Cheese Course Pop-Tarts

First of all, I realize that these barely resemble pop-tarts being that they're made of puff pastry...but go with me here. For January's Foodbuzz 24x24 my whole concept was to reimagine breakfast for dinner. Originally I submitted my wish to make seasonal winter pop-tarts in flavors like pomegranite and pomander, but in the following weeks of planning my menu I got a new idea for cheese course pop-tarts. Searching online for inspiration I came up with little to nothing in the ways of pastry enveloped cheeses. The one thing I kept happening upon was brie en croute or baked goat cheese, neither of which I even like.

My first thought was to say "whatever". I wanted to create my own pop-tart using Dubliner cheese with a rosemary cracker pastry covering. What.A.Disaster. Dubliner is one of my favorite cheeses ever, but I usually eat it straight from the fridge, on a cracker, or with wine. I've never actually tried to bake with it. I very quickly learned that melting Dubliner (or most other hard cheese, for that matter) and refrigerating it does not yield the same results as eating a piece of Dubliner straight. It sort of melted into the cracker pastry and lost all its mouthfeel, character, and strong flavor. The rosemary cracker pastry was pretty good though. I plan on making it often to eat in place of the boxed kind (recipe to come).

Even though I'm not a fan of brie or goat cheese, I was acutally happy with the idea of a puff pastry pop-tart filled with them. That left me with more options for a "frosting" and "sprinkles" since sweet jams or honey pair well with both. If you're using store bought puff pastry (and let's face it, most of you are) than these are easy peasy and a great alternative to a traditional cheese course. They're less pop-tart looking than I had originally envisioned, but if you're not down with the "breakfast for dinner" theme, that could be a good thing. P.S. These are more guidelines than recipes.

Cheese Course Pop-Tarts

For the brie pop-tart:
puff pastry, homemade or store-bought
1 egg, beaten
brie
cherry jam

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the puff pastry to 1/8" thickness and cut into 2x3" rectangles. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg wash over each rectangle. Top half the rectangles with a small piece of brie and cover with another puff pastry rectangle. Press the edges together and seal with a fork. Bake for 12-17 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. Let cool slightly and top with cherry jam.

For the goat cheese pop-tart:
puff pastry, homemade or store-bought
1 egg, beaten
goat cheese
honey
chopped walnuts, toasted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the puff pastry to 1/8" thickness and cut into 2x3" rectangles. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg wash over each rectangle. Top half the rectangles with a few crumbles of goat cheese and cover with another puff pastry rectangle. Press the edges together and seal with a fork. Bake for 12-17 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. Let cool slightly, drizzle with honey, and top with walnuts.

Source: Sarah Cupcake original.