Slumber Party and Pop Tarts

Like most little girls, when I was younger, I LIVED for slumber parties. The games, junk food, talking about boys... I vividly remember dancing around in my best friend's game room, clad in old navy pjs, braces, and frizzy hair to N'SYNC and gushing over JTT. So when I was invited to an old fashioned girls-only slumber party last night I was like hells yes! We had it all, pizza, games, music, and junk food, but instead of root beer and Capri Sun we had mojito champagne cocktails and mojito jello shots (I guess there is one perk to being a grown up!). Instead of N'SYNC we danced to Pitbull, and instead of boys we gushed over babies and weddings. 

The thing I looked forward to most at slumber parties was breakfast. My Mom was under the impression that Lucky Charms and Toaster Strudel had made a pact with the devil to poison little children with sugar. As far as I was concerned, getting to have a Pop Tart in the morning was like winning the ten year old lottery.  So when I stumbled upon this recipe on SK for homemade pop tarts I knew I had to try it out. 

Now, I'm no pastry chef (I've never even made pie crust before! Frozen roll out Pilsbury crust is usually my style), and this recipe is not easy, but with the guidance of Smitten Kitchen, even this pastry dough delinquent could get it right!* 

The ingredients are ready! I doubled the recipe and I would suggest this if you are not used to working with pastry dough. The whole measuring the inches of the dough and getting them exactly the right size was a little too involved for me, so I ended up with about 14 tarts when I should have had 18. And yes, there are four whole sticks of buttah in this recipe, that is why it's so delicious y'all.

My fillings. Both turned out excellent.

 

My food processor is still in it's new little box over at my MIL's house, so me and that dough got down the old fashioned way! 

If you live in a warm area, head SK's advice and put your dough in the freezer for 10 minutes before trying to work with it! I tried to roll it out immediately after kneading it and that was a definite no-go. 

I used a large cutting board to roll my dough because I Just.Can't.Place.Food.On.The.Countertop! It drives O crazy because we clean the counters, promise... but just, no. 

Sealing the edges and making the tarts pretty!

Little tarts about to enter the sauna!

Baked to light golden brown perfection! 

Word to the wise, if you make tarts with two different fillings, poke one four times and the other five with the fork in order to differentiate the fillings. Take it from me, I've had 3 tarts today and they've all been Nutella. Not that I'm complaining :)

They might not have been as perfect looking as SK's, but after a quick 20 seconds in the microwave and a sprinkling of powdered sugar, everyone at that slumber party said they tasted DAMN GOOD.

Happy tart making!

-Claire

*Warning: My kitchen was COVERED in flour, Nutella, and more flour after this recipe, so if you have a problem with messy messes, just hop on over to the store and pick up whichever little foil wrapped pastries suit your fancy!