I'm always looking for fun and exciting things for the boys to do in the kitchen. I like for them to experiment with food and flavors as much as possible. It's the only way I know of to get them to try different foods. Today we had a pop-tart party to get them to try different fruit combinations. Making homemade pop-tarts is ridiculously easy. This is the dough recipe I usually use but because I had an extra kiddo in the kitchen today, I just bought a pre-made pie crust. I know it's not as healthy but I don't use any refined sugar in my pop-tarts so that makes up for it, right? Girl math.
To start off I cut the dough into and even amount of rectangles, making sure half of them are just slightly bigger than the others. I use the slightly bigger pieces to go on top so you have more dough to stretch over the filling and are still able to seal it... learned that one the hard way! I cut up a bunch of fruit and put it in bowls. Any fruit you want! I even put out applesauce (because apples won't get soft enough in the short amount of time these pop-tarts bake) and have them mix it with smashed bananas, or quick cook oats and cinnamon to make an apple pie type tart! I also put out the spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, even cacao. Sometimes, we even do chocolate sauce and peanut butter *YUM!*. When the kiddos finished mixing their fruits and spices I sprinkle a little bit of coconut sugar or stevia (depending on the fruit and spices) and they can add some oats for a little crunch if they choose. The possibilities are endless! Fill each pop-tart with about a tbsp of filling, cover with the top layer, crimp the sides with a fork, and poke a whole in the top so the steam can escape. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake them for 9-11 mins or until the edges start to brown at 425 degrees. Let them cook for 10 mins before removing them to a cooling rack. You can even frost them by mixing powdered sugar with a little bit of milk (sorry I don't have an exact recipe for this but I think the dough recipe above might!) I think the next time I make these I'll do savory tarts. I'm thinking cheese, broccoli, and turkey! They would be perfect for lunches! If anyone tries a savory combo, let me know how it turns out!