Review and giveaway: A Salsa in China Pop-Tarts recipe (yipes!)

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Kellogg’s® Pop-Tarts® Toaster Pastries.

For the second part of our Pop-Tarts review (see the first part here), we were asked to make up our own recipe using any flavor of Kellogg’s® Pop-Tarts® Toaster Pastries and serve it to our families for breakfast. Yipes. I am SO not a fantastic cook... But that's ok, I am creative, and my helpers were very enthusiastic (they always are). It doesn't hurt that they've been big Pop-Tarts fans from a very early age. Does anyone remember this picture? Awwwww.


Anyhow, our creation was Brown-Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts Coffee Cake, and it actually turned out really well. Phew!! I thought that a nice coffee cake with frosted brown-sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts sprinkled throughout and on the top might be just the ticket, so I looked at a whole bunch of coffee-cake recipes, and kind of adapted one that would fit what I pictured in my head. Here's what we did:


Preheated the oven to 350 degrees, then gathered these ingredients:

3/4 cup butter (softened), 1 1/2 cup sugar, 3 eggs, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, 3 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 1/2 cups sour cream (a 16 oz container), 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 6 frosted brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts.

Combined the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together in a large bowl and beat it on medium speed for a couple of minutes. There was a little tussle over rights to the uber-cool mixer (there always is), so each girl got to take a turn (and our poor little batter got way overmixed, but who cares, everyone was happy):



Next, we added in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sour cream. Then beat it again until it made kind of a stiff dough. We set this bowl aside (and out of reach of sneaky little twin tongues and fingers) for a few minutes.

In another bowl, we made the filling (the good stuff!). Combined the brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon, and crumbled Pop-Tarts (Ro and Ree started cutting the crusts off on their own and tossing those parts out, and I kind of thought it was a good idea, so I let them have at it).



Now we spooned about a third of the batter (around 2 cups) into a greased bundt pan and sprinkled with about a third of the filling. Then repeated the batter-and-sprinkle layering two more times. (Fun fact: This bundt pan is an antique. It used to belong to my grandmother.) We ended up with a yummy-looking top that was completely covered with sprinkles.



Um, there was a quick pause for some "cleanup":


Then we baked it at 350-degrees for 50 to 60 minutes (it's done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean).


Hey that looks pretty good! Ree thought so too, because she couldn't wait until I was done to sneak a bite:


Everyone actually liked it, so yay me! TubaDad said "Hey that's good!":


Ro said "Dat's gwate!" (that's great):


And Ree said "Dat's awesome!":


Fun stuff. I liked it too. Next time I might even get a little wild and use cherry or blueberry Pop-Tarts for a little extra surprise in the middle!


The Giveaway: BlogHer has something special for you too! One lucky Salsa reader will win a $100 Visa giftcard. To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me your favorite family breakfast. The contest runs from 4/2-4/16/2010 and entries will be generated by this post and our previous Pop-Tarts review on 4/2. Make sure that your email addy is in your profile or that the e-mail address you leave is correct (feel free to use weird spaces and spell out "dot" or "at" or that sort of thing) so I have some way to contact you.

The Rules: Duplicate comments/entries will be deleted. You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments. This giveaway is open to US-residents only. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. Please see the official rules here. Check out the BlogHer.com special offers page to read other bloggers’ reviews—you've got seven other chances to win! For other recipes, and a full list of the flavors, take a peek at the Pop-Tarts website.

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COMMENTS FOR THIS GIVEAWAY ARE NOW CLOSED. I'LL DRAW THE WINNER AT RANDOM THIS EVENING AND WILL BE BACK TO POST THE WINNER.