Shopping is one of my favorite activities and finding a bargain makes it even better. Last time I was at the mall - William's Sonoma had a sale going on, look what I found:
A toaster pastry press to make poptarts at home!!! And a sandwich press which I plan on using for mini pies. My favorite pop tart was always the glazed brown sugar cinnamon one. Do you have a favorite pop tart flavor? I wanted to try some with a fresh fruit filling to make them healthy and more like a fruit tart. So I set out to make home made pop tarts with fresh pastry and filling ingredients. You don't need to purchase this set, these can be made without this press, just follow the steps but hand measure and cut out 4 1/2 X 3 1/2"rectangles for your bottoms and tops, when at the pressing step - press the edges down with a fork.
Making these pastries turned out to be pretty easy and was a fun process seeing them come together. And the best part they were soooo delicious with the fresh pastry crust and real fillings, much better then the store bought ones! Here are the steps:
Make the pastry, recipe below, then mix desired fillings recipe and suggestions below
Roll out dough and cut out your bottom layer of pastry with outer ring of press, and fill centers with desired fillings, I used apple, brown sugar cinnamon and blueberry preserves
Roll out and cut out tops of pastries with same outer ring of press and place on top of filling
Use your handy pop tart tool with the inner ring this time and press to crimp down edges, wa la, pop tarts!
Bake till golden brown about 25 minutes @350 degrees
Glaze your pastries as desired
Pastry:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs sugar
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, diced
6-8 Tbs cold water
1 egg, beaten with 1 tsp water
Cinnamon Sugar Glaze:
3/4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
4 tsp milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
In a food processor pulse together the four, salt and sugar until combined. Add the butter and process until mixture resembles coarse meal, add the water and pulse a few more times until the dough holds together. Divide dough in 1/2, wrap in saran wrap and shape into a disk, refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out 1 of your doughs on a floured surface into a rectangle 1/8 inch thick. Using the outer ring of the press, cut out 8 pastries, and place these bottoms on your prepared pan. Fill each bottom with desired fillings about 2 Tbs and spread leaving a 1/2 inch border. Brush edges of bottoms with the beaten egg mixture. Then roll out second dough same way and cut out 8 tops with outer ring of press. Top each pastry, place the press with inner ring down to seal the edges. Position racks in the upper and lower third of oven and preheat to 350. Refrigerate prepared pastries in pans for about 20 minutes, then bake the pastries until golden about 25 minutes, about 1/2 way through the baking reverse positions of the pans. Let cool on baking sheets for a few minutes then remove to wire rack and let cool completely.
For glaze: place all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until combined, add more milk if glaze is too thick, use a spoon and drizzle about 1 Tbs glaze over each pastry. Let set before eating.
Recipe adapted from Williams Sonoma
Fillings, for each recipe mix all ingredients together until combined, spoon onto bottom pastry as instructed above. Fruit jams or preserves work well as a filling too.
Apple filling:
1 granny smith apple finely chopped
2 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Brown sugar-cinnamon filling:
5 Tbs packed dark brown sugar
5 tsp sugar
1 Tbs flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
Peach/blackberry filling:
1 cup small diced peaches
1/2 cup blackberries
1 1/2 tsp light brown sugar
dash cinnamon
1 tsp cornstarch
