Monday, June 27, 2011

Strawberry-Rhubarb Poptarts

We are day eight into Bianca being gone at camp and are missing her quite a bit. She left me a list of her recipes to post but I am going to go off script and post a few of my own creations that I have gotten requests for. That is what happens when you leave your Mother in charge!
The other day, I read on Facebook about someone (I will let you remain anonymous) who managed to get a third degree burn on his finger eating a Pop-Tart. My first thought was, why would anyone eat a Pop-Tart!! I can't remember even liking those as a kid and I am pretty sure that Bianca has never had even a bite of one past her lips.  My second thought was, I bet I could make a pretty darn good homemade Pop-Tart. Since I had been busy making strawberry-rhubarb jam so as to not waste any of the fresh rhubarb we just discovered we had, why not a Strawberry-Rhubarb PopTart! What a great way to get your kids to eat something healthy. So here is a recipe I found that is adapted from a King Arthur's flour recipe.  I also made some small crescent pastries as posted for those of my friends who didn't want to overindulge but still enjoy a fresh tasty toaster tart!

Ingredients:
2 cups plus 2 tbl. freshly milled whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon Redmond's sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup chilled butter, cut into cubes
4 tablespoons ice water
12 tablespoonfuls Strawberry-Rhubarb jam (see previous recipe)

1) Mix together flour, salt, and sugar in large bowl.  Using fingers or fork, blend in the butter until mixture resembles coarse meal and you have small, pea size chunks of butter. Add ice water by tablespoonfuls until moist clumps form. Gather dough into a ball, divide in half and shape each into a 3 x 5 inch rectangle. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at one hour.
2) Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking sheet.
3) Roll out one rectangle at a time on floured surface to about 13 x 11 inches then trim to 12 x 10 rectangle. Mark off 5 x 3 inch rectangles in rows of three. Place 1&1/2 tablespoonful of jam on center of each rectangle.  Roll out second rectangle to same size and place over first rectangle.  Seal outside edges of large rectangle with tines of a fork.  Cut 5 x 3 rectangles with pastry cutter and seal each individual rectangle with fork tines.
Alternatively: I just rolled out the dough as in #3 and cut out circles with a 3 inch round cookie cutter and placed 1 tsp of jam on one half of the circle, fold the circle in half and seal with the tines of a fork.
4) Cover and freeze for 2 hours or up to one week.
5) Poke a few holes on top of each tart with a toothpick.
6) Bake in preheated 375 degree F oven for 25-30 minutes. Rotate cookie sheet once at 15 minutes during baking.
Options:
--All-purpose flour can replace freshly milled whole wheat flour. I don't know how store bought whole wheat flour would work.
--I tried leaving the pastry dough in the refrigerator for 2 days and then putting these together and the dough was not as easy to handle so...I would stay will just refrigerating it for one hour.
--Use any local jam/jelly you can find. There are numerous available at the Farmer's Market so you could make a different kind each time.

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