Home-Made Pop Tarts Take 2

I'm nothing if not stubborn. I WILL make a decent home-made pop tart. Today's attempt used Hot Water Pie Crust and the same filling as the first recipe. I did add 1/4 cup sugar to the crust for a little sweeter taste. The cinnamon filling still puffed up too high and cracked the crust. I don't know if the egg white is to blame. I know I wouldn't have the problem if I used traditional fruit filling, however I have a child who will not eat fruits or veggies (due to a sensory sensitivity and mild autism). So now that I have a good crust, I'm off to work on the filling.....

DIY Fail

I get teased by my friends, but I really enjoy DIY....especially in the kitchen. So when my kids kept clamoring for Pop-Tarts, I headed to the Internet to find a home-made version.

Not too difficult, I've made pies before and these didn't look much different.

So I followed the recipe and started with my chilled for 3 hours dough.

With the dough rolled out and using 3x5 inch index cards as guidelines, my pizza cutter helped cut out the bottoms and tops.

I used the cinnamon filling given in the recipe, and then a modified version with cocoa powder instead of the brown sugar. The cinnamon filling was very runny and threatened to overflow onto the pan.

Ready for the oven. I made some using a biscuit cutter for smaller appetites.

They took twice the time given in the recipe to finish baking. The tops split despite my fork holes and the cinnamon filling really puffed up (then sank when cooled).

The original recipe stated the frosting wasn't hard like packaged pop tarts, so I used Royal Icing to make a crispy frosting.

The verdict? I am not too happy with these tarts. Tasting one, the pastry overwhelms the filling. Way too rich and buttery. I may try with a more traditional pie crust and add more powdered sugar to the cinnamon filling. This recipe may have to be chucked into the recycle bin if the modifications don't work. Back to the drawing board! At least my kids love my home-made doughnuts. Healthy they aren't, delicious they are.

New Knitting Videocast!

Come see a new Knitting Videocast by Carin (you may remember her from Lime and Violet). Can't wait for the next episode!

Overload

Words fail to even begin to describe this last weekend. It started out with my husband heading up to Seattle to see Heaven and Hell. (You can cut the boy's hair but you can't get rid of his urge for heavy metal music)

On the way he dropped the kids off at his parent's house where they terrorized enjoyed their grandparents.

Meanwhile, I loaded my Pocket Wheel into the car and headed to Portland. It was time for Sock Summit 2009 and knitting overload. I took a class titled "Spinning a Painted Sock" by Janel Laidman. I think I may have retained 10% of what she showed us in class. All of the information was amazing and someday I'll be able to use it.

Afterwards I had lunch with Cathy, met up with Carin and her mom, shopped in the Marketplace, and headed out to the Ravelry party. Of course I didn't take a single photo.

The next day was a repeat of the first, but mostly was shopping and then the Luminary Panel. I knit on my Clapotis during the panel, then enjoyed dessert in honor of Elizabeth Zimmerman's 99th birthday.

This is the only photo I took the entire Summit. Tina and Stephanie introducing the Luminary Panel.

On to the haul! First off we have the swag from the Ravelry Party. It's as close to a Namaste bag as I'll probably ever get.

I was able to call my husband on Saturday night and tell him I didn't buy a single skein of yarn the first day. It wasn't a lie, I purchased all roving! The second day I did get two skeins of yarn.

I have 4 batts from Olann fibers (she delivered them to me at the Summit, she doesn't have a shop.). Two rovings from A Verb for Keeping Warm of 50% silk and 50% Merino, 3 Mountain Colors rovings, a skein of sock yarn from Liberty's Yarns, a 4 ounce Optim Roving from Ms. Gusset who brought all her stock from Australia, and a skein from Rainydayswoolydogs. I also scored a small Namaste box from The Loopy Ewe.

Whew! Now on to the rest of summer!