ohio. The vanilla is needed and I’m thinking they may have cream cheese in it too. Not sure until I give it a try. Still the icing as it is works fine.

  4. Bible Reader Lady

    Thank you, I’ve made some of these tonight, using Pepperidge Farms puff pastry sheets and Comstock. I brushed melted real butter and a bit of sugar over the tops of mine, and they browned nicely, and turned out grand!

    May I link to this blog page of yours, in my blog?

    Romans 10:8-13; John 3:16-21

    • Weezy

      My favorite desert is the walnut cake with bananas in a pastry cream filling from the Stroudsmoor restaurant in Stroudsburg Pa. I cannot find a copycat recipe for it. I will try the cherry turnovers you have above. Thank you. Louise

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