I might have found my recipe. You know, that recipe everyone asks you to make over and over again? Mine might be homemade pop tarts. I found a few pop tart recipes from my new favorite food blogger, Half Baked Harvest, and I knew these would become one of my favorite things to bake.
The first batch I made were classic brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts for Mother's Day. My parents ate them all up within the hour I delivered them, and my future in-laws literally were coming up with business names for my new pop tart bakery at the end of the night. My second batch was chocolate fudge pop tarts that I made for my birthday week, and myself and a few friends gobbled them down. This week I tweaked the fudge pop tarts to be peanut butter fudge pop tarts, and they were delectable.
Now, don't get me wrong, these are a TON OF WORK, which likely means I won't bake them on a whim, but for the special occasions, they're easy to customize with fillings and icings - endless flavor combinations. I didn't take many photos of the first two pop tart batches I made - rookie mistake! But here are some photos of the pop tart making process during the making of the peanut butter fudge pop tarts! And remember, no two pop tarts will look the same, perfection is overrated!
Making Pop Tarts: The Process
First up the dough. There's nothing too special about the dough, and it shouldn't be overly sweet. It's just the vessel that holds the filling and the frosting. I've made dough with and without a food processor, either one works fine. I highly recommend using a bench scraper with a ruler on it to cut the rectangles out. You want to be precise about the size since you'll have tops that need to match bottoms. If you don't have a bench scraper, you can use a pizza cutter!
Then you'll make the filling and spread it out onto the pop tarts. Don't spread all the way to the edges, since you'll need to leave space to seal the top rectangle to the bottom one.
Once you have the filling ready to go, definitely use egg wash to glue the edges together, and then use a fork to crimp the sides. Now, you'll probably get a bit messy, and some of the egg wash or filling will squeeze out the sides. Don't worry, it's an easy fix! You can just use the bench scraper or pizza cutter to clean up those edges again. See below for my before and after!
Don't forget to refrigerate the pop tarts before baking. Patience is key. Refrigerating it will help them retain their shape and prevent soggy bottoms! Once you've refrigerated them, bake! While the pop tarts cool, you can make the frosting. For these, I made a basic fudge frosting, and then drizzled some microwaved peanut butter on top. As if we needed more peanut butter. After frosting, you're going to want to let these sit out for a few hours to harden. And remember, perfection is overrated!!
Dig in!!
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