Sunday, May 31, 2009

Homemade Pop Tarts = Delicious

Someone on eGullet posted a recipe for making your own pop tarts. A lot of pop tart recipes just have you use a regular pie crust dough, but he tried to develop a crust that was akin to the original (although much tastier). So I decided to give them a try, and the result was delicious!

First batch ready to go in the oven.
First batch out of the oven: chocolate, blueberry and strawberry.
The "money shot." This one is blueberry - my favorite. The filling is homemade blueberry jam I received as a gift.
For the second batch, I had some friends over, and we made a bunch of mini-tarts, all in different flavors. I frosted them in different colors so I'd be able to tell them apart.
L to R: caramel, apricot, raspberry, thimbleberry, blackberry. All from random half-jars of preserves, jam, etc hanging out in my fridge.
To tell them apart while they were baking, we docked the top pastry with a letter to represent the filling. These are two of the three savory ones we made - the P is pesto & parmesan, and the M is mango chutney. There was also a sundried tomato & parmesan one. We thought tapenade would be great, but didn't have any - next time!

One of the things that makes pop tart dough different than you'd expect is that it's not sweetened. There's just 1 tsp of sugar to 3.5 cups of flour in the recipe. This makes it perfect for playing with savory fillings as well as sweet. And I love the visual fun of having a savory that looks sweet. To really play the trompe l'oeil card, I just need to figure out how to mimic the frosting and sprinkles in a savory application.

I've been pretty staid in my sweet fillings so far, just because I have so many jars of jam in my refrigerator. But there's lots of possibility for creative applications there too.

The other thing that's different about pop tart dough is that it's kind of dry. So you'll want a glass of milk to wash them down - it's the perfect pairing.

5 comments:

Alex Harrison said...

I'm not sure why this has never occurred to me to attempt, but WOW! I have a serious thing for Pop Tarts, so thanks for this post!

Kate said...

Would cream cheese and chive flowers work for a savory decoration? Or maybe some poppy seeds?

Tammy Coxen said...

Those are great ideas, Kate. I'd originally rejected cream cheese because ideally I want that smooth glaze-like look that the sugar frosting brings. But I was at a wedding this weekend and there was cream cheese frosting on the cakes that was lovely and shiny, so I think it's just a matter of spending the time to smooth it out, and I could get the right effect. Love the poppy seed idea - that would be perfect. Sesame seeds too - any seed, really.

Laurie said...

Late to the party, but just have to say...

What a great idea! I love the thought of making (and eating) the savory ones.

By the way, really enjoy and appreciate your contributions to the candy threads at eGullet (which is how I found you here, incidentally).

And your suppers sound awesome!

Tammy Coxen said...

Thanks for the kind comments, Ella Bee! Good luck with your own pop tart creations.