I followed the recipe, pretty much as stated except for the fillings. I did make some with strawberry fruit spread, some with a generous smear of Nutella, and some with a sweetened cream cheese mixture. All were delicious. I don't think I could pick a favorite if I had to. Just a warning, the jam spilled out the sides of my poptarts, but the other fillings did not. Protect your oven and pans with foil or something if you want to try jam!
As for the process, the crust was relatively easy to make. It's pretty time consuming though. If you were in a hurry, you could use the rolled crust from the store. That never seems to taste as good as homemade though.
2-1/2 cups flour
1 Tbl sugar
1 tsp salt
2 sticks butter, very cold
1 cup water and some ice cubes
fillings: jam, Nutella, sweet cream cheese (1/2 cup cream cheese, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1Tbl+1tsp agave)
- Put ice cubes in the 1 cup of water. The water needs to be very cold to make the crust.
- Combine flour, sugar, and salt in large bowl.
- Cut butter into cubes and add them to the flour mixture. Use a pastry cutter to combine until it looks like peas. I don't have a pastry cutter, so I used my kitchen-aid mixer for a few seconds.
- Add about half of the water (not the ice cubes!).when you mix this, the dough should stick together in a ball pretty well. I think I used about 3/4 of the cup of water to make this happen.
- Divide the dough in half. Place each half in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350*
- Break off a piece of dough, about 1/3 cup size and roll it into a rectangle.
- Smear filling on one side of the rectangle, fold in half, press edges down with fork to seal, and use a pizza cutter to make them look straight (if you care about that kind of thing). You will need to cut an air vent in the top of your poptart, so I cut an 'N' for nutella, or 'C' for cheese, etc.
- Place on a cookie sheet in the refrigerator until your pan is filled up. (Keeping the dough cold is what makes it so flaky!)
- Just before baking, smear with an egg wash (beat up egg white) to help the crust turn golden.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until the edges are starting to brown.