Lemon Curd and Pop Tarts

I love lemon.  Anything made with lemon will soon turn into my favorite thing.  I love lemon cakes, tarts, muffins, pies and now even Pop Tarts!!!  For our monthly Pot Luck I made another Limón cello Cheesecake but this time I made a delicious Lemon Curd to go on top.  There was a ton of lemon curd left over but I just knew I would come up with a good use for it.

Then over the weekend we were in Costco and the girl’s saw some Pop Tarts and asked if they could have them.  Once I finished laughing and told them no I realized that they had given me a great idea!!!  I would use some leftover Lemon Curd to make them Homemade Pop Tarts. 

Fresh Lemon Curd (Meeta at What’s For Lunch, Honey? with a lot more info on making lemon curd!)

Ingredients
Printable version of recipe here.(link directly to Meeta’s site)

4 organic lemon, zest and juice
110g unsalted butter, cut into pieces (1/2 cup)
4 eggs, beaten
450g fine granulated sugar (2 1/4 cups)

Method

1. Set a fine strainer over a medium bowl, then set aside.
2. In a medium sized saucepan whisk together the grated lemon zest and juice, sugar and eggs until incorporated and the sugar has dissolved.
3. Place the saucepan over medium heat and gently cook the mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon, until steaming. Make sure the curd does not boil. Stir frequently and continue to cook until the curd has thickened and the curd coats the back of the wooden spoon - approx 3-7 minutes.
4. Take the curd off the heat and then add the butter, stirring to incorporate it to the curd. Pour the curd mixture through the prepared strainer to make sure there are no lumps in the lemon curd.
5. Pour into warm sterile jars, cover and seal. Allow to come to room temperature, then refrigerate.

This lemon curd was simple and delicious and I will definitely be making it again.  It was perfect on top of the cheesecake as well as on bread and toast!!!

Homemade Lemon Curd Pop Tarts (adapted from Bake Me More and several other blogs that she has mentioned!)

Ingredients:

• Pie crust, refrigerated or your favorite homemade pie crust
• lemon curd (or any jam or jelly you like)
• Glaze or Egg Wash
• Sparkling Sugar 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. (Laurel went by the temp setting on the box, the original recipe calls for 450.  I did what she did)

Unroll one of the pie crusts and square the edges. Cut into rectangles. Place 1 tsp of jam in the center of a rectangle and top with another piece of crust. Crimp all four edges. Repeat until all of the pie crust is used. I also took the rounded edges that I cut off and rolled them together to form more pop-tarts.

Bake the pop-tarts for about 7 - 8 minutes or until slightly brown. Once cool, pour glaze over and decorate with sugar. If you don’t want to add extra sugar with the glaze, you can use an egg wash on the tops  with some white sugar.

To Make the Glaze:

• 1 cup powder sugar
• milk to thin

Place powdered sugar in bowl. Pour milk slowly until it has a consistency of really thick syrup.  Drizzle over the cooled Pop Tarts.

These were so incredibly good.  I have no idea how they stack up against real Pop Tarts because I haven’t tasted them but these will be made again and again. 

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com