Bluekin Pop Tarts
This week a friend told me about a site that she found through Williams Sonoma called Tasting Table and I gave it a couple looks to get ideas. It’s for adventurous eaters everywhere – that’s me! There was one that jumped out at me for fancy dancy peach pop tarts.
Pop tarts used to be a weakness of mine, especially those frosted brown sugar cinnamon ones. Warm from the toaster, gooey. Sorry, I digress. The recipe looked good, but being a frou frou site it was involved and had multiple steps.
Um, that’s fine for people with time. Not so good for someone like me. Not to mention the fact that I like to modify recipes based on what I have on hand, what I like, and to lower fat, sugar, etc. I modified it a bit and they turned out well. Make that really well. Moist, delicious. They aren’t the prettiest pop tarts but who needs pretty.
These are not lower in calories, but they are much healthier and higher in nutrients than pop tarts from a box. The recipe still takes some time since you have to chill and roll out dough, but it’s much simpler. This is definitely a weekend-type recipe so plan ahead if you’re going to make these.
Bluekin (Blueberry Pumpkin) Pop Tarts
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup canned pumpkin (read my note!)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cups white flour
- 1 1/2 Tbsps baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup buttermilk OR sour soymilk (1/2 cup soymilk with a splash of vinegar)
- 3 Tbsps blueberry Simply Fruit preserves
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and add buttermilk OR soymilk. I used the sour soymilk since we’ve got food allergies. Stir gently to start to combine. It will be dry but that’s OK.
Start by adding 1/4 cup of pumpkin and mix. Add a little more pumpkin and mix again. You want a pie crust dough consistency that you can roll into a ball. You don’t want a mushy mess so add the pumpkin slowly.
Note: The amount of pumpkin you end up using will vary based on things like humidity, temperature, etc. I used just a little more than 1/2 cup.
Put the dough in the fridge for about an hour until chilled so you can roll it out. I was lazy and chilled mine overnight. When the dough is chilled enough, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Break the ball in half and roll the dough on a floured piece of wax paper into a sorta rectangle shape.
Slice the dough with a knife into six smaller rectangles. Drop 1 1/2 tsps of the fruit onto each rectangle. Fold one side of the rectangle over the other to make six jelly sandwich-like pockets. Take a fork and crimp the sides to seal together. Do the same thing with the other half of the chilled dough.
Put the six tart pockets onto a cookie sheet and bake at 325 for 20 minutes or so. Use a metal spatula to flip them halfway through baking so both sides get cooked well.
You can frost these if you’d like by mixing powdered sugar, vanilla and a little milk, but I didn’t bother frosting since they were sweet enough for me.
There are so many combinations that you can try with these. Don’t feel like you have to use whole wheat flour. I was trying to get rid of the last of mine since I rarely use it anymore. You need 2 cups of flour total but you can use any mixture – all white, half white/half wheat, etc.
Try applesauce instead of the pumpkin for another option. Just watch the consistency of the dough as you add the applesauce. Peach, strawberry, raspberry jelly instead of the blueberry. Vanilla, vanilla cinnamon, chocolate frosting. It’s endless so make these your own.
The Kid comes back from Grandma’s tomorrow at last and I’m going to have her taste test these. Give them a try, and come back and leave a comment with your flavor version. Enjoy and happy Sunday from the Quest Kitchen!
Speak Your Mind