It’s summer vacation time for the kids! Does it feel like a summer vacation ?! No! I feel like we have been on the longest vacation at home with the entire family since mid March! It has been extremely challenging on so many different levels, but you just got to suck it up, and chug along. There are good days and bad days, but mostly we have grown closer as a family. More conversations, more time together, different skills to learn and we learn to smile and enjoy the tiniest moments of light.

I have always cooked quite a bit in general at home, since I believe in fresh meals on the table on a daily basis. I do not like to cook and keep food for the entire week. I try to follow my mom’s way of living, the way she promoted healthy eating, good foods to the best that I can. I am thankful that my kids are both good eaters, especially that older one! Anishka loves her fruits and vegetables, she will happily eat fresh veggies and hummus as a snack, beet and quinoa burgers with a side salad for lunch, and a warm Indian meal for dinner. The younger one can get fussy but I somehow manage to bribe him into eating :).

Since we have been cooking even more, due to three meals being prepared on a daily basis, and baking more so that I can keep them a slight bit occupied, we have been making homemade breakfast pastries. I used to make it when they were little, but then as they grew older things got busy, and one day, they reminded me that it had been a long time! I am working  with the Feedfeed and Driscoll’s, on a brand partnership this year, working with the different berries, to create recipes throughout the year, which is pretty exciting! Being from California, and Driscolls being not too far from where we live, I was quite excited to collaborate with them for berrilicious recipes throughout the year! Killing two birds with one stone, I made these Mixed Berry breakfast pastries which have been a huge hit at home! The filling is made with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, mixed with cardamom and vanilla paste to make a very delicious filling for the breakfast pastries.

The pop tart dough is essentially pie dough, to which you add a bit of apple cider vinegar which enhances its flakiness and makes the tart dough so perfect! The pie dough is rolled out into a rough rectangle, then shaped into a perfect rectangle by trimming the edges with a knife and steel ruler. Then I use a 5 wheel pastry cutter, which btw I am a HUGE fan of. I have gotten so much use of this equipment and love it to get the perfect squares or rectangles of any baked good. All the rectangles get the freezer treatment for 10 minutes to firm up the pieces so that they get nice and flaky in the oven when the butter in the dough pockets melt and create flakiness in the pop tart. Each rectangle gets a layer of egg wash first, then a dollop of the filling, and then it is covered with another rectangle, and one more layer of egg wash on the top. The breakfast pastries are frozen again for 10 minutes, and after a final layer of egg wash and a cross on the tart to let off the steam, they are baked off until golden brown in color.

The glaze is made with the berry filling, powdered sugar and more vanilla to create this very pretty purple glaze on the top. The glaze gets it’s natural color from the berry delicious berry filling!  Along with the sprinkles it forms the perfect pop tart! The breakfast pastries are best eaten with a cold glass of milk or it goes great even with coffee and tea! They are good for a week, stored in an air tight container. We loved these breakfast pastries and they were gone in no time that I had to make a second batch and a third batch!

FOR THE RECIPE, Please visit the Driscoll’ website HERE :

https://www.driscolls.com/recipe/mixed-berry-pop-tarts

I hope you get to try this recipe! If you do, please do not forget to tag #thejamlab on Instagram and/or leave a message on this blog post!

Stay safe, wear a mask, and be healthy!

XO

Amisha