you read that right – berry pop tarts. i made them. why, you may ask?
i just finished reading the book salt, sugar, fat. the book is an expose on the processed food industry – and it is so well written, so detailed, and points out so well everything that is wrong with the state of food in america. i’m someone who already knew a lot about the evils of processed foods before reading the book, and avoided them for the vast majority of my adult life. but i remember back when we were growing up, before people understood what processed food did to our bodies, my sister and i used to love the pantry full of things like pop tarts, hot pockets, chips a-hoy cookies, rice krispies treats, and nutri-grain bars. we would typically be really into one of these items, o.d. on them and never touch them again. i so highly recommend this book for everyone. read it.
pop tarts, in theory, should be good right? it’s a pastry filled with fruit compote. but when it’s made to have a shelf life of 420 days, it’s made out of chemicals that your body doesn’t know what to do with (and an inordinate amount of sugar and fat). so i got back to basics. these pop tarts have real fruit, very little sugar, butter, and whole grain flour. if not eaten right away, they will go bad. which is okay by me. because they are real.
- 1½ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup whole wheat flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ⅔ cup cold butter
- 5 tablespoons cold water
- 1½ cups berries
- ½ teaspoon corn starch
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Mix together flour, salt, and one tablespoon sugar. Cut in butter. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time until dough forms.
- On a floured surface, roll out dough into ¼ inch thick sheet. Cut dough into 12-16 equal sized rectangles, and transfer to a baking sheet.
- In a small pot, heat berries with 1 tablespoon of sugar and corn starch until berries have softened and reduced. Use a spoon to mash them so there aren't any big chunks.
- Spoon about 1 tablespoon of compote onto a dough square, place another square on top of the compote, and use a fork to seal them together (you may want to wet the edges of the dough a little bit to help stick). Continue until you run out of fruit or dough.
- Use a fork to poke a couple holes in each pop tart and bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Let cool for a couple of minutes and then enjoy your flashback to the 90s.
recipe adapted from the minimalist baker.
[…] freeze the dough until we run out, so they’re always fresh. i’m also a big fan of the homemade pop tart, not that we were buying pop tarts from the grocery store that needed replacing, but i just thought […]
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