cream cheese + pepper jelly (or blueberry) pop tarts
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
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Makes: 10 tarts
Ingredients
  • 2 prepared (1 package) pie crusts (Trader Joe’s brand is always flawlessly flakey) OR 1 double crust recipe pie dough
  • 4 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 4 oz sweet-hot pepper jelly (double if you’re only making Cream Cheese + Pepper Jelly tarts)
  • 4 oz blueberry jam (double if you’re only making Blueberry Cream Cheese tarts)
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • flour, for your work surface
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375F.
  2. Bring cream cheese to room temperate and transfer to a heavy duty zip top bag or piping bag. (Trust me, a little sandwich baggie doesn’t do the trick here. The seams will bust, and then you’ll double-bag it, and then they’ll bust again, ugggggh. Go big or go home.) Massage the softened cream cheese a couple of times, pushing it toward the tip (or corner) of the bag. Snip about ¼” piece of the tip off the bag.
  3. Working on a lightly floured surface, unroll one of your prepared pie crusts (set second crust aside for later) and -- ready for this? -- wad it back up into a big ball o' dough. (Obvi, if you're using homemade pie crust it will already be wadded up into a nice little ball.) Now roll that out into a rectangle that approximates 9"x12", about ⅛” thick. Use a ruler to get it exact! Cut dough into 3”x4” rectangles. Re-roll scraps and cut as many additional 3”x4” rectangles as possible, repeating as necessary. Repeat process with second crust (or second half of dough). You should now have about 20 rectangles, or enough for 10 pop tarts.
  4. Arrange bottom pastry halves on a baking sheet (or two, depending on the size) lined with parchment or Silpat, and pipe a border of room-temp cream cheese around the edge; then pipe a double thickness of cream cheese down the middle, as pictured, creating a quasi-windowpane situation.
  5. Using a small spoon, dollop/spread about a generous tablespoon of jam and/or jelly into remaining space.
  6. Lightly roll out top halves of tarts one more time so they stretch ever so slightly bigger in size. This ensures they can drape over the filling on the bottom halves and still seal tightly.
  7. Brush edges of bottom halves lightly with beaten egg. Arrange tops and press gently to seal. Crimp edges firmly with a fork.
  8. Add a little water (about a tablespoon) to your beaten egg and lightly brush pastries with egg wash. With a skewer or fork, poke holes generously through tops of pastries to allow steam to escape.
  9. Bake in preheated oven 25-35 mins or until light golden brown. Allow to cool before serving. If desired, reheat leftover pastries -- and enhance the golden toastiness even more -- with a quick toast before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
These little tarts can hardly be considered homemade since they utilize store bought pie crust and your favorite preserves; that said, the flavor is just unexpected enough to make them something special, even with all the shortcuts. Of course, if the idea of working a pre-rolled pie crust back into a ball and then back out, again, into a sheet goes against everything you've ever learned about (not overly) handling pie crust -- or if store bought pie crust just makes you cringe -- feel free to use homemade.
Recipe by the pig & quill at https://thepigandquill.com/cream-cheese-pepper-jelly-or-blueberry-pop-tarts/