We’ve been dealing with illness a lot lately as you have probably heard. We are not sure, but the doctor (who saw Will) seemed to think it was the flu. Will had a fever of varying degrees for 11 days straight. And that didn’t even count two other days of fever that started us off on this season of illness a week before the LONG fever streak started. Thankfully no one else has been hit as hard as Will.

A couple weeks ago I was in a baking mood despite the fact that I was feeling pretty sick myself. Elise agreed to help me make homemade pop tarts. There are several recipes online, but the one we used was from Smitten Kitchen since I have made several homemade versions of special treats (graham crackers and wheat thins) from her site quite successfully.

The recipe was really easy to follow. A little more time-consuming than some treats, but not bad. And granted, it took us a little longer than normal since we hadn’t bought a rolling pin yet. It’s funny a rolling pin is something you don’t really think you’ll miss terribly and don’t really feel like you use that much, until you don’t have one. It’s amazing how many times over the last few weeks I’ve wished I had one. Surprisingly, there really is no substitute and flattening stiff dough has to be done with your bare hands. I’ve actually gotten pretty good at it as we’ve had to make all our own tortillas here in Germany as well. But, I would suggest you use a rolling pin, and I am happy to say that I now own one again, and will be using it next time we make this recipe.

We used whole wheat flour. I think if you use white the dough will probably come out a little more like what you’d expect in a pop tart, but of course the whole wheat if healthier. We did the cinnamon filling and it was delicious. Drier than the store bought version, but the taste was absolutely delicious, even if it wasn’t the healthiest option of filling. Next time we make them I’ll try the jam version.

Elise used these as her snacks for several days at school. And I admit that I ate probably just as many at home. They lasted quite fresh in an air tight container and made a quick and easy snack to grab. Though I suppose they’d be even more delicious if you reheated them first. But of course, since I spent the days following this baking day mostly in the recliner due to what we suspect was the flu deciding to attack my system for one last fight, grabbing and eating them cold was the only option I tried.

Cooking in Germany notes: This recipe didn’t have any issues with hard to find ingredients or cooking in my convection oven other than the fact that the convection oven tends to bake much more quickly than a regular one. I’m afraid I didn’t take a note of how long it took. I’ll have to add that in later.