Strawberry Mascarpone "Pop Tarts"

You guys in the food blog world (and in my life in general) are truly awesome. Thank you for being so honest in your answers to my questions yesterday. I really appreciate it and want to send you all a virtual hug! I'm so happy that the working week is almost over and the real fun can begin. Do you have any fun plans for this long weekend? I'm putting on my dancing shoes tonight and will hopefully dance the night away (or, at least until I get tired around 11)! I'm kinda glad I had so many of these pop tarty things. That way I can dance them off tonight! I'm sure you have seen these around the blogosphere lately. I found them on Purple Foodie who found them on Chez Pim who has step-by-step pictures! It's kind of one of those ideas that makes you smack yourself on the head and ask "why didn't I think of that?". They are so easy and since I made them mini, they were really cute. I mean, who doesn't love food in miniature versions (remember those baby bundts?). I used Martha's pie dough recipe, halved of course, and mixed it by hand because I like less dishes to clean up. Plus, as I have mentioned before, there is something comforting about cutting buter into flour by hand. Last weekend I picked up some strawberry preserves at the farmers market and I thought a touch of sweetened mascarpone would go well in these and it did!! My lovely stand mixer (man, I love bragging about that thing now that I have one), made simple work of creaming together the cheese and a bit of sugar. You can change these up so many ways. How many combination do you think you could come up with? The possibilities are endless.



Strawberry Mascarpone "Pop Tarts"
(Step-by-step instructions on Chez Pim)

Pie crust (recipe follows, from Martha)
Strawberry preserves
Mascarpone cheese
Sugar
Raw sugar
1 egg

For the dough:
1 1/4 cups flour
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon water
2-4 tablespoons ice water

In a food processor or by hand, mix flour with salt and sugar. Add chilled butter, cut into small pieces.

Pulse or blend until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-size pieces remaining.

Add 2 tablespoons ice water; pulse or mix until dough is crumbly but holds together when squeezed. (If needed, add up to 2 tablespoons more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time.) Do not overmix.

Turn out onto a work surface; knead once or twice, until dough comes together. Chill.

To make the filing:

Cream together one container of mascarpone with 1 tablespoon of sugar until well combined. Spoon a small amount of jam over the dough and spoon a small amount of mascarpone over the jam.