POP! TART!

It was Sammie's birthday. We had a picnic. At the park. It was perfect. Ballons with confetti inside. The evening was breathtaking. I made poptarts. And filled them with cream cheese, brown sugar, vanilla extract and all things nice. My helper was mama peanut. She brought us donuts. And somehow that day could not get any happier than that.

I remember the last time Katy and I went on a picnic. It was over a year ago, by the lake at Georgetown, DC. Katy had to work that day so I fixed us lovely falafel sandwiches and threw whatever fruit I had on hand into the picnic basket. We had a blast that day. The weather was nice and the view was as sweet as always. We both laid down on a dark blue fabric and read our own books, diving deep into our own world. I could still feel the grass poking at my back. How nice it was to be so close to nature even in the city. But since we got back to thailand, I had thought about picnicing but never actually made it happen. I was grateful to know this lady, Sam, who is pretty much in love with the idea of picnicing. And when she invited us to her birthday party at the park, i did not hesitate one bit. It was a perfect timing. I sure will do it more often :) -Candice.

POPTART!

For the tart dough (Adapted from Bigger Bolder Baking) :

2 1/2 cups plain flour plus more for kneading

¾ cup (200g) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

2 tbsp white sugar

2 egg yolks

4 tbsp water

1/2 teaspoon salt

Egg wash

For the filling :

Half a pack of cream cheese

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp icing sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

For the dough, mix the dry ingredients all together then add the butter and use your hands to break them into the flour. Keep working until you get the consistency of bread crumbs. Do not overmix until the butter melts. You have to work quite quickly here. Then add water and egg yolks. Form them into ball and refrigerate it for 30 minutes at least

For the filling, let the cream cheese sit out until it gets to the room temperature. Then mix well with the rest of the ingredients. Keep stirring until there are no lumps of icing sugar left.

You can now take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit outside for 30 minutes for easier rolling. Flour your working surface with flour or you can also roll the dough out on parchment paper

Use the cookie cutter (square shape for the original look of pop tart. Other shapes work fine,too. Do whatever your heart desires!) to cut out the dough. Brush the yolks on each and everyone of them. Use the fork to poke on the surface of each dough to prevent them from rising. Now put the filling onto the center of the dough, careful not to overload it, then top with another piece of dough and use the back of the fork to seal the edges of the tart. Do the same with the rest. You will get about 8 pop tarts from this recipe. Bake in the preheated oven at 180'C for 25-30 minutes.

Happy Day