CHIA JAM POPTARTS

When I was little, I had such a weakness for all the American snacks that my friends brought back from their visits to the States: poptarts, fruit rollups, peanut butter cups, you name it. However, over the last couple of years I have pretty much completely stopped eating most candy and convenience foods because of the atrocious list of ingredients, but also because homemade versions are just so much better.

A poptart is like one huge jam tart and I can’t imagine many things better than melt in your mouth, crumbly pillows full of the chia jam I made last week. They are utterly delicious.

Chia jam poptarts, makes 8-9 poptarts
Pastry dough recipe from smitten kitchen

For the rhubarb and raspberry chia jam: 1.5 x this recipe with 1/2 teaspoon cornflour to be added at the same time as the chia seeds to make sure the jam doesn’t moisten the pastry too much

For the dough:

• 250g plain flour, sifted
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 225g butter
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 extra egg for an egg wash to seal the layers of pastry together

For the glaze:

• 100g icing sugar, sifted
• 3-4 teaspoons milk

Start by making the chia jam following this recipe adding one teaspoon of cornflour at the same time as the chia seeds.

As the jam cools, make the pastry. Mix the flour, sugar and salt together in a bowl. Add cubes of butter to the dry mix and, using your fingers, crumble into large breadcrumbs. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and the milk together and add to the mix. Bring together into a firm dough using a wooden spoon.

Knead gently on a lightly floured surface and cut into two equal parts.

Roll the pastry out until it’s about 1.5-2mm thick and cut out several 7.5 x 10cm rectangles with the help of a ruler. You should get 8 or 9 rectangles from each half of the dough.

Place 8 pastry rectangles on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Whisk up the extra egg and brush the bottom pastry rectangles with the egg wash. Place 1 tablespoon of chia jam in the centre of each rectangle and spread out leaving about a 1cm boarder.

Place another rectangle of pastry over the top to make what looks like a pillow and press down firmly with your fingers around the edges. Use a fork to seal the edges. Repeat with all 8-9 pastry bases.

Use a toothpick or a skewer to pierce little holes through the top layer of pastry. This allows the air to come out from the little pillow of jammy heaven.

Leave to rest in the fridge for 20-30 minutes while you preheat the oven.

Bake at 180°C for 25 minutes, until lightly golden. Leave to cool completely.

For the glaze, whisk together sifted icing sugar and milk until you get a thick paste.

Use a teaspoon to spoon the icing onto the pastry cases. Don’t drag the icing too much as it will pull up the pastry.

Sprinkle chia seeds and edible dried flowers on top while the icing is still wet.

And there you have it – a rack of little pillows of chia jammy goodness. The tart rhubarb and sweet icing combination is just perfect and you won’t believe how crumbly the pastry is!

What’s your guilty pleasure that you would like to recreate?

You have to have to have to give these a go! They will without a doubt brighten up this gloomy weekend. xS