Ok, I admit it. I used to love Pop-Tarts. Frosted cherry were my favorite flavor. I also really liked brown sugar/cinnamon, and the ones with vanilla creme and chocolate filling. They were one of the few things I would eat at lunch in elementary school (historical note: I refused to eat anything at all at school for all of first grade; I'm not sure why), so I think that's why my mom was willing to buy them. And, finding them tasty, I also ate Pop-Tarts for breakfast pretty regularly as an undergrad who lived in dorms for four years. I'm pretty sure I haven't had one since then.
That's why I was pretty excited by Joanne Chang's recipe (in her Flour bakery cookbook, which I adore for many other reasons too) for homemade Pop-Tarts. I love the idea of a fruit-filled pastry and there was an element of nostalgia that I suspected would resonate with others as well.
To be fair, the concept behind these (fruit, pastry) is similar but Chang's recipe is remarkably unlike the Pop-Tarts I somehow managed to enjoy as a child. Kellogg's describes its blueberry product as: "Nothing too fancy. Just a simple golden crust filled with the most amazing blueberry flavor you've ever known." They then list among the top ingredients two types of corn syrup (high and ordinary fructose), dextrose, and corn/soybean oils (with THBQ, whatever that might be) . The product contains less than 2% blueberries and/or blueberry flavor. Yum?
Chang's recipe, on the other hand, starts with making a pate brisee dough with a cup of butter, some flour, a couple egg yolks, milk and a little bit of sugar. What could possibly be bad there?
Making these wasn't difficult, per se, but I don't have a lot of experience with pastry dough. I've made pie crusts before, and I confess that I'm just not good at getting them to roll out in a nice shape. I'm getting better at this the more I play with them, but I'm still pretty awful at it. Chang somehow believed, however, that I'd be able to create two identically sized 11" x 14" rectangles; and that I'd just be able to easily lift up one of those rectangles and put it on top of the other (effectively assembling all of the individual Pop Tarts at once). Not so easy.
I'm pretty sure the weather and my table were working against me -- both were fairly warm, so the dough was _very_ soft. I improvised a bit. I made one approximate rectangle, cut it into 8 small rectangles and put some raspberry jam on top of each one. I then cut up the other rectangle and built the pop-tarts one by one. Lifting each one was tricky. In the future I might fill them on the cookie sheet instead. It took a lot of spatula work and a couple minor repairs.
In the end, the pastries weren't all perfectly shaped, but they did taste really good. They were delightfully flaky and rich, with the taste of good quality raspberry jam inside. And a simple sugary glaze on top. It was like being a kid, but with much better taste.
I'd like to play with these again in the future, maybe with some more interesting flavors. Perhaps some herb-infused citrus curds or spiced chocolate. Stay tuned!
