homemade pop tarts

You could call this a fan interpretation. I only had the real pop tarts twice in my life, they are incredibly expensive here and available only sometimes in one store here. It's crazy how many versions there are in America!

So I made my version. It's pink and sweet and approved by everyone who tried them :)

homemade pop tarts

(makes 12-15)

300 g flour (I used whole wheat)

150 g butter, softened

50 g powdered sugar

2 egg yolks

pinch of salt

fruit preserves (I used homemade rhubarb + strawberry + vanilla, you'd preferably want whole fruit jam made without use of any gelling agent like pectin or gelatin because such jam would melt in baking temperature and soak into the shortcake)

glaze (lemon juice + powdered sugar + food coloring, or your favorite one)

sprinkles

mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl, add the butter and mix it in with your hands until the flour gets lumpy, add one egg yolk and quickly mix the dough with your hands until it’s smooth 

(alternatively, put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until the dough forms a smooth ball, I don’t have a proper blender and I prefer to do it by hand)

refrigerate for at least two hours

mix the remaining egg yolk with a teaspoon of water

roll the cold dough on a floured surface to 3 mm (1/8”) thickness and cut rectangles with a sharp knife (mine were 5x8 cm – 2x3,5”) 

place a teaspoon of the jam in the middle of a dough rectangle, brush the edges (about 1 cm – 1/2") with egg yolk and put another rectangle on the top

press the edges of the two rectangles with a fork to make sure they will keep together, prick a few times with a fork on the top

repeat until the dough is all used up (you can take the leftover dough and form a ball of it, roll it out and repeat the process until you run out)

bake in an oven preheated to 200C for 12-15 minutes

let them cool down for ten minutes before carefully removing them from the baking tray

glaze when they’re completely cool, sprinkle immediately and let the glaze dry a bit before eating