Pop-tarts and Life Changing Discoveries

And we're back! 

It's been a long and busy semester which really sent our cooking to the back burner. But after an incredibly successful Vegas adventure, a massive student-run conference, and finishing enough homework to feel like we could breathe for a minute, the first thing we wanted to do was bake.

The idea for pop-tarts came from a "make don't buy" cookbook, which is right up our alley with ridiculous projects (like making your own butter). This idea was too cute to pass up, so even though we didn't end up using much of her actual recipe (why change what's already working?) we have to give credit for the idea.

Homemade pop-tarts start with a standard pie dough, meaning a lot of butter, flour, and dough chilling.

We started out with our standard double batch and a pastry blender. As we struggled through making frozen butter pea-size by hand, Sarah remembered that she had seen Alton Brown make pie dough in a food processor, and let's be real, if Alton can do it, why can't we?

And so the life changing discovery occurred. Pie dough in the food processor (though you can only make one batch at a time) takes about one minute. One. And you only get one dish dirty. Everything is the same, 2.5 C. of flour, 1 tsp. of salt, 1/2 C. butter, and 1/2 C. cold water. Add the dry ingredients and butter, use the food processor the chop the butter and then add the water and run until your dough forms. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.

Roll out the chilled dough on a floured surface. Cut your dough into the desired number of rectangles considering that you will need two rectangles to make one pop-tart. We decided to make ours mini to have more to share, (and really, do you need a whole pop-tart?).

Add filling on one rectangle of dough. You can use just about anything that sounds good, but we used strawberry jam, raspberry jam, nutella, and cinnamon sugar.

Place a matching rectangle on top of your filling. Press the edges with a fork to seal the pop-tarts together, then poke some holes in the top. Brush an egg wash (egg mixed with a small amount of water) on top. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and the crusts are slightly puffy.

In true pop-tart fashion, we added a glaze (powdered sugar, butter, and a splash of water to make it silky) to complete the ensemble. These were a huge success. Considering we can now make pie dough in under a minute, I cannot imagine that we will ever need to buy pop-tarts again. All we really need are more ideas for good filling!