Sweet of the Week: Strawberry-rhubarb Pop Tart at Bake

Having a soft spot for Pop Tarts poses a problem. As someone who writes and edits about food for a living, my palate is supposed to know better than to look fondly upon boxed Pop Tarts. Yet I have an unshakeable love for brown sugar and cinnamon Pop Tarts, and blueberry ones, and cherry ones, and chocolate ones. You get it. Problematic. But what happens when a bakery makes their own "pop tarts" in-house, with wholesome ingredients and actual pie dough? My world improves exponentially, that's what. Bake impresses yet again with their peerless penchant for refined Americana confections, with a new strawberry-rhubarb pop tart that sings of spring and nostalgia in the same breath. 

 

The fantastic thing about the pop tarts at Bake is the dough, which is miles ahead of the bland, pale "dough" found in grocery store boxes. At Bake, they opt for chewy and buttery pie dough, rolled out just thin enough to easily erupt with fruit filling, yet thick enough so as to remain at the forefront. The dough is not merely an afterthought or a vehicle for delivering frosting, it's flavorful all its own. But it gets drastically better when crimped around tangy strawberry-rhubarb preserves, which taste like a sugared farmers' market, and when draped with a thin patina of sweet frosting. A sprinkling of rainbow jimmies is the final touch, solidifying Bake's pop tart as a nostalgic dream come true. 

- Matt Kirouac