Homemade Pop-Tarts

[gfron1]

That's right gang, I cracked the Davinci Code for making pop-tarts at home! And you'll see that now you can have much more filling inside!

Pop-Tart Dough

13 oz Unsalted Butter at room temp

1/3 C. & 1 T. (110 g) Milk at room temp

1 Yolk at room temp

1 t. (6 g)Sugar

1 t. (6 g) Salt

3 1/2 C. (645 g) AP Flour

In food processor, combine butter, milk, yolk, sugar and salt and pulse until roughly blended. Add the flour and pulse until it just starts to come together. Form into a disc and wrap in saran wrap, chill at least 3 hours.

Brown-Sugar Cinnamon Filling

1 Egg White at room temp

3/4 C. Powdered Sugar

1/4 C. Almond slivers or slices

1/4 C. Brown sugar

1 T. Cinnamon

In food processor, combine all ingredients and blend until well combined.

Assembly

Roll the dough into a rough square, dusting with flour, until 1/8" thick. Cut dough into 4"x6" rectangles. Pair the rectangles for tops and bottoms. Brush the edges of your bottom with a whisked egg. Place a large dollop of filling on inside the egg wash, then spread it evenly. The amount of filling is up to you, but you can see in the pic below how much I did. Place the top sheet of dough on top and press firmly but gently onto the bottom sheet. Chill your Pop-Tarts for 30 minutes.

Oven to 350F. Bake for abut 15 minutes or until just starting to brown. Let sit until room temp. Frost with a milk and powdered sugar frosting with just a bit of cinnamon added.

Edited May 14, 2009 by gfron1 (log)

[Lior]

cool! thnx

[patris]

Daaaaang, that looks fantastic. I've got to try that!

[gfron1]

btw, here is Kellogg's list of ingredients for the same thing:

WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN, PALM, COTTONSEED AND/OR HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL WITH TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID FOR FRESHNESS), POLYDEXTROSE, SUGAR, DEXTROSE, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, CORN SYRUP, WHOLE GRAIN BARLEY FLOUR, GLYCERIN, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF INULIN FROM CHICORY ROOT, WHEAT STARCH, SALT, DRIED STRAWBERRIES, DRIED PEARS, DRIED APPLES, CORNSTARCH, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL STRAWBERRY FLAVOR, CITRIC ACID, GELATIN, CARAMEL COLOR, SOY LECITHIN, XANTHAN GUM, MODIFIED WHEAT STARCH, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, NIACINAMIDE, RED #40, REDUCED IRON, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), YELLOW #6, RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), FOLIC ACID.

[PopsicleToze]

That looks great. I can't wait to try it. Just saved to my "must make" list.

[Beebs]

Wow! I am making this for a brunch next week!

How many poptarts does it make?

[gfron1]

Depends on how big you make them, but a half dozen as described above. I think making mini versions would be fun too.

[Lior]

Can you give me a recipe for that frosting? Doesn't have to be exact. Is it put on afterwards? I have not had a pop tart and I will make them for Sat morning family breakfast!!

[CanadianBakin']

1/3 C. &

...just wondering what this ingredient might be ?

[mkayahara]

1/3 C. &

...just wondering what this ingredient might be ?

←

Milk. Presumably, that line should read as follows:

1/3 C. + 1 T. (110 g) Milk at room temp

[lebowits]

Surprisingly little sugar in the dough. It reminds me a slightly sweetened pate brisee with the yolk for texture. But with all the ingredients at room temp, it assembles more like a sucree.

Edited May 14, 2009 by lebowits (log)

[gfron1]

Lunch is over and here's some answers.

The frosting: I take about a cup of confectioners sugar, add just a bit of vanilla (drop or so), and about 1 T. cinnamon. Then I add just enough milk to make a thick, but spreadable, paste. Everytime I do this I make it too watery and have to add more sugar, but it works in the end. This goes on after the tarts are cooled to room temp.

The ingredient question - formatting snafu from my blog to eG:

1/3 C. & 1 T. (110 g) Milk at room temp

And yes, very little sugar, just like a Kellog pop-tart pastry.

[tsquare]

Have you tried filling them with jam as well?

For Lior - I think they come in strawberry, blueberry, cherry, raspberry and some odd combos.

[Beebs]

Another question - can these heat up in the toaster too? Would the icing melt?

[JAZ]

That would be my question, too. Did you develop them so your customers can buy them and take them home to heat up in the toaster? If not, I guess I'm missing the point.

[Peter the eater]

That's right gang, I cracked the Davinci Code for making pop-tarts at home!

Rob, we know you're a genius . . . but . . . isn't a real pop tart like a real hot dog? It tastes good, it reminds us of reliable food from long ago, but it can't be truthfully reproduced without a giant factory with an assembly line and Quality Assurance team?

Your toaster pastries look really, really delicious. Are they pop-tarts?

[pyrguy]

Looks good to me. I guess I know what I'll be making in a couple of days.

Edited May 15, 2009 by pyrguy (log)

[gfron1]

Alright - back down you over achievers! What's the point? The point is I had some free time and wanted to see if I could replicate the flavor and texture and then improve on it. It can't be dropped into a toaster unless you leave the frosting off. If someone wants to play with the frosting recipe, knock yourself out, but remember why you had to toast the originals. You toast them because the darn things have sat on a store shelf for five years and the chemicals have all hardened. These are fresh, so no need to pop in the toaster. So if you want to call them something else, feel free. All harassment aside, you probably could put these in a toaster oven, but not a horizontal toaster. As an aside, Bodum is releasing a horizontal toaster (not toaster oven) in about a month.

Jellies...absolutely, and I think that would be great. I've already had customers asking me to make their favorite flavors. I think the base would be the same: almond, powdered sugar, egg white, but then maybe some jams, or I would actually try purees. The one component that I have no idea how to re-create is the white sprinkles on top of my second favorite variety - fudge. I'm sure its some type of sugar, but not sure what kind.

And Peter - thanks for calling me a genius. Maybe I should take one of those online IQ tests. However, no factory or quality control here - in fact my batch this morning had some glitches - I over stuffed the filling and it oozed (I also forgot to dock the dough). So for now I'll call these Pop-Tartesque pastries.

[Tri2Cook]

Looks tasty and sounds like you had fun with it... what more point need there be? Everything doesn't have to be about customers. Some of my favorite projects were done way late in the night in the empty restaurant and never seen by anyone else unless I happened to post about it here.

[chefpeon]

That's why pop-tarts suck....you put them in the toaster and the icing doesn't even MELT. That's kind of scary in my book.

Do like what they do for toaster strudel......put the icing in little sandwich bags with the top twisted and tied with a bow so it looks like a pastry bag. All the customer has to do is snip the tip off and squeeze their icing on. You can even put ganache in your little icing bags for chocolate "rob" tarts.

[Lior]

I think they seem wonderful. I bet these factory products were originally homemade/baked (even hot dogs) and factories did their thing and reproduced them. So it is going back to the wholesome good ole days.

Re icing in piping bags- I saw this gourmet store a few weeks ago that had all kinds of "sets" of food for putting together at home. For example: dough rolled out and cut into the correct shapes, fillings in a containers, ganache/glaze/frosting in piping bags - all sets were in a nice box with instructions. They had this for pies, pastries and pastas. People were buying them left, right and center.

It reminded me of the time I went to our town's best bakery to buy Rogelach for the weekend. They had sold out and only had unbaked ones. I told them I would love them that way. I got a discount and baked them at home-fantastic IMO. Now they sell them also unbaked!

Thanks for the icing recipe!

[patris]

"rob" tarts.

←

That is how they shall be called every time I make them!

[Kajikit]

I've never had the 'real thing' but that looks fantastic! Would nutella work as a filling for a chocolatey poptart or is it too sweet? I'll have to make these for my husband.

[HeatherM]

Those look fantastic! They're definitely going on my to-do list.

I think I'd love the cinnamon sugar filling, but I do like the idea of trying jams and other fillings also.

[gfron1]

To answer all of the "can I put XXX inside?" The answer is yes. Just play. For those of you not familiar with pop-tarts, they are meant to be a lazy American school child food - grab it and run off to the bus.

Today I made the chocolate fudge version - haven't figured out the top yet. Stewing in my mind is an apple and foie gras.