Toaster Pastries

 

My little ones have been begging me to buy pop tarts.  And by begging, I mean begging.  They've seen some of their pals from various places regularly have them around for snack and they just look so fun.  I mean, who doesn't want a frosted, pastry pocket full of goodness?  So I didn't blame them one bit.  However, buying pop tarts just wasn't at the top of my list.  And that was simply because buying milk, eggs and cheese was just more important.  I'm just sayin'.

I'm not totally against the sweet goodness that comes in these little pockets.  I just don't want to buy a box and have them disappear amongst my four children in two seconds flat.  One box would feed them all for about, ummm...one, maybe two snacks?  So if anything, making them with what I already possessed would be the only option to get one of these tasty morsels into their hands.  A week or two ago I was reading through my trusty King Arthur Flour cookbook when I came across a recipe for Toaster Pastries.  And based on the recent discussions in my house, I just had to try them. 

So, a few days ago, I finally just decided to give them a whirl because well, I didn't have anything else to do :).  And let me tell you, although I'm not an artist when it comes to baking things like this, they were quite tasty.  I definitely could use some practice at measuring more accurately, etc...but the finished product was really very good and worth doing again.  So I thought I'd share.

I'm not sure how often I'd make these since they are a bit involved but, they were fun to try and my kids thought they were great.  Heck, Steve and I thought they were awesome.  We felt like we were little again as we licked our fingers savoring every last bit of sticky, ooey gooey brown sugar filling goodness.  And the best news of all was that I only had to buy cream of tartar to make them.  Everything else was already in my pantry.

However, I must confess, making them at 9 months preggo just about did me in.  All of the bending over, measuring and letting kids "help" had me hobbling around like an old lady at the end, making loud sighs and grunts here and there.  Steve came home for a study break, picked up a toaster pastry and upon hearing all the music I was making, kept asking if I was okay.  It was a bit pathetic.  But I was determined to get those little suckers into the oven, let me tell you.  And even though I was a bit haggard at the end, the smiles I got from the littles made it all worth it.  I just made sure, that afternoon, I got myself one long nap to make up for it all.

So give these tasty pastries a try!  You'll get lots of hugs, smiles and kisses for these, that's for sure!!

Toaster Pastries
King Arthur Flour

Pastry
1 stick butter
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
4 c. flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. milk

Fruit Filling
1 1/4 cups thick raspberry, strawberry or other flavor jam
1/4 c. flour

Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Filling
6 tbsp soft butter
3 tbsp flour
3/4 brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 salt

Instructions:
Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat well.  Blend dry ingredients together in a small bowl.  Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk to the butter mixture, beating the dough until it's well blended.  Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for several hours, or overnight.

Just before you're ready to remove the dough from the fridge, prepare the filling.  One batch of pastry will use one batch of filling.  Preheat the oven to 350.

Divide the dough into four pieces and work with one piece at a time.  Chill the pieces you're not working with.  Roll dough into a large rectangle roughly 12 x 8, about 1/16 of an inch thick.  The dimensions can be different.  Just make sure you can divide the dough evenly into 8 squares.  Spread the filling (1 tbsp) on four of the pieces.  Lightly moisten the edges with your finger that's been dipped in water around the filling and then top them with the non-filling squares.  Seal each tart with a fork dipped in flour.  Prick the top of each tart a couple of times to vent while baking.  Repeat with remaining pieces of dough. 

Bake the tarts for 20 minutes or so until they are lightly golden brown.  Transfer to a rack to cool.  Enjoy!

Note:  There was a recipe for frosting (powdered sugar and milk) but I skipped it.  They were sweet enough without it.