Fall Apple Fruit POP Tarts are sprinkled with powdered sugar and share space with a delicious buttery puff pastry. 

Saturdays are for gathering farm-fresh produce from local farmers. Huyck Farms in Paducah, KY is picking and selling crisp, flavorful apples at their farm store most days of the week. I scored big with a bag of Jonathan apples. These American beauties have a bicolor peel and are tart with a bit of sweetness. Perfect for making Fruity POP Tarts. ​

 

The puff pastry is cut the same size as a Kellogg's Pop Tart. It's what I would call an 'open-faced' tart. Made with honey, lemon, apples, powdered sugar, and puff pastry...the process is simple and elegant. 

I had some blueberries on hand and wanted to try a different fruit using the same process. Blueberries overheat during baking. The end result is a blueberry jam. So, I folded the Blueberry POP Tart in half and made a handheld Brunch Tart. For the larger tart, use a more solid fruit like apples, nectarines, or pears. If you want to fold the puff pastry in half for a Brunch Tart, strawberries, and raspberries would be fabulous!

It's amazing how simple this recipe is to prepare and bake. Let's get to it!
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Ingredients for four Apple POP Tarts and one Blueberry Brunch Tart
Five pieces of puff pastry (there will be three left. Prepare more tarts if you want)
Three medium-size apples (If you're doing eight tarts, use another apple)
Honey
One egg for wash
Powdered sugar (enough to sprinkle on top)

Directions:
Slice and peel apples. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the top of the apples. Set aside.
Thaw the puff pastry. Read the package. Roll, if necessary, with a rolling pin. You want five to eight sliced puff pastries. 

Set parchment paper down on a cookie sheet. Preheat over to  350 degrees. Add enough honey to the parchment paper to make five to eight separate Fruit POP Tarts. If you're making five, there should be five separate drizzles of honey. Line the apples up and set on each honey drizzle. If you're trying the blueberry, add blueberries to one honey drizzle. 

After the fruit is placed on the honey, drizzle the honey on top of the fruit. Add the puff pastry to each pile of fruit. Press down on the edges of the puff pastry. Use one egg to make an egg wash. Apply it with a brush to each Fruit Pop Tart. 

Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Take the tarts out of the oven. Let cool for about five minutes. Flip over with a spatula. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. If you've made a blueberry, peach, or strawberry tart, fold in half for a Brunch Tart. 

This recipe from my Grandma is fabulous. It's easy to make. The hardest part for me was whisking the filling. As mentioned, the directions in her recipes are sometimes sparse. While I'm in the middle of baking, I may have to Google another recipe quickly to make sure I'm doing the technique correctly. 

Grandma labeled this cake as a good substitute for German Chocolate Cake. After tasting it, I had no idea why she called it a 'good substitute'. It tastes like every other German Chocolate Cake I've ever eaten. After some inquiries, I uncovered the reason. Traditional German Chocolate Cake relies on melted chocolate.  Grandma used cocoa.  Here's some trivia: Sam German is who the cake is named for. He's responsible for creating a sweet baking chocolate used by the Bakers Chocolate Company in Boston. 

Regardless, I don't always have Baker's sweet chocolate in my cupboard but I do always have cocoa. It's one of those staples that you can't do without. Let me know your thoughts on the recipe. I think, WOW!

Ingredients for the cake batter:
One box of yellow cake mix
Four Tablespoons of cocoa
1/2 cup of sugar
Three eggs
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The required amount of oil and water on the yellow cake mix box. Prepare cake pans with oil and flour. Pour into the cake pans. Bake at 325 degrees. The two cakes I prepared took 20 - 25 minutes. One finished sooner than the other so check each cake if you're making two or even three layers. 

Ingredients for the German Chocolate Filling:
One cup of sugar
Three egg yolks
One stick of butter
One cup of Pet Milk
One tsp. of vanilla
One cup of shredded coconut
One cup of toasted (or not) pecans
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Cook over low heat or in a double-boiler. I used low heat while everything came together and then I turned the heat to medium. Once it started a slow boil, I whisked it continuously for five minutes. While the filling is cooking on low, whisk occasionally so the egg doesn't scramble. Once the batter is thick, remove from the heat and add the vanilla, toasted pecans (chopped), and the shredded coconut. Make sure it's completely cooled before icing the cake. 

You can decorate the cake with pecans and more coconut.