first thing's first: if you've never had homemade grape jelly, you're missing out. make some. now. if i hadn't stopped myself, i would have eaten the whole jar with a spoon. it's that good. my grandpa didn't lie.
second. i've had this recipe stuck in the back of my head since i saw alton brown make them on good eats last year. two years ago? anyway, it's been a while. so i grabbed my jar of grape jelly and my next to last jar of mom's 2009 strawberry jam (i come from a long line of jammers) and made some of the easiest, best pastries ever.
i found alton's recipe for "pocket pies" at foodnetwork.com. instead of filling them with chocolate or mango or whatever, i just added hearty tablespoon of jam. i also baked mine instead of frying them.
i found alton's recipe for "pocket pies" at foodnetwork.com. instead of filling them with chocolate or mango or whatever, i just added hearty tablespoon of jam. i also baked mine instead of frying them.
a couple words of advice -
1 - bake on parchment. almost all of mine sprung a leak while baking and i thought my sheet pan was ruined. luckily a soak in hot water was all it took to come off...which brings me to
2 - don't overfill them. add a hearty spoonful, but don't add too much or they'll ooze while baking
3 - i poked the tops of some with a fork and some i cut a slash with a knife before baking. the knife slash is the way to go. when the pastry starts baking, the forked holes get too small and the steam can't escape, so they puff up really big.
4 - make sure you don't add cream to your glaze or it will never harden. i wasn't thinking and decided to use up the last of some heavy cream rather than milk or water (hmm i bet a small amount of jam would be good too instead of the liquid) to make the glaze. not a good choice.
fill these suckers with whatever kind of jam/jelly/fruit filling you like.
and they definitely freeze well. pop them in the toaster from frozen and you're good to go.
1 - bake on parchment. almost all of mine sprung a leak while baking and i thought my sheet pan was ruined. luckily a soak in hot water was all it took to come off...which brings me to
2 - don't overfill them. add a hearty spoonful, but don't add too much or they'll ooze while baking
3 - i poked the tops of some with a fork and some i cut a slash with a knife before baking. the knife slash is the way to go. when the pastry starts baking, the forked holes get too small and the steam can't escape, so they puff up really big.
4 - make sure you don't add cream to your glaze or it will never harden. i wasn't thinking and decided to use up the last of some heavy cream rather than milk or water (hmm i bet a small amount of jam would be good too instead of the liquid) to make the glaze. not a good choice.
fill these suckers with whatever kind of jam/jelly/fruit filling you like.
and they definitely freeze well. pop them in the toaster from frozen and you're good to go.
homemade poptarts
from alton brown's pocket pies
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