Cookies Preferences
Pop tarts are one of those things that I felt I really missed out on as a kid. Since we grew up mostly abroad, they weren’t available (except to the kids of diplomats who were able to buy them at the US embassy commissary). They reached almost mythical status in my head, little pockets of pastry filled with sweet fruit that you just heated up in the toaster and could enjoy on the go! Of course, as a kid I never stopped to think that they were filled with preservatives and sugar and horrible oils and fats. All I knew was that I was clearly abused for lack of pop tarts.
Part of what I love to do as a chef is take something commercial and common, like pop tarts, and make them into something you’d be happy to serve at a restaurant….and maybe play with your conceptions of the dish just a bit. Here I took the flavors I have used before in a cake that’s filled with semolina and pistachios and rosewater and lemon and turned them into my pop tarts. Rose jam is one of the culinary revelations I’ve had here in Lebanon. Individual rose petals are taken stewed with sugar to give you a perfumed, but done properly, subtle rose flavor. Don’t want to source rose jam for just this recipe? You can use strawberry and mix in a little rosewater.
To decorate I use dried rose petals, rose geranium flowers, and toasted pistachios. Certainly a step up from the sprinkles commercial pop tarts use!
1 egg
60g pistachios, ground very finely
180g all-purpose flour
20g fine semolina
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
zest of one lemon
½ teaspoon salt
112g unsalted butter, cut in pieces and very cold
2 tablespoons ice water
8 tablespoons rose petal jam
110g icing sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
flowers for decorating
toasted chopped pistachios for decorating
Preheat oven to 220/425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix together the egg and ground pistachios and set aside for ten minutes. Now combine the flour, semolina, spices, zest in the bowl of a food processor. Add the pistachio egg mixture and pulse a couple of times. Now pulse the pieces of butter until you have a pebbly-like mixture. Add the cold water through the tube and blend until it comes into a ball. Divide the dough into two pieces and wrap in plastic, allowing to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Remove the dough from the fridge and roll the first piece into a 10x12 inch rectangle. You can mark the dough lightly in half horizontally and at 3 inch intervals across so you know where to place the rose petal jam. Place a tablespoon of jam in the middle of each marked section. Now roll the second piece of dough into the same size and carefully lay it on top of the jam filled dough. Press down slightly around the edges and use a pastry cutter to create the 8 little pop tart parcels. Move them to the prepared parchment lined baking sheet and then crimp the edges of each one together with a fork. Place the pop tarts in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until brown around the edges. Allow to cool.
Meanwhile, mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice to make your glaze. When the pop tarts have cooled spoon a little of the glaze on top and immediately decorate with flowers, rose petals, and chopped pistachios. Allow the glaze to harden and then serve.
