Peanut Butter and Jelly Pop Tarts

My 3 year old D-Man is obsessed with Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches. When I say obsessed, I am absolutely not kidding. He has to have one a day. No, I have to limit him to just one a day. Some days I’m able to sidetrack him, and then 4:00 PM comes around, and he asks, “Wait, did I have a peanut butter and jelly today?” We try to trick him and tell him yes, but he says, “No, I didn’t have one. I don’t feel it in my belly.” Haha. When I said that he runs this house, some of you may have thought I was kidding, but I wasn’t.

It’s even to the point where we are absolutely sick and tired of making him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich Every. Single. Day. We’ve talked about getting those Smucker’s Uncrustables just so we don’t have to make him these things. But for some reason whenever I’m at the grocery store, I forget to look for them. Oh, but I never forget to buy the jelly (really it’s jam or preserves) or the bread. Or the peanut butter. I still haven’t figured out exactly which part he’s most obsessed with, but my guess is peanut butter since he sneaks the jar and a spoon into a corner a few times a day.

You probably think I don’t feed him, but I do. He eats very well, and he loves all my crazy recipes. He’ll eat the spicy stuff, the sweet stuff, even the sour stuff. His other favorite is my Peanut Butter Cookies. Once I made him some Peanut Butter cupcakes with cream cheese jam frosting. It tasted just like a sandwich and he couldn’t eat them up fast enough. Maybe I’ll post that recipe for you guys sometime.

Anyway, today I was trying to figure out what to share with you guys. I mean, it’s not like I have a shortage of posts, I have plenty to share, but I wanted something different. I was trying to figure out something quick and fun. I had bought some of those premade refrigerated pie crusts in a box. You unroll them and you can use them for 1-2 pies. I bought them a few months ago and threw them in the freezer, and for New Year’s Eve I was considering using them for quiche or a pot pie or something, so I defrosted them and forgot about them. So this morning, there they were sitting in my fridge, and D-Man was asking for a sandwich again. That’s when it hit me! PB&J Pop Tarts! At first I considered combining the two flavors in the pastry, but then I decided to just keep the jelly (jam) inside the pastry and come up with a peanut butter icing and sprinkles. They were good! And surprisingly light, the icing was really good as well, it’d be good with a chocolate filling too so it’d resemble a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup. Yum.

D-Man was a happy camper, although he is now asking for a sandwich.
Can you guess what kind?
PRINT THIS RECIPE

Pop Tart Ingredients:

• One package refrigerated pie crust
• About 3 tablespoons Fruit Preserves or Jam

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Unroll the pie crust on a smooth surface, then cut into little rectangles. Out of 2 pie crusts I was able to make a total of 8 pop tarts, but the sizes varied greatly!

Drop about a teaspoon of fruit filling in the middle of one rectangle.

Place the other rectangular piece on top and press the sides together.  Make sure to seal them, as some of mine weren’t sealed all the way and some jam escaped during baking. Use a fork to pinch the sides together once they’re sealed.

Once they’re all assembled place them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Can you guess which ones leaked? Haha! Place in the oven and set your timer for about 12 minutes.

While the pastries are baking, prepare your icing. Add all the ingredients to a bowl, and stir together until smooth.

There’s D-Man, he said he was making a recipe.  He used the scrap pieces of pie crust and was having fun while I mixed the icing.  He’s so fun!

Icing is ready.  This would be great on chocolate cake or cupcakes, you’d have to thicken it up though, so use way less liquid than this recipe called for.  Yum.

Do you know I don’t have any wire racks? I remove my cookies or pastries from their cookie sheet and place on another cookie sheet to cool. I think we know what I’m buying next! Anyway, let the pastries cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a serving platter, wire racks, a cool cookie sheet. Then start icing, you want to add the icing while the pastries are still semi-warm.  As they cool the icing will harden.

Add your sprinkles while the icing is still wet so they stick!

Enjoy!

D-Man approved!! Score!