Not Your Mothers Pop Tarts

I was hardly ever allowed to have pop tarts as a girl. That was the one food arena where, all of a sudden, my mother drew the line. And it’s not because of all the icing and sprinkles on what was supposed to be a breakfast treat. Because she was all about coffee cake and strudel and cinnamon buns – as long as she made them. And she was. literally, baking round the clock. Homemade was healthiest as far as she was concerned. Even if it was filled with sugar, you couldn’t convince her otherwise. I was a ‘growing girl’ in desperate need of ‘sustenance’ and it was her mission to see that I got it.

Could be the reason that I wanted to make raw pop tarts so badly is that they were the forbidden fruit. You know how it is,: you can’t always get what you want but if you don’t, you want it even more. In those days, I dreamed of pop tarts. I coveted each and every one that came out of a fellow classmate’s lunch box.

Thankfully we moved to Europe when I was 10. There were no pop tarts there. They just didn’t have them. However, to make up for that there was a bakery three doors down the block. And there were enough sweet breads and pastries there to throw the pop tart into faded memory and completely off my radar. Even my mother was not immune to the lure of the bakery. She had stood her ground for so long that her letting someone else’s baked goods onto her family’s plates was like her inviting a vampire into our house. Scary.

I’m not sure if I ever really had much of a sweet tooth or if it was just the constant barrage of my mothers baking that was inescapable. But what I do know is that I don’t have much of a sweet tooth anymore, And when I do feel inclined toward the sugary, I don’t have to look much further than the fruit bowl to satisfy my cravings.

Reincarnating the Pop Tart

But recently I came across a recipe for pop tarts. And those long dampened desires sprang back to life. Not to mention the ever-present challenge of making them raw. And good.

This time, it wasn’t even hard.

These are winners on all counts. They’re certainly not the same as those treats that came out of my friends lunch boxes. This is the new and improved version. The crust is nutty and just slightly sweet. And every filling tastes like real fruit because it is. The icing is the perfect complement: a drizzle of flavor, not a saccharine slab of sugar. Sometimes you can get exactly what you want.

I feel like I’ll be dreaming about these for a long time.

RAW VEGAN RECIPE: Not Your Mothers Pop Tarts

Pop Tart Crust

2 cups coconut meat (from approx 2-3 young Thai coconuts)

2 cups finely ground almonds

1 3/4 tablespoons maple syrup

1-2 cups water

Combine all ingredients except water in a food processor. Add water 1/2 cup at a time and process well. Consistency should be smooth and thick, not too runny. (I used a little over a cup of water

Spread mixture evenly over 2 Teflex lined dehydrator sheets.

Dehydrate at 115 degrees Fahrenheit for 5-6 hours. Flip over onto mesh screen. This is a good time to lightly score the crust to size. It will then easily separate when finished. Dehydrate for another 5 hours. Crust should still have a little ‘flex’ to it.

Cut at score lines into rectangles.

Icing

3-4 Tbsp. ground raw turbinado sugar ( ground into a powder)

PLUS

Lemon Icing: add 2-3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Cinnamon Icing: add 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 2-3 Tbsp. water

Ginger Icing: add 1 teaspoon ginger and 2 -3 Tbsp. water

Combine ground sugar with other icng ingredients and mix well to form a gooey thick ‘syrup’.

Filling for Pop Tarts

For Ginger Peach Filling:

2 ripe peaches, sliced, pit and skin removed

1 inch ginger, peeled and juiced

For Blueberry Filling

1 1/2 cups blueberries

1 /2 Tbsp. cinammon

For Raspberry Filling:

1 pint raspberries

Put filling ingredients in a small bowl and mix. Place in dehydrator at 115 degrees Fahrenheit for 2-3 hours (raspberries only take 1 hour). Mash ingredients with a fork or blend lightly in high speed blender.

To Assemble Pop Tarts:

Spread filling of choice on one side of pop tarts. Cover with another rectangle of crust. Drizzle on icing of your choice.