Homemade PopTarts

I haven't had a PopTart in what seems like 20 years, but I'm sure it hasn't been that long. How could you go wrong with sweet gooey jam wedged between two pieces of pastry!!
I've been thinking of recipes to show how to use Fruitful Delights jam in ways other than a sandwich...there are so many different things you could do. Hoping for guidance with some recipes to work off of, my sister emailed me and told me to check out foodgawker . I must warn you, it can be quite addicting and I recommend looking at it on a full stomach!! (you've been officially warned) After drooling over the amazing photos of these delicious treats, I came across a recipe for Homemade PopTarts. Her recipe is slightly varied and I included the link at the bottom of this post with the recipe.
For someone who isn't an avid baker with pastry, it can seem a little scary, but it's not! Super easy.

 Homemade PopTarts adapted recipe from Will Cook For Friends

Here's what you need:

1 - ready to use, store bought pie crust
2 - Rolling pin
3 - Your favorite flavor of Fruitful Delights jam (we used Peach)
4 - a fork, a knife and a spoon


Let your pie crust come to room temperature. You can use homemade pie crust if you'd like (half a full recipe) but I lost my pie crust making mojo years ago!
With your rolling pin, gently roll the pie crust out to thin it and make a rectangular shape (if you can).
Cut the pie crust into even rectangles. Here's where you go with the flow. Depending on the size of your pie crust and how big of a tart you want, you can get anywhere from 3 to 6 finished tarts. Since I was doing this with my kitchen elf, I kept it simple and cut out 6 rectangles (see photo below)

You can take the excess scraps and make additional pieces by rolling them together, but 4 year olds don't always wait.

Using a Tablespoon, carefully spoon out HALF a spoonful onto three rectangles. Do this twice. Jam is pretty thick and by doing it in smaller amounts gives you more control of where it ends up. Gently spread to even it out. Keep it at least a half an inch from the edges. (see photo to right)

Carefully place the other three slices on top of the jam and press the edges together, stretching the dough if needed. To be sure I had as little oozing of jam goodness as possible, Connor crimped the edges with our fork.

Depending on how many of these you're able to make, you may want to keep the rectangles you aren't using in the refrigerator to keep the pastry cold, but it's pretty cool in our house and we had no troubles with it.
 
Then carefully wrap each tart in plastic wrap and freeze until completely frozen 2-3 hours. You need to be sure that the jam filling is completely frozen so the inside cooks evenly with the crust.

Once they're completely frozen, and you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Remove each tart from the plastic wrap and put on the cookie sheet, leaving space between them.

If you'd like an additional crunch, you can do an egg white wash and sprinkle some sugar on top of them before putting into the oven.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden and bubbly.

Let cool 5-10 minutes before eating...I'd make a double batch of this next time...there wasn't even a chance to take a picture of one with a bite taken from it. Amazing!!

I love that they can be made to suit anyone's tastes...

You could: make a glaze for the tops (like the toaster kind), sprinkles, any flavor jam or jelly, make them any size you wanted...

It's not even necessary to bake them completely. Let's say you don't want to eat them today, you could bake them partially and refreeze them. Then when you wanted to have one, just pop it in the toaster oven or microwave. I wouldn't recommend the toaster in case of filling oozing out.

Simple, delicious and fun to make. Enjoy!