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http://wiseanticsoflife.blogspot.com/2010/01/homemade-poptarts-make-your-own-monday.html

Homemade Poptarts: Make Your Own Monday #1

Welcome to week one of Make Your Own Monday. It’s a new pet project/resolution of mine to make more things at home with ingredients I can pronounce. My son, The Musician, has been teasing for poptarts since school began. I was less than enthusiastic about buying them, however. In my childhood, poptarts were bigger. You got more in a package. They seemed to taste better (but that may be a faulty memory, as so many childhood memories tend to be).

Then, one morning, The Musician, always looking for a way to get sweets, suggested in a semi-innocent tone, “Why don’t you make them homemade and blog about them? “ He has learned the way, Boy! has he learned the way.

So. I went on a little hunt to find some poptart recipes. I figured most of them were just pie crust with jam in them. Our favorite variety, however, is brown sugar and cinnamon. I found them at Chickens in the Road, a fun blog by author Suzanne McMinn.

Anyway, here they are:

Poptarts:
Make piecrust (or buy the ready made...of course, that would be defeating the whole “make your own” idea, but it is easier and may be more efficient in the long run for some of you.)
Here is my recipe:
11/3 cups fat (butter, lard, shortening, tallow...use a combination of two for the best flavor)*
4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbls sugar
2/3 cup cold water
*that may seem like a lot of fat, basically, you are making enough piecrust for 3 pies....play with the amount and see if you get good results
Combine the fat, flour, salt and sugar with a pastry blender or in a food processor. Add the water a little at a time, mixing with a fork or food processor until it forms a slightly moist ball. Divide into two balls and roll out on a floured surface.

At this point, you can trim off the edges so you have nice, neat rectangles, but I didn’t want to waste any, so these are less than perfect.

For the filling, you can as I said, use jam or chop up some apple pie filling. We chose to the brown sugar variety: Melt 3 tablespoons butter and combine with 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon in a small bowl.

Cut your pie crust into smaller rectangles...making sure you cut an even number (tops and bottoms). Sprinkle some of the filling (about 1-2 Tbsp) on every other one.

Carefully place a top piece on the filling. Using a fork, crimp the edges shut to seal in the filling, but prick the tops to vent. If you are using jam or a fruit filling, this is especially important or you will have a mess on your baking sheet. Transfer the poptarts to a cookie sheet (I put a silpat on mine). Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes, switching from the top wrack to the bottom wrack halfway through the baking time. You will know they are done when they get a little tan aroun the edges and loose the shiny look in the middle. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on a wire wrack.

If desired, frost with a powdered sugar glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp milk (you don’t want this runny)
1 tsp cinnamon (for the brown sugar filling)
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, whisking briskly to remove lumps.

I put sprinkles on top to make it fun.

The verdict: “Mom, these are way better than the store kind!”
This recipe made 7 very large poptarts; probably the equivalent of 2 store bought boxes. It cost much less than the $4+ it would have taken to buy them and they were amazing.

I had an inquiry about a chocolate poptart variety and I have given it some thought. I think that melting chocolate chips and adding them to the crust before the water (when it is still in the crumbly stage) would be the best way to get chocolate crust. For the filling, try this: 1/2 stick butter, 1 square semisweet chocolate, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 3 Tbls flour, 2 Tbls cocoa. Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla and stir vigorously. Combine the flour and cocoa and add.