Homemade Pop Tarts

I made poptarts for the DH's birthday the past weekend. I made two variations-- regular and whole wheat. I used the smittenkitchen recipe for the regular pop tart which I've copied and pasted below (http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/04/homemade-pop-tarts/)

Homemade Pop Tarts
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Pastry
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) milk

1 additional large egg (to brush on pastry)

Cinnamon Filling (enough for 9 tarts)
1/2 cup (3 3/4 ounces) brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, to taste
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 large egg, to brush on pastry before filling

Jam Filling
3/4 cup (8 ounces) jam
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water

Alternate fillings: 9 tablespoons chocolate chips, 9 tablespoons Nutella or other chocolate-hazelnut paste or 9 tablespoons of a delight of your choice, such as salted caramel or a nut paste

To make cinnamon filling: Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, and flour.

To make jam filling: Mix the jam with the cornstarch/water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and simmer, stirring, for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, and set aside to cool. Use to fill the pastry tarts.

Make the dough: Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Work in the butter with your fingers, pastry blender or food processor until pea-sized lumps of butter are still visible, and the mixture holds together when you squeeze it. If you’ve used a food processor, transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Whisk the first egg and milk together and stir them into the dough, mixing just until everything is cohesive, kneading briefly on a well-floured counter if necessary.

Divide the dough in half (approximately 8 1/4 ounces each), shape each half into a smooth rectangle, about 3×5 inches. You can roll this out immediately (see Warm Kitchen note below) or wrap each half in plastic and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Assemble the tarts: If the dough has been chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to soften and become workable, about 15 to 30 minutes. Place one piece on a lightly floured work surface, and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8″ thick, large enough that you can trim it to an even 9″ x 12″. [You can use a 9″ x 13″ pan, laid on top, as guidance.] Repeat with the second piece of dough. Set trimmings aside. Cut each piece of dough into thirds – you’ll form nine 3″ x 4″ rectangles.

Beat the additional egg and brush it over the entire surface of the first dough. This will be the “inside” of the tart; the egg is to help glue the lid on. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each rectangle, keeping a bare 1/2-inch perimeter around it. Place a second rectangle of dough atop the first, using your fingertips to press firmly around the pocket of filling, sealing the dough well on all sides. Press the tines of a fork all around the edge of the rectangle. Repeat with remaining tarts.

Gently place the tarts on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Prick the top of each tart multiple times with a fork; you want to make sure steam can escape, or the tarts will become billowy pillows rather than flat toaster pastries. Refrigerate the tarts (they don’t need to be covered) for 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 350°F.

Charming tip from King Arthur: Sprinkle the dough trimmings with cinnamon-sugar; these have nothing to do with your toaster pastries, but it’s a shame to discard them, and they make a wonderful snack. While the tarts are chilling, bake these trimmings for 13 to 15 minutes, till they’re golden brown.

Bake the tarts: Remove the tarts from the fridge, and bake them for 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown. Cool in pan on rack.

 The whole wheat version I used is as follows: Recipe by 100 Days of Real Food at http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/05/30/recipe­whole­wheat­toaster­pastries­a­k­a­pop­tarts/

Whole­Wheat Toaster Pastries (a.k.a. Pop Tarts!) Adapted from The Homemade Pantry Ingredients 2 ¼ cup whole­wheat flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough ½ tsp salt 1 cup cold, unsalted butter (2 sticks) ½ cup water plus ice 1 egg beaten with a splash of water 7 ­ 8 tablespoons jam or jelly (we prefer either homemade jam or an all­fruit spread that’s sweetened with fruit juice concentrate as opposed to sugar or high­fructose corn syrup) Instructions 1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 2. Put the flour and salt in a food processor with the dough blade and pulse it together briefly. 3. Meanwhile fill a glass measuring cup with ½ cup water and add a few ice cubes to it. 4. Take the cold butter straight out of the fridge and cut it into ½ inch chunks. Sprinkle the pieces of butter on top of the flour in the food processor. Be careful to spread out the butter as opposed to letting it all clump together in one piece. 5. Turn on the food processor and blend until the mixture resembles a crumbly meal. While the food processor is still running add ⅓ cup water through the top. Watch the dough come together and add 2 – 3 more teaspoons of water as needed so a dough ball will form. If some of the dough is in a ball and some is stuck to the sides that is okay…you can fix it with your hands. At this point the dough could be stored in the fridge in plastic wrap for up to 3 days or in the freezer (in a freezer safe container) for up to 6 months. 6. Remove the dough from the food processor and put it on a lightly floured counter or large cutting board. With a rolling pin (and another sprinkling of flour) flatten out the dough to one big rectangle or square that’s no more than a quarter inch thick. Trim any uneven ends and use those to patch other edges as necessary. 7. Using a knife cut out 14 to 16 rectangles of dough. Actually you could make them any shape or size that you want at this point. Lay half of your dough shapes onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Spoon about a tablespoon of jam down the middle of those bottom dough pieces. 8. Top them with matching dough shapes and seal around the edges by pushing down with a fork. Make a few holes in the top with the fork as well. Lastly, brush the tops of the uncooked toaster pastries with the egg wash. 9. Bake at 375 degrees F for 18 – 24 minutes or until golden brown. Cool the cooked pastries on a cooling rack (if you have one) then either eat them right away or store them in the fridge for 3 days or the freezer for several months. They can be eaten cold or reheated. Enjoy! 

My Notes: 

1. The white flour version was much better than the whole wheat, which was very dry. In the future I might try replacing just half a cup of the white flour with whole wheat as Deb recommended. 

2. I made both doughs in the food processor which was amazing!

3. Fillings: We did a raspberry jam, brown sugar cinnamon, chocolate chips, and peanut butter. Overall the jam and the brown sugar were the best fillings-- the other two were rather dry. We did one savory pop tart-- goat cheese and pesto in the whole wheat which was delicious and I think perhaps the whole wheat is better suited to savory tarts. 

4. Overall, working with the dough meant a lot of rest breaks to let the butter firm up while rolling out. Needed space in the fridge and the freezer. Rolling the dough out to the right size and thickness was also tricky-- I definitely had thicker tarts which perhaps contributed to the overall dryness. 

5. I used this icing recipe: 

Icing
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp half and half, plus more as needed
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

However the icing ended up being more of a glaze, and much too thin, and didn't really pool on the top to make a thick layer. I tried adding cocoa power to thicken it up, but that didn't really help. I finally just poured it on two poptarts and put them into the fridge, and they did harden on top after a few hours, but with a lot of side spillage. 

6. I did have leftover cream cheese frosting from the cake/pumpkin sandwich cookies, which were excellent on these. 

7. DH reports that the pastries are best with coffee. I'll take his word for it.