Homemade Pop Tarts.

For his freshman year of college, my brother had a package of pop tarts and a Dr. Pepper for breakfast. Every. Single. Day.

Do you think he gained the freshman fifteen? Of course not.

I, of course, didn't get quite so lucky, even though my breakfast was much healthier than what my brother consumed. And what's a good blog post without photographic proof?

This picture is circa January 2005. And if it alone doesn't make you say, Oh. My. Gosh. just know that I had lost about 15 pounds. Yes, it was much worse.  Maybe someday I'll let those pictures see the light on the blog.



Moral of the story is, I love a good pop-tart but feel rather guilty when I indulge in them. {they are probably the nutritional equivalent of 3 snickers for breakfast!}  Every once in a while I have a reason to splurge and this past Sunday I did just that. We had a celebration breakfast with our Sunday school group, so I pulled out all the stops to impress everyone:

Homemade Pop Tarts!



These are easy and delicious!

Take a store bought pie crust, cut into small pieces. {I folded mine in half to eyeball where the 1/2 way mark was, and then made sure I cut equal size pieces to serve as a top and bottom for the pop tart.} Place a small amount of jelly on a piece, cover with the top piece, then put on a baking sheet and press the edges together with a fork! Bake about 7-8 minutes on 425.

I made two batches: red plum jelly and brown sugar and cinnamon. I thought I would be so smart when I made the brown sugar and cinnamon ones: I covered half of the dough with brown sugar and cinnamon, then folded the other half over. I then used a pizza cutter to cut it into the pieces and planned on pressing the sides together with a fork.

Unfortunately, the brown sugar mix kept it from pressing together and we were going to be late to church, so I had to just leave them unpressed. I was worried the stuff would ooze out during baking, but it stayed and they tasted great, even if they didn't have the cute pressed edges like a real pop tart.  Make a simple powdered sugar glaze and you're all set!

{a simple disclaimer: these are super easy, but will take about 10,15,20 minutes prep time. so I almost ended up late to church because I didn't allow myself enough time to put them together. learn from me and err on the side of too much time!}

Enjoy!