PopTart Tutorial or I Actually Remembered to Take Pictures!

First of all I have to thank my infinitely patient 17 year old foodie daughter for lending her photography skills. I have been seeing recipes around blogger-land for homemade pop tarts for a while. Well, I finally broke down and tried them and they were, not surprisingly, a hit! Since I don't own any unpronounceable additives or preservatives, I don't feel guilty about letting each of the kids eat three!!
I adapted a recipe I found on the Crepes of Wrath blog. By adapted I mean I combined a few steps and wasn't quite as fussy with everything. I made the dough in the food processor and I didn't cover my baking sheet with foil or spray it, I just put the tarts straight on it with no problem.

 

The crust is a basic recipe: simply flour, salt, butter, shortening and cold water.  I made the dough in the food processor. No ceramic chickens were harmed in the making of this recipe.

3 cups flour

Add 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter and 1/2 cup shortening and 1 teaspoon salt. Pulse until combined and dough resembles small peas. Add 6-7 tablespoons cold water and pulse until dough forms a ball.

Flour work surface so your dough won't stick.

Roll out your dough to about 1/8 inch thick. Trim the rough edges.

Cut into rectangles - size is up to you. We thought it might be fun sometime to make a gigantic one!

Now it's time for fillings and toppings. We chose raspberry jam with chocolate sprinkles, pineapple jam with yellow sugar sprinkles and sugar and cinnamon filling with cinnamon icing...yummers!

Spread 1 or 2 tablespoons or jam on the bottom pastry layer of each pop tart.

Cover with top layer of pastry dough and crimp edges with your fingers or, our chosen method, a fork.

Poke holes in the top of each pop tart (for steam to escape) and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden.

Remove to a cooling rack. When completely cool, mix together a cup of powdered sugar and a tablespoon or so of milk. I always eyeball this until it reaches the consistency I want. Ice the poptarts and add sugar or sprinkles while the icing is still wet (in other words, don't ice them all and then think you're going to come back and sprinkle all of them...the sprinkles will just roll off....trust me, I did it that way at first!)

Here is the inside...flaky crust, sweet filling, a dose of requisite chocolate.

This recipes made 12 poptarts. Next time I will probably double it again and add more filling. I was a little skimpy on it this time (erring on the side of caution!) Thanks to Crepes of Wrath! Enjoy!

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