Sugar-Free Capybara Apple Pop Tarts

 I made these felt toy lookalike capybara pop tarts for hubby's birthday!

A peek at the insides!

I tried to make it as low a GI as possible without compromising taste and kept the use of artificial colouring minimal.

If this style of felt toy lookalike pop tarts seem familiar to you, it means you must have seen Melly's (Instagram: @mellyeatsworld) incredible pop tart creations a few years ago! I was truly inspired by her work and the pop tarts stood out because I have never seen anything like them before. I hope I did her style of work justice here to make the pop tarts good enough to fool you into thinking that they are handmade felt toys 🤭.

My hubby loves capybaras (actually everyone in my family does) and anything with apple pie filling so I took the chance to create these sugar-free pop tarts as his super early birthday bake. Hardly any sugar replacements are used because sugar is optional for this bake. Although sugar sweetens and helps with caramelization, it's not absolutely necessary for the structure. I relied on brown butter, cinnamon and caramelizing the apple to give this creation amazing flavours. It's naturally coloured too except for the 🍎 that the capybaras are holding.

Here's the template. Do tag me on social media if you create it!

Please resize the template till the height of the capybara is 10cm

I put a heart on the template instead of an apple for sizing purposes since I have an apple cookie cutter that's about 1".

Sugar-Free Capybara Apple Pop Tarts

(makes 4 pop tarts)

Apple filling*:

2 large Gala apples, peeled & finely diced 

A pinch of salt

1/8-1/4 tsp lemon juice (optional)

1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1-2 tbs (8-16g) Alchemy fibre* (replace with sugar or omit)

25g unsalted butter 

1. Mix all ingredients except butter in a mixing bowl. Set aside

2. In a light coloured saucepan, brown butter over low heat 

3. Add 1. into brown butter. Cook until apple is translucent & slightly caramelized. Adding sugar helps with the caramelization but I want to keep the GI as low as possible

4. Cool completely before using or stored in the fridge until assembly

Tart dough:

180g plain flour

5-10g powdered Erythritol/icing sugar (optional)

Pinches of salt

1/2-3/4 tsp cinnamon powder

100g cold unsalted butter, cubed*

1 egg yolk

30g cold milk/ice water

Egg wash*:

1 egg yolk

15g water

1/2 tsp cocoa powder

5g boiling hot water

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt & cinnamon

2. Rub in cold butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs

3. Whisk egg yolk & cold milk together. Add to 2. Mix well until a ball of dough forms

4. Portion out dough & colour:

Red: 20g + red gel color

Dark brown: 25g + 1/16 tsp cocoa powder + a few drops of water

Green: 5g + green gel color 

Black: 3g + 1/16 tsp charcoal+ a few drops of water

5. Wrap & refrigerate for at least 30min

6. Roll to 3mm thick for base dough for capybara's body & 1mm thick for the rest. Freeze for 15 min 

7. Cut out dough using template. Join small parts to main body by brushing some water/egg wash. Press small cutouts firmly into body. Freeze if not assembling yet

I had leftover dough which I used to make some circles 

8. Assemble with apple filling by adding 1 tbs of filling to the base dough cutout. Brush perimeter with water/egg wash. Press top dough cutout down firmly. Crimp the edges & egg wash stitches*. Pierce holes for nostrils & mouth to vent. I used a combination of a cake tester and a small knife to create the vents.

9. Freeze assembled tart while preheating oven to 170C fan/185C

10. Bake 10-12min. Rotate tray & bake another 10-12min or until lightly browned. Adjust baking conditions to whatever works for your oven as each oven is different.

* Additional notes:

🔸Alchemy fibre: A prebiotic fibre mix of inulin & edible gum. Glycemic index is not zero but has beneficial effect on gut health, glycemic load and cholesterol. Tastes mildly sweet

🔸The portion of apple filling is more than enough for filling 4 capybara pop tarts. I recommend serving the pop tarts with extra filling on the side as overstuffing the tarts may risk them exploding during baking. Other types of fillings that are rich like S'mores (milk chocolate & toasted marshmallows), or really strong flavoured like jams that are sweet and tart at the same time need not have filling top-ups

🔸You may replace some of the butter with shortening if your environment is really warm like mine (30-31C kitchen these days 🥵) for better shape retention 

🔸 Egg wash: Mix egg yolk with 15g water for a regular egg wash or to glue pieces of dough together. For the brown stitch egg wash paint, dissolve cocoa powder in boiling hot water, then mix in 20g egg wash. I used fine tweezers instead of a fork to crimp the edges for a more realistic stitch pattern. Fork tinnes tend to be a little thicker so it won't appear too "stitch-like"

🔸 Tarts can be stored at room temperature for 2 days or in the fridge for a week tightly wrapped. Extra apple filling can be stored in the fridge for a week. Reheat by toasting tart for a few minutes until sizzling before consuming it piping hot with extra filling. If you aren't diabetic, you may pair it with a caramel drizzle and vanilla ice cream 😋

Here's the video of the process:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DB4492cykUz/?igsh=MWc5aGl1OXYxenh0bg==

with lots of love,

Phay Shing