Homemade Nutella Poptarts

My homemade Pop-Tarts.

I've been toying with the idea of making my own Pop-Tarts for awhile to get away from all the rancid, bad-for-me fats, oils, sugar, etc. My first attempt was HORRIBLE! I used lard and they ended up smelling like bacon, yuck! I thought I was done forever and then a fellow blogger, Enchantingly Simple, pointed me in the direction of an awesome website.

Now all I had to find was a good pie crust dough that didn't use vegetable shortening. I came across one that uses butter and made it just like it said (eventually I will try it with whole wheat flour and whey in the water for reducing the phytates). I left the butter pieces the size of peas, instead of cutting them in until it resembled cornmeal like I usually do. The finished product look like crap with all these big chunks of butter. I got really pissed off and just put it in the fridge and went to bed. The next day I finally decided to try it, even though I was sure it would just be horrible. To my surprise it is the BEST pie crust recipe I have ever tried - store-bought or homemade. So when the recipe says cut it in until the pieces are about as big as peas...DO IT. It will look even worse when you roll it out with big smears of butter but it makes the best flakiest crust I have ever tasted. (And don't even THINK about using margarine!)

Double Crust Butter Pie Dough

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 4 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 oz (2 sticks) butter, cut in small squares and frozen
• ice water, to incorporate (about a cup, but don't just dump it all in)

1. Put all dry ingredient in a medium-large bowl and mix well with a spoon. Put the previously frozen butter in and cut it in using a pastry blender, forks, or knives. Stop cutting in the butter when the chunks are about the size of peas.
2. Dribble about 1/2 cup of the ice water in to the bowl. Using a rubber or silicon spatula, gather the dough together. You'll probably need an additional 1/4 cup of cold water to bring it together, but add it a tablespoon at a time. Once you're pulling large clumps with the spatula, use your hands to gather the dough in to one mound, patting it together.
3. You can use the dough right away, store it in the fridge for 3 days, or store it in the freezer (double bagged) for a few months.
4. When you roll it out use plenty of white flour to keep it from sticking. And since pie dough is my nemesis, I also use wax paper to roll it out on to help with the sticking problem.
5. Bake it according to whatever recipe you are using.