Homemade Pop Tarts

For my 200th post, I decided to bake a challenge! Pastry and I have never gotten along well, but they say practise makes perfect...unfortunately for me practise is just not working. These did turn out better than my last pie, though. I found this recipe on Pintrest, which led me to the blog called Smitten Kitchen. Hers looked so delicious, I decided even with my pastry affliction, I had to try them.

Homemade Pop-Tarts.


Pastry:

2 cup all-purpose flour.
1 Tbsp sugar.
1 tsp salt.
1 cup unsalted butter, cut up.
1 large egg.
2 Tbsp milk.

Mix together flour, sugar and salt. Mix in butter until it resembles coarse oatmeal. In another bowl, whisk together egg and milk. Add to flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Turn onto floured board and knead slightly before splitting ball in half to work with.
At this point, the dough can be wrapped and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before rolling out.

Filling:

3/4 cup jam.
1 Tbsp cornstarch.
1Tbsp cold water.

Combine water and cornstarch, whisking until smooth. In small saucepan, stir cornstarch mixture into jam. Heat over medium stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a low boil. Simmer for two minutes, stirring as necessary. Let cool completely before using.

To Assemble:

Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into squares or rectangles as desired. Put a bit of filling onto half of the squares.  Brush a bit of beaten egg (or water) around edges to use as glue. Top with second pastry square. Use a fork to seal all the edges and poke a few holes in the top. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before baking at 350 F for about 20 minutes.

These are my masterpieces after baking...i guess my seals on the edges were not very tight. The first couple I made were the best (left pan, bottom) but after that i think the dough got to overworked. I had a hard time rolling it out. I ended up just rolling small pieces of it, folding them in half and cutting 2 identical sized squares out of it. They may not be the most beautiful pop-tarts, but they certainly taste great!

For the filling, i used a jar of my Mom's homemade strawberry jam. If you check out the Smitten Kitchen blog (link at top) she has several variations that you can try.

Honestly, i really do not like pop-tarts. I find them disgusting. I keep a box in the cupboard because my nephew loves them, and they are an easy snack for him when he is visiting. I would rather give him something like this instead, but he is used to the real thing and therefore I am sure he would say he does not like it. If I can get better at the pastry making and sealing them, my future babies will be getting these instead!

So this is my 200th post. It is hard to believe it! Not every one of my posts are new recipes, but I have tried a lot of new things in the last year and a half, things i think I would have otherwise not tried! I can't wait to see what the next 200 posts will bring!

Hope everyone is having a great week, it's almost the weekend!!