Recipe: Pop-Tarts

What the hell were they thinking?! Since when do Pop-Tart connoisseur buy the dry little pastries for their nutritional value? Never once have I said, "I wonder if I could get more fiber in my diet by eating Pop-Tarts." But this is the trend from the Kelloggs company:

Some friends gave me a box of these as a gift because I was reminiscing about how much I love Pop-Tarts. You wanna see the nutritional info on these healthy snacks:

WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN, PALM, COTTONSEED AND/OR HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL WITH TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID FOR FRESHNESS), POLYDEXTROSE, SUGAR, DEXTROSE, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, CORN SYRUP, WHOLE GRAIN BARLEY FLOUR, GLYCERIN, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF INULIN FROM CHICORY ROOT, WHEAT STARCH, SALT, DRIED STRAWBERRIES, DRIED PEARS, DRIED APPLES, CORNSTARCH, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL STRAWBERRY FLAVOR, CITRIC ACID, GELATIN, CARAMEL COLOR, SOY LECITHIN, XANTHAN GUM, MODIFIED WHEAT STARCH, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, NIACINAMIDE, RED #40, REDUCED IRON, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), YELLOW #6, RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), FOLIC ACID.

Mmm...that's nutritional goodness right there buddy boy! What I love about Pop-Tarts is the filling, the frosting and the permission to eat a cookie for breakfast. What I don't like is that there is never enough filling. And that brings me to my homemade version:

When I re-create a store bought product I have a rule that you need to get as close to the original as possible while improving on any faults. In this case, I was fine with the dough and the frosting, and the taste of the filling, but I wanted more filling.

Pop-Tart Dough
13 oz (370 g) Unsalted Butter at room temp
1/3 C. & 1 T. (110 g) Milk at room temp
1 Yolk at room temp
1 t. (6 g)Sugar
1 t. (6 g) Salt
3 1/2 C. (625 g) AP Flour
In food processor, combine butter, milk, yolk, sugar and salt and pulse until roughly blended. Add the flour and pulse until it just starts to come together. Form into a disc and wrap in saran wrap, chill at least 1 hours.  ALT (updated 3/14), In mixer, cream butter with salt and sugar.  Add yolk and then half of the flour.  Add milk and remaining flower and combine til homogenous.  Remove from mixing bowl and press on counter with the heel of your hand for 30 seconds.  Cut in half and place half on your baking silpat or parchment.  Cover with parchment and rollout to 1/8" thick.  Using a ruler, cut to size but leave on baking sheet - I normally do 4x6" and get 6 out of each sheet.  Freeze for 15 minutes.  Roll out the other half to make the tops, and cut to size.  Lightly freeze just to make handleable.  Brush bottom seams with egg whites. (now proceed with the pre-edited recipe)

Brown-Sugar Cinnamon Filling
1 Egg White at room temp
3/4 C. Powdered Sugar
1/4 C. Almond slivers or slices
1/4 C. Brown sugar
1 T. Cinnamon
In food processor, combine all ingredients and blend until well combined.

Assembly
Roll the dough into a rough square, dusting with flour, until 1/8" thick. Cut dough into 4"x6" rectangles. Pair the rectangles for tops and bottoms. Brush the edges of your bottom with a whisked egg. Place a large dollop of filling on inside the egg wash, then spread it evenly. The amount of filling is up to you, but you can see in the pic below how much I did. Place the top sheet of dough on top and press firmly but gently onto the bottom sheet. Chill your Pop-Tarts for 30 minutes.

Oven to 350F. Bake for abut 15 minutes or until just starting to brown. Let sit until room temp. Frost with a milk and powdered sugar frosting with just a bit of cinnamon added.

And here's a chocolate tart with chestnut filling and coarse salt on top

Recipe: Cherry Pop-Tart

Ever since I posted my Pop-Tart recipe a while back which figured out the crust and a cinnamon filling, I've had numerous requests for fruit filling. Today I gave it a go and got the cherry just right.

The pastry recipe is the same as my original. The trick with the filling is that there are a lot of chemicals in the original recipe that make it the texture and taste that it is. My version may not last for a year on the grocery shelf, but its just as good, and probably better.

1/2 C Dried cherries
1/2 C Almond flour/meal
1 Egg White
1/4 C Powdered Sugar

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and buzz into a fine mush. This takes a while so keep working at it. Eventually you'll get a rough but homogeneous glop. That's all there is to it. Fill the pastry, seal and bake. The flavor and texture were spot on. So, now you can make any of the fruit flavors so that just leaves the pursuit of the fudge Pop-Tart still to figure out.

The anal retentive reader will ask about the cherries on the frosting. I took some of the remnants of the filling, added more powdered sugar and baked at 300ºF for 15 minutes, let it dry then chopped into small pieces. It was still sticky so I put the pieces, spread out, back into the oven and that did the trick.
Curious Kumquat

Recipe: Rootbeer Float ReDeux

I recently learned that this dessert will (most likely) be featured in a major pastry magazine.

Knowing my track record with publishable pics, I had pros do it. That was a very odd experience as I powdered and misted my dessert to make it photogenic. For my inside readers, you'll note that my maraschino cherry spere deflated during the shoot. Hopefully no one will notice. I've reworked this since my last version in March of last year. I think this one is better and the recipe is more refined for others to use. I count this as one of my best desserts along side my Peanut Butter Pie, Pop-Tart, and maybe the Sugar Cream Pie.

Root beer Base
30 g Sassafras root
15 g Dandelion root
8 g Wintergreen
15 g Hops
30 g Juniper berries
226 g Sugar
226 g Light muscovado sugar
226 g Palm sugar
115 g Honey

Rinse sassafras and dandelion in cold water. Crush juniper berries, and add to mix with hops and wintergreen. Place all of the herbs and berries in a cheesecloth bag. Boil two gallons of water and pour half over the mix bag. Simmer for a half hour.

Remove bag and discard. Add the sweeteners and the other gallon of water. Taste the root beer and adjust. Boil the base until slightly thickened. Let cool to room temperature. (Alternatively you could use Amoretti root beer extract at 1% in the cream.)

“Ice Cream”
150 g Milk
30 g Sugar
2 Egg yolks
1 T. Vanilla paste
5 Sheets gelatin, softened
200 g Whipped cream

Bring milk just to a boil. In separate bowl combine yolks and sugar. Use the hot milk to temper the egg mixture. Pour egg mixture into remaining hot milk and continue whisking until the mixture coats the back of the spoon. Remove from heat and add the vanilla paste and softened gelatin. Allow to cool, and fold into the whipped cream. Pour into a 40 mm half sphere mold (Chef Rubber ref: 800304). Freeze.

Root Beer Cream
180 g Heavy cream
30 g Rootbeer syrup
3 Egg yolks
1 Sheet gelatin, softened

Heat heavy cream until hot. In separate bowl, whisk syrup and yolks. Temper yolk mixture with hot cream. Whisk in the softened gelatin. Cool until thick enough to support the weight of the “ice cream.” Fill a 60 mm half sphere mold (Chef Rubber ref: 800302) with the cream half way. Set the frozen “ice cream” into the root beer cream and level the tops. Freeze.

Cherry
138 g Maraschino cherry juice
3.4 g Calicium lactate
25 g Sugar
500 g Water
2.5 g Sodium alginate

Using an immersion blender, combine juice and Calcium lactate. Pipe juice into a 1” sphere mold (Chef Rubber ref: 800414). Freeze until solid.

In a blender mix the water and sugar creating a vortex. Add the sodium alginate and be sure to thoroughly blend. Transfer solution to a deep prep bowl. Drop the cherry balls into the sodium alginate bath and allow to set for 45 seconds. Carefully remove the spheres and drop into a clean water bath. Keep chilled until service.

Turn frozen “floats” over exposing the round bottoms. Spray bottoms with white chocolate and cocoa butter (equal parts) through an air brush or sprayer. This will become the serving shell. Allow the “float” to thaw in the cooler for service.

At service, using a melon baller, scoop a 1” half sphere from the center of the “ice cream.” Carefully place the cherry sphere into hole. For additional garnish, crush Brach’s root beer candy and melt on silpat sheet, forming into desired shape.

Random dishes

I must be waxing nostalgic as my current menu winds down. Here are a few more old dishes that I've been serving.

Someone gifted me with kumquats so what's a guy to do...candy them of course. I still had some kumquat chutney from a previous batch so these just got a long candying and have been finding their way onto my menu in various places.


One place has been this dish which I call Gila Fields. The Town of Gila is 30 minutes North of us and is nestled along the Gila River. Great soil and so a number of my foragers and growers come from that area. This dish includes baby purple potato coated in kaolin clay, mushroom cake, sherry gelée, caper powder, piñon, lemon and sweet juniper.

Another iteration of the same in a beautiful Bauscher dish:

I called this pop-tart. Foraged mint, sweet pea tartlet on a Tafelstern Showpiece Bambu plate.

Not the best picture, but sweet potato, celery root, roasted tomato, sous vide radish and sweet pea, mushroom soil

That same Gila Fields with some flower bling and piñon oil powder

An early version of my cashew tower: Celery root, 14 day fermented cashew cheese, Salvadoran spiced roasted vegetables, cactus skin, black tea infused lentils