Stone Fruit Pastries With Cardamom Glaze

I have great memories of being at the store with my parents begging them to buy pop tarts. But not just any pop tarts, the brown sugar cinnamon ones, because those were the only ones I truly loved. I always thought it was odd that the serving size was one pastry...I mean if you're going to put two in a pouch I am going to eat both. Then Kellogg's got smart and started packaging them in individual pouches which I couldn't stand.

Anyway, I decided to make an adult-version of said pastries with a summer twist of adding nectarines, peaches, and plums. The end result is a lot like a hand pie! The great thing about this is it's very customizable. You can roll the dough out as thick or thin as you'd like and use whatever fruit you'd like.

~Makes 8-10 pastries~

Ingredients:

Pastry Dough:

2.5 c flour

1 t salt

1 t sugar

2 sticks of unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes

0.25 c ice cold water

Fruit Filling:

1 peach, diced

1 plum, diced

1 nectarine, diced

2 T flour

1 T cornstarch

1 T sugar

Sugar Spread:

0.5 c brown sugar

2 t cinnamon

0.5 t nutmeg

1 T flour

Glaze:

0.75 c powdered sugar

1 .5 T milk

1 t cardamom

0.5 t vanilla

1 egg for brushing

coarse sugar or sprinkles for garnish

Method:

To make the dough, whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar. Using a pastry cutter, fork, or food processor, incorporate the cold butter chunks into the mixture until it resembles peas. At this point, slowly add in the cold water and work with your hands to form a ball of dough. Don't overmix, it's okay to have some small butter chunks in there! Wrap with plastic and hold in the fridge for about an hour.

Combine the flour, cornstarch, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the fruit and toss around in the dry mix until the fruit is completely coated. In a separate, small bowl, combine the ingredients for the brown sugar spread and set aside. For the glaze, slowly stir the milk into the powdered sugar until smooth. You may need some extra to reach desired consistency. Add the vanilla and cardamom.

Once the dough has rested, divide the dough into two to make it easier to work with. It will be easier to roll out if you let it sit at room temperature for about 10-15 minutes. Flour your surface and roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch think, or whatever your heart desires. If you would like the pastry to be more like a poptart, stay more on the thinner side, 1/8-1/4 inch. For a more pie consistency, you can go thicker. Now, using a butter knife, cut the pastry into even rectangles. Mine were about 3X4 inches, but you can customize it to your liking. Set the rectangles on a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat the process for the other portion of dough, you can use one of the rectangles from the last dough to help measure and make them all the same size. Set these ones aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the brown sugar mix on the center each of the dough rectangles on the baking sheet, about a tablespoon each. Top the sugar mix with fruit filling. Make sure you are leaving a border around the edges, this will help them to seal better. Place your remaining rectangles on top of the pastries and seal by pressing down on along all of the edges with the tip of a fork. Then, poke some holes on the top of each pastry with a fork to allow steam to escape while baking. Chill the pastries in the fridge for about 15 minutes and then brush the tops with eggwash. Bake for about 30 minutes until the crust gets golden brown. Once cooled, spread your cardamom glaze on each pastry and sprinkle with coarse sugar or sprinkles if desired. Enjoy!