Pastry Pockets Filled with Stuff

As I mentioned last week, I found this really cool recipe for homemade “Pastry pockets filled with stuff” (Is the word pop tart trademarked? Oh well!) However, due to an unfortunate lack of eggs, I made muffins instead. Well this is a new week, and fortunately I got some groceries!

I came across this recipe on Smitten Kitchen’s blog. I’m not a huge pop tart fan (I only ate them for a brief period in my childhood); however, the pictures made them look divine! After reading through the recipe, it seemed straight forward; though, none of the fillings tickled my fancy. If I weren’t so lazy, I could just go buy jam pop tarts from the grocery store and save myself the trouble. That’s when I got an idea… 

My friends and I love going down to the States to grocery shop; they have a wide selection of food products that we just don’t get up here in the Great White North. One of my friend’s favourite treats to buy is pop tarts. But not just any pop tarts. Oh no! These are chocolate chip cookie dough pop tarts! Raw chocolate chip cookie dough is one of weaknesses, so I decided to try and make my own version. Though, I admit, I made some cinnamon filled ones too – just in case the cookie dough thing didn’t work out.

The crust and cinnamon filling recipes are from smitten kitchen, and the raw cookie dough recipe is from allrecipes.com. Here they are:

Pastry

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pats

1 large egg

2 tbsp milk

1 additional large egg (to brush on pastry)

Cinnamon Filling (enough for 9 tarts)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

4 tsp all-purpose flour

To make cinnamon filling: Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, and flour.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp white sugar

2 tbsp butter, softened

1/8 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp water

20 chocolate chips, chopped

To make cookie dough filling: In a medium bowl, mix together the brown sugar, white sugar, and butter until smooth. Stir in vanilla and water. Mix in the flour until well blended. Mix in chocolate chips.

 

 Directions

1. Whisk together the flour and sugar. Work in the butter with your fingers, pastry blender or food processor until pea-sized lumps of butter are still visible, and the mixture holds together when you squeeze it. If you’ve used a food processor, transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Whisk the first egg and milk together and stir them into the dough, mixing just until everything is cohesive, kneading briefly on a well-floured counter if necessary.
2. Divide the dough in half (approximately 8 1/4 ounces each), shape each half into a smooth rectangle, about 3×5 inches. You can roll this out immediately (see Warm Kitchen note below) or wrap each half in plastic and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
3. If the dough has been chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to soften and become workable, about 15 to 30 minutes. Place one piece on a lightly floured work surface, and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8″ thick, large enough that you can trim it to an even 9″ x 12″. [You can use a 9" x 13" pan, laid on top, as guidance.] Repeat with the second piece of dough. Set trimmings aside. Cut each piece of dough into thirds – you’ll form nine 3″ x 4″ rectangles.
4. Beat the additional egg and brush it over the entire surface of the first dough. This will be the “inside” of the tart; the egg is to help glue the lid on. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each rectangle, keeping a bare 1/2-inch perimeter around it. Place a second rectangle of dough atop the first, using your fingertips to press firmly around the pocket of filling, sealing the dough well on all sides. Press the tines of a fork all around the edge of the rectangle. Repeat with remaining tarts.
5. Gently place the tarts on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Prick the top of each tart multiple times with a fork; you want to make sure steam can escape, or the tarts will become billowy pillows rather than flat toaster pastries. Refrigerate the tarts (they don’t need to be covered) for 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 350°F.
6. Remove the tarts form the fridge, and bake them for 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown. Cool in pan on rack.

I followed the recipes exactly, and they were all really simple and easy to follow. The only thing I changed was add some chopped up chocolate chips to the cookie dough to make it chocolate chip cookie dough.

Rolling out the dough and cutting all the little squares was a little tedious, but nothing too bad. In the recipe it suggests poking holes in the tops of the tarts so they don’t puff up, and I highly recommend doing this! I guess some of my holes didn’t go all the way through, so a couple tarts were more like pillows! But that could have also been because I put a lot of cookie dough in some of them!

As for the taste of the finished product, the ratio of dough to filling was way too high (i.e. too much crust, too little filling). I thought I had rolled them out thin enough, but I guess not! I also would suggest adding more filling to the cinnamon pop tarts – there wasn’t nearly enough – although they did taste good. As for the cookie dough pop tarts, I’m on the fence about them. They don’t really taste like anything, I think because the dough ended up cooking a bit. There was definitely enough in there, but it just had no taste. I think if I make them again, I’d try either a different kind of cookie dough, or just try a different filling all together – perhaps raw brownie batter?

Sometimes being adventurous in the kitchen leads to delicious discoveries and sometimes it leads to mediocre sustenance. Don’t let that get you down though, just try again and you’ll get it right sooner or later!