Homemade Poptarts

Sifting through the memories of my youth, amongst the Rainbow Brite and She Ra (the Princess of Power, of course), tucked behind the Babysitter's Club and Nancy Drew books and right next to a VHS of Punky Brewster recordings (yes, kids that's what we had before there were DVDs), you would find a hodgepodge of foods that most remind me of being a kid. A carefree, braided pig-tail wearing, trying to swing higher than you on the swing-set, kid. There'd be my good friend Macaroni and Cheese, and of course spaghetti and meatballs would be there, along with my breakfast pals Lucky Charms and Golden Grahams.  Way in back, hiding behind that bigshot bag of Combos there'd be a box of Poptarts.  Talk about a reunion party..

You can imagine my sheer excitement when I opened last month's Bon Appetit and saw a recipe for this childhood delicacy. Seriously, my mind was blown and I knew that I had to make these and I furthermore, knew that it would be the absolute perfect thing to make for my annual Boston Marathon party. So I took at stab at recreating the humble Poptart and found it to be pretty easy and kind of like making ravioli. The hardest part, similar to ravioli, was being careful to pinch the sides tight enough so that the jam did spill over into a sticky, lava-hot pool on the pan. Although, the more poptarts I made, the more unavoidable this became. I just tried to minimize spillage, I suppose.

Although I stuck to this recipe to a T, (a feat that is rather impressive for a non-recipe follower like me) I did make one tweak. The Bon Appetit recipe called for powdered sugar to dust these 'tarts but I wanted to really kick it old school and create a light frosting of powdered sugar and milk (thanks Mom! It's the recipe that you taught me years ago) to coat the top with and then, the finishing touch, little rainbow sprinkles.  These cute little guys were a huge hit at my party (as were the leftovers that I brought into the office the next day).  I would recommend making these if you really want to surprise someone or if you simply just want to feel like a kid again.  A carefree, jump-roping, bubble blowing, hopscotching kinda kid.

To view this recipe from Bon Appetit's website, click here.