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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Homemade Whole Wheat Pop Tarts



H, my son, has become addicted to pancakes.....He used to be addicted to eggs.....Over easy eggs to be exact, but now, pancakes!  I am SICK OF MAKING PANCAKES!  I'm sick of making a lot of them and freezing them, I'm sick of running out of them and making another batch.  I am happy to be out of the egg stage though......making an egg, to have him not touch it, then it solidifies into this amazing adherent mess on the plate....Ugh, EGGS!

So, I had a thought, what did I like to eat when I was a kid....Toaster Strudels!  Not really pop tarts, but the flakier ones, with the frosting that you put on yourself....the one that my dad would make for me every morning, and the one, where he taught me the best way to warm up the plastic packet of frosting (gross) was to hold it between the palm of your hands rather than microwaving so it had the perfect "spreading consistency" (really gross) Ohhhhhh, those were GOOD!!! Love the days before we knew about all the weird crap in our food.

I made a homemade poptart....I made the whole wheat pie crust a day in advance and kept it in the fridge (freezing the rest.)  I made the filling all healthy yet yummy of different berries (frozen but fab.) I was thinking, this kid is going to LOVE ME! He is going to think, holy moly, dessert for breakfast...YES!

He wouldn't touch it! I was in the giving mood, I offered it to my husband. Again, wouldn't eat it, stating "I'm not eating all that sugar!" (don't know who he was trying to kid...) I replied, "it's healthy," reply, "maybe later"...

WHAT, no takers on a warm, just out of the oven, berry poptart with a sprinkling of sugar on top??????

i ate it.

it was wonderful.

i want another one right now.

i'm fat.

not really, it's healthy.

Whole Wheat PopTarts 
pie crust adapted from "Cheeky Kitchen", filling made up by me...

CRUST:
1 C whole wheat
1/2 C white flour
2 t sugar
1/2 t salt
½ c. cold butter, sliced (keep butter in fridge until adding- you want it COLD)
5-7 Tbsp. cold milk

Put flour, sugar and salt in food processor. Pulse to mix.  Add butter, pulse until it looks crumbly, like peas but smaller--- then add milk, maybe 3 Tablespoons at first and then pulse, and then run for a couple seconds, if you can tell that it isn't going to come together into a ball, add another tablespoon or 2 (use your best judgment) pulse, and then leave on for a couple second (it took 6 tablespoons for me). It will eventually all firm up in one side of your processor.  Dump out onto a flour surface and just maneuver it enough to get it into a ball and place in fridge until ready.



FILLING:

You could fill these with anything---you could cut up apple...put it on the stove with a lil' water, cinnamon, vanilla, allspice, nutmeg, tad bit a sugar...cook until it's just falling apart. You could use all jelly/jam, chocolate, Nutella, peanut butter, anything... I used frozen berries and a bit of "just fruit" jelly because it is what I had.

1 c. frozen mixed berries, still frozen
3-4 T jelly- I used blackberry "all fruit" but whatever you have will work
water

Put fruit in small sauce pan and warm up until thawed and starting to become liquid.  Smoosh the fruit with a fork or spoon to help it thicken a bit. If it's too thick add water (tablespoon at a time.)  Add your jelly and stir.  If your mixture is "too loose," let it cool a bit before deciding your next step.  It will not be to a boiling point when inside the poptart, just  "appropriately hot" so it will firm up a bit....if you still think it is all too liquid you can add a touch of cornstarch to your mixture.

Cool filling and add a couple tablespoons to your poptarts!!!

WHAT TO DO:

I pulled my ball out (hahaha-dirty) and split it into 4 hunks, 1 hunk makes one poptart.  roll it into long oval and fold over or cut into rectangles if your a perfectionist (or wanting to take a photo) add filling, leaving an edge.  Using a fork, seal edges....poke a couple holes to let steam out.  I used, whole milk because it was all I had but if you had cream it would work better....brush some milk over the top, sprinkle with a lil' sugar....(you can skip the sugar but my filling had very little sugar so I wanted some sweetness to hit the tongue first)

Bake at 400 degrees, for 10-12 minutes....all depends on your oven, watch for your edges to brown.  Remember this is whole wheat dough, it's not going to be as pretty as regular...it's not going to be as golden or as flaky but I tell ya, it's pretty damn good for being better for you!

Chow down!!

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