Home made poptarts

Recently I have seen several blogs making homemade pop tarts. I don't buy them at the store myself because, with four kiddos, a box doesn't last long. But I thought, what the Hay,why not. My son Roberto loves cooking with me... and eating so we made these pop tarts from a recipe in the book, The Homemade Pantry, 101 Foods you can stop buying and start making, by Alana Chernila

These are so simple...Pie crust and fruit filling

Pie crust can be tricky. It's not just the ingredients, but the technique that can mean the difference between a hard crumbly crust or a light flaky crust.

Ingredients:
1C.(2 sticks) cold butter(do not substitute)
2 1/4C flour plus additional for rolling out on the counter
2t. Apple cider vinegar(ACV)
1/4t. salt
1/3C. water

Technique:

Dice the cold butter and toss into the flour. Add the salt. place bowl in the freezer. In a measuring cup measure out water and ACV place this in the freezer. Freeze 10 minutes.

I use a stand mixer. After 10 minutes take out the bowl and cut the butter and flour together. (I use the paddle on my mixer for a few minutes) slowly add the liquid until the dough forms. (works well in the food processor)
Pull the dough together and form two disks and wrap in plastic and chill for 2 hours.

Read a few blogs, toss the laundry, and fold it and put it away. Or play Candy Crush Saga on Facebook and two hours will fly by.

Now is the fun part. Preheat the oven to 375* and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Take out a pie crust disc and roll it out. You can slice it into rectangles or use a biscuit cutter and make circles. Make an even number all about the same size(why I changed over to the circles!)

Place half the pieces on the parchment covered cookie sheet.

Now use an egg wash (egg scrambled with a tablespoon of water) and paint the dough. Take a tablespoon of your filling, I used strawberry jam, and place it in the center of the dough. take a second piece of dough and place it over top, pressing the edges together. I used a fork.

Paint the top of the tart with the egg wash and poke a few holes in the top with the fork to release steam. Place them in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

This recipe made 12 pastries for me. Fortunately, I put up two for my Hubby because when my boys and their friends came in they inhaled them. They were very good. One caution is that the jam is VERY HOT it does burn when it runs out of the tart and down your chin...please wait for them to cool.

These can be made savory as well using ham and cheese or pizza sauce and cheese...more of a hot pocket I guess.
You can make these up to the point of baking and place them in the freezer. I would put the cookie sheet in the freezer until the pastries are frozen and then put them in a bag together, then place them frozen on a cookie sheet and directly into the oven...add an additional 5 minutes to the baking time. Great snacks for the kiddos to put in the toaster oven. You may even bake them ahead of time and then you can nuke them in the microwave wrapped in a damp towel.

Frugally Sustainable