Blackberry Poptarts
These are mad times we live in. Mad!
I found myself googling “vegan butter pie crust” yesterday.
I always, always use The Pioneer Woman’s pie crust recipe. But, as I opened my baking cabinet, I knew exactly what I wasn’t going to find: Crisco bars.
I wanted to make the asparagus quiche that Kalley shared a couple days ago, after she raved about it. Alas, no pie crust in the freezer and no Crisco to make my go to recipe. With coronavirus and a husband busy with harvest - I wasn’t about to drag Whitaker to the grocery store for Crisco.
So that’s when the madness started: vegan butter pie crust. I’m not sure those words belong together. But, I wasn’t the first person to string those concepts together and I found a recipe, which worked perfectly for Kalley’s quiche!
Except that it made extra dough. So, I thought I’d make my son’s favorite breakfast too. Once upon a time, he ate eggs and veggies and things resembling health. But, now, he’s all about poptarts.
A lot of people use jam for poptarts - but we had blackberries in our freezer from last year’s garden. So, I thawed some and used them instead!
We freeze a lot of our garden produce so that we can eat it all year. For blackberries, I pick them and immediately wash them and let them dry on paper towels. Once dry, I spread them out in a single layer on cookie sheets and let them freeze. Then, transfer to a freezer bag so I can easily grab a handful at a time for smoothies, oatmeal, stewed fruit, or baked goods.
Ultimately, I still prefer The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for pie crust. The vegan butter crust was harder to work with - but absolutely delicious nonetheless. So, I look forward to making poptarts again one day with my regular pie crust!
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Homemade Blackberry Poptarts
Filling
1 1/4 cup blackberries, fresh or thawed frozen berries
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp flour
A squeeze of lemon juice
Prepared pie crust (store bought totally works but it's not THAT hard to make one from scratch!)
Icing
I used the left over filling and added 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar
Sprinkles to top
Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat mat.
Blend the blackberries in a food processor until smooth. Tip: If you don't like the seeds, you can strain them out. I didn't do that step and the seeds didn't bother even our pickiest eater!
In a small sauce pan, combine blackberries, vanilla, granulated sugar, flour, and a squeeze of lemon.
Bring to a slow boil over low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened. Remove from heat.
Prepare pie crust. On a well floured surface, roll out a chilled pie crust to 1/8 of an inch thick and cut into same sized rectangles using a sharp knife.
Lay half the dough rectangles on your baking sheet.
Spoon 3 tsp of filling into the middle of each rectangle. Tip: don't get too close to the edge!
Lay the remaining dough rectangles on top and use a fork to press the layers together and seal the filling inside the poptart.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until very lightly browned. Remove and let cool on a wire cooling rack.
Meanwhile, use left over filling to make the icing. Add 3 tablespoons (more if you like it sweeter) of powdered sugar and beat on high.
Spread icing on once the poptarts have cooled and add sprinkles!
Or, ya know, be impatient, add the icing while it's hot, and devour right then and there. That's what we did. Exactly 1/3 of a poptart made it to the next morning for breakfast. Oh well - it was a delicious dessert that my four year old was SO excited to help make!