I never had a Pop-Tart until college. I realize that for some people this may cause a shocked reaction on par with my husband’s the time I told him I’ve never watched Goonies before (or Jacob’s, upon discovering the internet). Obviously I grew up under a rock, right? Thus, given my proximity to concrete-like materials you’d think I have been better prepared for the texture of the one I purchased from the vending machine in the basement of my freshman dorm (not at 4 a.m. or anything, either, nope, not this angel!). But I was not. It was like particle board, but even particle board has a fresher aroma. It took two hands to break off a piece. I choked down my first bite, then chugged some water, convinced bits were stuck in my throat. Don’t you hate that?
I understand that if I had toasted it, my experience might have been better. And maybe the brown sugar cinnamon variety isn’t exactly the most vibrant. Also, it is entirely possible that a dusty dormitory basement doesn’t have, say, the packaged pastry turnover a large grocery store chain. But even at its most ideal, it could never be anything but a compromise for me: a dry, flavorless, glycerin, high fructose corn syrup, “artificial strawberry flavor”-ed version of what could be homemade and flawless.
I can’t believe I waited so long to make these. Neither can my still-not-over-the-Goonies-thing husband, who responded to my “what should I make next? I’ve got a muffin, salad, cake and pop tarts on my list” query this weekend with a “you know how to make Pop Tarts and you haven’t yet?” (Don’t you love hearing things from his perspective? He’s had similar reactions to fried chicken and peanut butter crispy bars.)
Most recipes I have come across use a pie dough for the pastry but I was really stuck on getting a crust that was a little more sturdy — one with an egg. Often I see fillings of just jam, yet a little thickener added to the jam goes a long way towards keeping it from being too wet and soggy inside. Finally, a lot of versions I came across while I was digging around offer some sort of apology that the glaze (should you make one) isn’t as hard as the packaged ones, that a homemade version really wont hold up well in an upright toaster or that the brown sugar filling doesn’t have the odd stiffness of the ones you can buy at the bodega; this version does not. Sure, it may lack the sturdiness and shell-like slick of a packaged Pop Tart, but it has the buttery, flaky, no-toaster-required-to-soften-it transcendence the grocery store aisle version can only dream about, and hooray for that.
One year ago: Black Bread
Homemade Pop Tarts
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Pastry
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) milk
1 additional large egg (to brush on pastry)
Cinnamon Filling (enough for 9 tarts)
1/2 cup (3 3/4 ounces) brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, to taste
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 large egg, to brush on pastry before filling
Jam Filling
3/4 cup (8 ounces) jam
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water
Alternate fillings: 9 tablespoons chocolate chips, 9 tablespoons Nutella or other chocolate-hazelnut paste or 9 tablespoons of a delight of your choice, such as salted caramel or a nut paste
To make cinnamon filling: Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, and flour.
To make jam filling: Mix the jam with the cornstarch/water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and simmer, stirring, for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, and set aside to cool. Use to fill the pastry tarts.
Make the dough: Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Work in the butter with your fingers, pastry blender or food processor until pea-sized lumps of butter are still visible, and the mixture holds together when you squeeze it. If you’ve used a food processor, transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Whisk the first egg and milk together and stir them into the dough, mixing just until everything is cohesive, kneading briefly on a well-floured counter if necessary.
Divide the dough in half (approximately 8 1/4 ounces each), shape each half into a smooth rectangle, about 3×5 inches. You can roll this out immediately (see Warm Kitchen note below) or wrap each half in plastic and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
Assemble the tarts: If the dough has been chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to soften and become workable, about 15 to 30 minutes. Place one piece on a lightly floured work surface, and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8″ thick, large enough that you can trim it to an even 9″ x 12″. [You can use a 9″ x 13″ pan, laid on top, as guidance.] Repeat with the second piece of dough. Set trimmings aside. Cut each piece of dough into thirds – you’ll form nine 3″ x 4″ rectangles.
Beat the additional egg and brush it over the entire surface of the first dough. This will be the “inside” of the tart; the egg is to help glue the lid on. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each rectangle, keeping a bare 1/2-inch perimeter around it. Place a second rectangle of dough atop the first, using your fingertips to press firmly around the pocket of filling, sealing the dough well on all sides. Press the tines of a fork all around the edge of the rectangle. Repeat with remaining tarts.
Gently place the tarts on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Prick the top of each tart multiple times with a fork; you want to make sure steam can escape, or the tarts will become billowy pillows rather than flat toaster pastries. Refrigerate the tarts (they don’t need to be covered) for 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 350°F.
Charming tip from King Arthur: Sprinkle the dough trimmings with cinnamon-sugar; these have nothing to do with your toaster pastries, but it’s a shame to discard them, and they make a wonderful snack. While the tarts are chilling, bake these trimmings for 13 to 15 minutes, till they’re golden brown.
Bake the tarts: Remove the tarts from the fridge, and bake them for 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown. Cool in pan on rack.
Whole Wheat Variation: I was itching to swap out 1/2 cup of the flour with whole wheat flour. I am sure it would make it more deliciously breakfast.
Pop Tart Minis: The biggest struggle I had with these was the size. I actually like my baked goods on the tiny size, thus I think this could make an adorable batch of 16 2 1/4″ x 3″ rectangles.
Savory Pop Tarts: Nix the sugar in the dough and halve the salt. Fill with pesto, cheese, ground nuts or olives, or any combination thereof. Brush the tops with additional egg wash and sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds. Please invite me over.
Do ahead: The sweet versions should keep at room temperature in an airtight container for a week. If you’d like to make them further in advance, I vote for freezing them unbaked between layers of waxed paper, and baking them as you need.
Warm kitchen warning: Guys, I live in an inferno, the kind of steam-heated, 85 degrees inside (68 gorgeous degrees outside) existence many other New Yorkers are familiar with. Between the heat and yesterday’s rainy humidity, me and this dough were struggling. To keep it from being too warm and soft, I was stuffing the trays of dough in the freezer for 10 minute shifts almost every time I worked with them. If you find yourself in an overly warm kitchen working with dough that gets soft too quickly, just keep using your freezer. The 10 minutes here and there that you extend this project will save you many gray hairs as the dough becomes easy to work with again.
I saw a version of the homemade pop tart in Bon Appetit (?) a couple of months ago and I haven’t gotten to it yet. Don’t tell my fiance.
The most suspicious thing about Pop-Tarts is that icing that WON’T melt….even in the toaster or microwave.
One of these days I am going to make the real thing!
I am pretty sure the icing used in the store-bought versions is Royal Icing (egg whites & sugar). You’re right, it will NOT melt. Same icing used on a lot of pre-iced cookies that are air-sprayed for colors. It just doesn’t taste as good if you ask me, but it does the job.
omg! I have to make these.
So cheeky! These really made me laugh! Then I read “Nutella,” and I laughed no longer. Fabulous as always.
yum. seriously.
I can’t wait to try these! My boys love Pop Tarts but I refuse to buy them! These should be fun!
um. uber.
YUM, thanks!! I have a soft spot for Pop Tarts but have gave them up once I read the list of ingredients and realized they were not “real” food. (Don’t worry, this was not recently!). I can’t wait to try this out!
I am in LOVE with this idea! Fantastic.
I made a recipe similar last week and they were awesome. my 3 yr old and 1 yr old did not, but they’ve never had a “real” pop tart.
mmmm…Nutella!
I really wanted to comment because I have been meaning to tell you that you have the cutest baby EVER. I have two of my own, so I am not just saying it to be kind. I really thought you should know that it is a fact. Since the very first cinnamon-swirl photo it has been obvious; really, newborns are not usually so darling right off the bat. Perhaps he is actually just the most photogenic baby ever, but either way, this kid is going to be a heartbreaker!
I just told my husband that I was reading a recipe for homemade Nutella stuffed pop tarts. He asked me to stop talking dirty in front of the children. ;)
I’ve had these on my to-make list literally for years since I saw Peabody make them. You beat me to it! But that’s okay because your Nutella (albeit fake Nutella) idea rocks.
yum, this is the second pop-tart recipe I’ve come across recently. The cinnamon filling sounds amazing, I’m definitely adding these to my list of things to make. I haven’t had pop-tarts since I was 10!
I love the way you wrote about these homemade pop tarts, it’s made me curious about how different these must be from the dry packaged stuff. The suggested ideas for fillings are fabulous!
mmm, nutella. will add to my “For when exams are over and I can go on a food making spree” list. :)
(I’ve never seen the goonies either, for the record.)
Now, I know my husband will love these, but I think that I really need to make them for my little brother, who loves all things packaged and processed by Kraft. It is my goal to teach him to appreciate homemade goodness, so that whenever he does get married he won’t disappoint his wife by whipping out ramen noodles for supper (seriously, he would).
That to say, I will make these this summer when we take our family trip to the beach, and I’ll hope that the box of obligatory pop tarts purchased just for him gets neglected!
Oh, brown sugar and cinnamon, lightly toasted is the best. But yours look better.
Alton Brown had a similar recipe on a while back. I used whole cherry preserves inside, and yes, hubby was happy. I sent the recipe to my sister in Africa as a way to use up all of those guavas that keep falling off her trees…
Yum!
o.m.g – i must make them. with spring berries, i see whole wheat berry pop tarts in my future. i bet you could do savory too. omit the sugar (or decrease it) from the pastry batter. ham/spinach (finely chopped and dried really well)/cheese. YUM!
These are brilliant!
Question: Do you think these morsels would hold up very long in an airtight container or the freezer? Looks delicious!
I wonder…would it be possible to make these with savoury fillings too? Would it work if you cut the sugar out of the pastry?
Savory suggestions — Great ideas! I would cut both the sugar and the salt in the pastry; the sugar completely and the salt by half (1 teaspoon will otherwise taste like a lot if you don’t have sugar to balance it).
Sarah and other with do-ahead questions — I would actually freeze these unbaked, and bake them fresh as you need them. “Oh, I just baked up some HOMEMADE POP TARTS for you!” Doesn’t that have a lovely ring to it?
I’ll update the recipe with both of these suggestions.
hm, this looks like a good recipe. i made the ones featured in last month’s bon appetit – they were good, but i found the crust lacking. also, my homemade peach jam could have used a bit of thickening. will mark this for next time.
I nearly hyperventilated when this came up on my Google Reader. I heart Pop Tarts, and the brown sugar cinnamon are my favorite. This just may be be the perfect recipe for my best friend (and fellow SK follower) and I to make when she visits in a few weekends. The warm kitchen may be a problem, thanks for the warning. Can’t wait!
Yours look fabulous. Mine looked like a 3 yr old made them. They are super tasty, though.
Ooh, pop tarts! I never knew how much I loved pop tarts until I befriended a local girl specifically because her parents let her have pop tarts and tang, and mine gave us….celery sticks and yogurt pops.
My inner child (that grew up in the ’90s) is dying. I’m so excited to try these out.
These look SOO GOOD!!! I’ve been waiting so long to make these-I think they were in Bon Appetit recently? I wonder how a smores “pop tart” would come out?
I wish I didn’t have a cake in the oven, or I would make these right now!
Also — the crust trimmings sprinkled with cinnamon sugar? My mom always did this with pie crust trimmings. I actually think she must have made extra dough, because there were always plenty of cinnamon sugar scraps!
My family, too! Always rolled the kinda like rugelach and called them “Garfield’s Locks” after president Garfield, allegedly. I still do this. It is delish.
You are now officially my hero. Homemade Nutella Pop Tarts. *shakes head in wonder* :)
I think guava & cream cheese would be a good combo. They look fabulous.
Yes, I am also wondering about freezing these. I wonder if I could flash freeze them after assembly and then pull out and bake when I want them? Oh my husband would love me forever if I made these!
My mom never let us have pop-tarts and I thought I was missing out on something. Until i took a bite of one. Not all it was cracked up to be. But a homemade version, would surely be enough to convert this non pop tart eater. Will be making these asap. Thanks!
i am soooooooooooo making these!
Looks so good!! Can’t wait to try those ;) Thanks for sharing.
It’s a dream come true! After seeing half of my Chemistry test answers on the back of the ingredient list of Poptarts, I’ve been put off from them.
But these look fabulous! I’m excited to try them out.
OMG. Bless you. I can practically taste them now.
Goodness gracious, I love you.
You are amazing. I had them for the first time in 8th grade, when I moved to the US from Korea. I always tried to soften them by toasting them as long as I could without burning them, but they’d get rock hard again after a couple of bites.
Wow, i’m so excited.
Thanks for all the extra tips too!
I was married before I tried one, so you had me beat there! This is being added to the must try list. Thanks!!
You really need to stop with these ridiculous pictures of the baby. You make me desperately want one, and I’m not allowed yet!!!
Ok, I can understand not trying a pop tart until college (you probably had health conscious parents) , but the goonies! What a classic. I sure hope your husband has, by now, forced you to watch this movie:)
As for those particle board pop tarts, I was never a fan either. So processed, so bland. Your pop tarts look absolutely delicious and rich and yummy. They would be wonderful for a brunch gathering. Thanks for the recipe and the laugh over the goonies (I couldn’t believe it when my hubby said he’d never seen it!).
these look Amazing – being in Oz, I’ve always wanted to try pop tarts but I’m trying to cut out the store made junk food.
Which means now I get to Bake my own!
I always loved the idea of the Pop Tart, but could never get past the artificial-ness! This is the solution!
thank you thank you! you have just made this finals-frazzled college student’s week!!!!
Ack, you’re killing me, I love Poptarts I can only imagine how fabulous these taste. Alton Brown has a version as well and I wondered if you had adapted his recipe before I saw the King Arthur acknowledgment.
Deb, you are not alone! I had never had a pop tart until I got married! I grew up in a ‘healthy’ house, but my husband did not and we fight every week about my refusal to buy pop tarts. So when I told him that there was such a thing a HOMEMADE pop tarts, well… My husband has informed me that he wants to marry you! I might get to keep him if I actually make these – ASAP. And personally, I am loving the savory pop tarts idea! I’m thinking sun dried tomato pop tarts… yum!
Ooh, i have got to make these! Except my favorite poptart flavor is s’mores. I could add marshmallow fluff to the chocolate inside, but do you have any suggestions on how i can give the crust that subtle graham flavor that a smores poptart has?
Could i just replace part of the flour with food processed graham crackers?
Confession: I’ve never had a pop tart, and I’m not really interested in the store-bought kind. But these look amazing!
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! I have been making these from the recipe in the book “Super Baby Food”, and have always struggled with the pastry. My little man loves them, so I will persist. We’ll try them tomorrow.
These sound so good! I love the suggestion of a pesto or olive tapenade version. I may have to give it a whirl this weekend! My husband will love it.
I just bought organic pop tarts tonight, but have definitely been meaning to make my own for awhile now. Also, you’re on a posting frenzy!
oh. my. g!!!!! I freaked when this came up in my news feed. and I promise you, if I hadn’t just spent the afternoon making your thick & chewy granola bars AND your pretzels, I would be making these Right Now. my mom would NEVER by processed stuff when I was a kid, so my first encounter with a pop tart was as a teenage babysitter. frosted strawberry, man! loved the kids I sat for, but the real reward was the toasty, sticky, overly-sweet “pastry” goodness that was mine as soon as they were in bed.
I can’t wait to make these! (and, in a semi-bizarre juxtaposition, the salad you posted yesterday.)
Hi, I’m Shannon, and I like cinnamon poptarts.
LOL! It’s my “that time of the month” breakfast. Sad, isn’t it? Now that I have a recipe, I might just have to make my own. Yay, no preservatives!!!
A woman after my own heart! I craved pop tarts when I was pregnant, she is now 8 months old. I can’t WAIT to make these!!!! I ADORE your sight and recipes, it’s like you read my mind girl.
I cannot stand pop tarts. I never liked them as a kid, having developed an early affection for good pastry (as the ever increasing size of my thighs throughout puberty and beyond can attest). But, I am not a good morning person, and often want an easy breakfast treat to give my daughter. I thought about pop tarts the other day, had a box in my hand, looked at the ingredients, and could not bear to buy them. But with a little make-ahead work, these could totally become my saving grace. So glad you posted these!
I had my first pop tart in my late 20s so I must’ve been living under the same rock hehe I’m not a huge fan but I’d definitely try these… with Nutella… mmmmm!
Ohh, my boyfriend will love this!
I saw this recipe at the King Arthur Flour blog months ago and have made them numerous times — they are SO good. But I never thought about the savory angle. What an awesome idea. Thanks Deb! (BTW, there’s a King Arthur Video on YouTube about Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery, which I think is where KAF got the recipe. She demonstrates how she makes the Pop Tarts, which apparently sell out every day. Make them once and you’ll understand why!)
My parents have owned a house up the street from the Goonies house since I was 6 – and I didn’t see the movie until my Freshman year at college, when I was 18!
Love it! I try to avoid processed foods, but I have a major weakness for Poptarts. Maybe these homemade and chemical-free ones will save me!
Are you trying to kill me? I can’t wait to try this! I made the lime yogurt cake tonight. Another great recipe! I have yet to find fault with one recipe and I’ve tried at least 20!
Ohhhh myyyyy Goddddd. I cannot wait to make these!!! I had poptarts as a kid on rare occasions, but I mostly wasn’t allowed. Now I can make my own!
Also, I’ve never seen The Goonies either… and nobody in my life can believe it :)
Thank you for making such a bad thing so good.
Oh, by the way, I was watching Cake Boss the other day and they made their version of big crumb cake. Not. Even. Close! They used shortening instead of butter for the crumb topping! They could learn a thing or two from you! Butter all the way, baby!
Delia — OMG! Funny enough, we have friends who live not far from that bakery and they brought me a fruit-filled crumb cake that I loved. Despite its lack of buttery-ness. Did it look like this? I’ve been promising to make a version of this (with my kind of ingredients) for the site for eons.
Icing — I’ll update the recipe with two approaches.
i was waiting all day for this after ogling those pics on flickr. definitely going to make some tomorrow!!!!!!
WOW – those look wonderful! I know what I will be up to this weekend!
what are your thoughts on icing…because a pop-tart just isn’t a pop-tart without the icing imho.
Wow, talk about wishes coming ture – – – I just looked into the pantry for something to crumble on top of my ice cream. The Pop-Tarts were screaming my name!! I will have to bake these for my desserts – Brown Sugar rocks my world. I’ll have to find an icing that is equally amazing.
I love this idea!
I’ll be making this for the next family gathering
This takes me back to my childhood. My mom kept our cupboards stocked with pop tarts, although I never eat them anymore because I’ve wised up to the taste you described….spot on. These look so much better! And nutella! And a savory version, love it!
I’ve never had a Pop Tart before either! There’s nowhere to get them here in China except for imports, which are really expensive :(
The cinnamon ones sound delicious! I should really make this one sometime soon… There are so many fillings you could come up with!
Have you ever thought about icing these like the packaged poptarts? With the white icing and drizzled chocolate? :D That’d be awesome… but they’re cute enough as is! :)
Wei-Wei
I grew up very close to the Kellogg’s pop tart factory. Once, my mom took me there for a “taste test” where I tried flavors they were considering. Amongst the flavors was blue raspberry (with blue frosting, obviously) and watermelon berry. There was also a peanut butter & jelly version, which I felt had a lot of potential.
These look much better. I always hated the frosting.
I’ve never had one either… maybe these will be my first!
I have never eaten a pop tart in my life but when I saw that Nutella would be an option I got really excited. That sounds really good to me.
The tip from King Arthur reminds me of when I was I young girl baking with my grandmother. She would let me take her dough trimmings and I would roll them together, and then, using a small tool that she had for cutting holes in the centres of her shortbread Christmas wreaths, I would punch out as many small round dots (we called them bellybuttons) as I could. Sometimes she would let me add some cheddar cheese to the dough for cheesy bellybuttons (sounds kind of gross if you take it literally). While whatever she was making was chilling in the fridge, we would bake our bellybuttons. Nothing tasted better.
i gotta say – i am a fan of pop-tarts. sure, they’re loaded with things i shouldn’t eat, but so are oreos and chips a hoy cookies, and i ate the mess outta those things! you gotta toast them though, or they do taste boring, hard, and cold.
i have a similar recipe i pulled from (i think) bon appetit a month of so ago. will definitely be making one of them soon! the nutella idea sounds great.
Poptarts are at the top of my boyfriend’s “GROSS” list, along with fruit roll-ups and orange marmalade. He loves the pies I make though, so this might help me change his mind. Looks YUMMMM!
I’m giggling out loud right now…not only do those homemade poptarts look divine ( I will simply have to make them for my children) but your husbands remark about the Goonies really hit home = My husband came home from work and said, “I think I’m getting old…the new girl in the office has never seen OR even heard of the Goonies…” We tallied her age and realized she was born in the 90’s (gasp)!
Beautiful blog, by the way. I’ve seen hundreds of links and credits to you but this is my first (of many) visits!
These look gorgeous! Wayyyy better than those packaged products. But I’m a huge fan of toaster strudel, mainly because I love puff pastry and it’s so difficult to make it perfectly (at least for me). These I will have to try! Thanks so much for sharing! :D
Thanks so much for the freezer tip! I live in steamy Southeast Asia and had despaired of ever making a proper pie crust in this heat.
Love your site!
Jenn
Never had a pop-tart, and never really bothered to wonder what they taste like. But these look like a great treat. Will give them a go this weekend.
Where on earth did my comment go? I will feel like such a newb if it shows up after i post this again…
When I saw this post I got too excited and assumed you made them from that Bon Appetit issue, I should have STOPPED and read first oh well, anyway I made these a few days ago and while the dough was a bitch to handle in this puertorican heat they turned out great, I filled a few with guava paste and cream cheese for my bf and he LOVED them, now I didn’t think about filling them with nutella,you’re naughty i’ll make them again tomorrow even though it will be ninety something degrees out just cause of the nutella
I posted mine in my newborn very amateurish food blog lookie I was so proud of myself!!
http://sinsofrito.blogspot.com/2010/04/pop-tarts-homemade.html
I cook a lot nowadays and I want to thank you for that, I’m not scared of messing up or trying new things anymore!
I’ll have to give these a try, but I have to tell you that for what ever reason Strawberry Pop Tarts smothered with butter have always been a not so healthy treat that I enjoy from time to time. Please don’t think less of me, I’m an otherwise healthy eater ; )!
Re: The Big Crumb Cake they made was a big sheet cake sized version. It didn’t look like the picture except for the crumb topping and powdered sugar. I’m not sure if it was different from the one you received or if it just looked different because it was so big. I’m glad to hear it was good, but I am more excited to see your take on it!
These look awesome. I read the title to my husband and he sounded a loud “mmmmmm.” I guess that means I will have to try these . My kids will be happy as I do not ever buy these for the same reasons you stated in your blog. I describe them as simply, “yuck!” :) Thanks for a great recipe to try!
i try not to comment too often b/c you get so many and u must be so busy (esp with that cutie pie baby. ok and your cutie pie husband too) but i cant believe you made pop tarts! you may have just changed my life! i am soooo excited i had to mention it. my kids and i will be making these every weekend forever :)
thx
btw-goonies is a classic!
Im salivating!
Ooh, yum! I wonder if I could make these with a cream cheese dough. I used it the other day and loved its workability, and it seemed to have a pop-tarty feel. ha. At any rate, can’t wait to try these!
This is going to change my life! I lived on poptarts as a teenager and in college. I still enjoy them, but avoid them for obvious reasons. However, homemade poptarts = perfectly okay. Thanks for sharing; can’t wait to try them!
It looked like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eatingintranslation/4182289076/
Ok weird. Just made pop tarts today for the first time. It’s like you were reading my mind or something. About to bake mine off, hope they come out half as gorgeous as yours.
Oh. My. Goodness. I loved the chocolate pop tarts and HATED the ones with fruit jam/gunk. I hated the fruit ones so much that I used break them in half and scrape it all out just so I could eat the crust. I see you’ve concentrated on the two best elements of a pop tart: the chocolate filling and the crust. Bravo. These things looks amazing!
Yes, that was exactly my experience with those pop tarts with fruit jam. Didn’t like them at all.
Holy cow. You rule.
i love the idea of almond paste filling!
Ooooooo, my kidlets are gonna love youuuuu!
Somehow it never even crossed my mind that one could make homemade pop tarts. Ridiculous, but true.
oh just shoot me. Or start buying me some new jeans.
dear lord…(drooling on my keypad).
sigh…
I have to stop reading this daily b/c on my days off (Wednesdays) all I want to do is try the AMAZING recipes you have on here all week long! Thanks!
You deserve knighthood or a pulitzer or a blue ribbon or something. I found you while google trolling for pop-tart recipes. My 5 yr. old son eats them like they might possibly stop making them and I’m tired of buying them! They make great snacks, but holy moo, they’re just not that great for you. Homemade has to be better than store bought. Always is.
I am absolutely loving the one-post-a-day pattern going on here
oh, and the recipes as well, of course =D
New reader — I feel like the last person on the Internet to know about you. These look effing amazing. Actually, I have a bake sale coming up…hm…
Wow!
I was all set to try a similar recipe in ‘Desserts by the Yard’ now I have two (and a billion variations) to try out. Thank you :)
My husband LOVES poptarts! I must make these – thank you for sharing! Yours look terrific and so realistic! :-)
Oh, I love you!! Really. Thank you for this one – I will be making these this week. And, this week I discovered the reason why the only recipe from your blog that was a flop for me (Snickerdoodles) didn’t work out… expired Cream of Tartar (by two years – ugh). So baking soda only, nope. This time I subbed baking powder for the soda/cream of tartar combo and voila! Perfection!! Thanks for the great recipes.
I don’t even like Pop Tarts (I, too, didn’t have my first one until college), but I see that I will be forced to make these delicious looking tarts.
I have to admit I am worse off on the Pop Tart front. I am from New Zealand so unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) I have never tried one! I think they may have made a brief appearance on supermarket shelves when I was younger, but since then I’m pretty sure they’ve disappeared from our side of the world. These look absolutely YUM though and it sounds like they are much much better than the real thing! Can’t wait to try ^_^
I never even thought about making my own, this is quit clever.
I’m sure that prior to today I never would have thought of Pop Tarts as tantalizing.
Maybe now I do. SALTED CARAMEL pop tarts?!? Part whole-wheat dough?
Yeah. I will be making these.
Definitely.
Thanks for expanding my horizons. Through (whispered) pop tarts. :)
O.M.G. No words, no words! And then someone said–cue harp music–ALMOND PASTE FILLING. As if nutella wasn’t heavenly enough. I think I might cry.
Did you just make homemade Poptarts?! Awesome.
Thanks for the recipe. I am going to try these. Maybe with pistachios and chocolate. But I will definitely make some jam pop tarts for my husband. Ooo howabout carmelized onion and gruyere pop tarts! :O)
Mmmm… these look so good! I have to try these out at home. And you know what… I’d never had a pop tart until college too :)
I grew up in this age of processed snacks, but still had never tried pop tarts (or Cool Whip, for that matter) until I was 20 and moved in with my junk food loving boyfriend. I was unimpressed. Though as he was raised on the stuff and still sees pop tarts as a comfort food, I’ll be making these soon as a sort of compromise. Thank you!
I def pefer homeade,I wasn’t raised on these little guys either which is a good thing I suppose, these look terrific.
simply and so cool!
I was really excited about reading the post until I realized that I don’t really like Pop Tarts though they were one of those things my parents would never, ever buy. Growing up we wanted to be like the other kids and have those high-cost artificial treats. But it’s funny because as soon as I saw them in finished form I realized that they are essentially, at their core, Empanadas, which our parents bought for us, but in different form. Maybe I’ll make butterscotch-filled ones to kill two cravings. Thanks again for the inspiring post.
I have never tastes a pop-tart, though I’ve heard enough. One thing that always nags at me.. is it just a different shaped pie, or is something else altogether?
What?! You haven’t watched “The Goonies” yet?! Now I’m scared that you could confess next that you haven’t seen “The princess bride” either…
Oh my, that does bring back memories. Pop tarts are unknown here in Norway, I must make these for my kids and their friends and friends of their friends….. Who knows, maybe I´ll start a pop-tart-revolution…
We almost never get pop tarts in South Africa, so they are an absolute treat even though they are usually broken or damaged in the importing. These are an absolute have to make for me, particularly as I have just hit the snacky stage of pregnancy!
We don’t have pop tarts in Greece but I sure want to taste one of these yummy treats. I’m sold! I would love them with chocolate spread. Thanks for this Deb!
Magda
Bless you for including the weight of a stick of butter!
developed a weird like for them (indulged rarely) after having first child (13+years), youngest daughter adores them. realized its the idea of them that is delicious — every time i manage to swallow them, i notice that but must reprove it to myself each time.
in any case, our world has been turned upside down, in a good way. above mentioned youngest daughter (who just broke her arm and is in a, you guessed it, right arm cast from underarm to finger knuckles) will appreciate mightily — and even get to help make in all of her one lefted hand glory!
oh yes. that there is heaven! wow wow wow
What a great idea! I haven’t thought about Pop-Tarts in years…. never really liked them that much. But these look absolutely scrumptious. Time to introduce my daughters to their American heritage via this version!
Yay for Nutella!!!!
You know I have the same affliction to packaged pop tarts as you, especially the ones with frosting on them. Yuck!
But the whole idea of Nutella in my pop tarts is perfect. Also, I am thoroughly intrigued by the savory ones. I think I might have to try something like that out on my vegetarian roommate for our roomies’ dinner!
Oh!! Thank you, thank you!! :)
You don’t know how happy I was to see this recipe in my inbox this morning!
Brown Sugar unfrosted were always my most favorite Pop Tarts.
I know what I’ll be making later on today! And, living in Brooklyn, I, too have an overly warm/hot apartment, so the freezer method is smart. :)
I’ve never had a Pop-Tart or watched the Goonies. I didn’t realise I was missing out! I might have to rent them film but I’m pretty sure I won’t be going near a Pop-Tart unless it’s the Deb version.
I love the idea of a savoury filling; I’m thinking wholewheat crust with some kind of pistachio/confit tomato/chorizo filling. Ooh, or goat’s cheese and leek or tapenade. The posibilities are endless!
Um, seriously – these might have just made my morning!!!
I had one single Pop Tart before I turned 18 and lived alone in Paris…strangely, that’s when I would trek all around the city looking for a box of Pop Tarts. How strange! I’m not a huge fan (would prefer a chausson aux pommes any day!), but these look really yummy. I’m especially feeling the Nutella filled ones… We have a Speculoos spread here in France that’s from Belgium–these would be absolutely amazing filled with it!
Gotta admit, I would never have thought of making homemade pop tarts. But it looks like a great project to try with some kids.
I had the same reaction when I tried a Pop-Tart for the first time of my life during a field trip about 12 years ago when I spent a high school year in CA. I never tried one again. But I think I could give the home made version a chance.
I’ve been thinkinig about trying the version that was in Bon Appetit this month. But I think I like theses better, and I know the folks in the KAF kitchen I have never led me wrong before!
I’m totally doing mine with a rhubarb filling! yum!
Oh my …my daughter will love this recipe! Very nice of you to share.
This looks awesome – I had no idea you could make homemade poptarts!
FANTASTIC!!I cannot wait to make homemade poptarts…..thank you so much
These look absurdly good. Especially the Nutella! I used to LOVE Poptarts! I am not a great baker but I may need to try these ASAP.
We have been toying with hosting brunch this weekend…these may have sealed the deal!
My parents never bought Pop Tarts for my brother and me while we were growing up, so of course I would raid my friend’s pantries for them. Nowadays, I steer clear of them due to the artificial ingredients… but I could definitely go for a homemade version! These look fantastic.
You ROCK! I’ll try to make 100% whole wheat version. These are great to sneak some good stuff into my kids. So many possibilities with the filling. Just wait until your little one starts chowing down. You’ll be sneaking all sorts of things into his food too!
These look delcious. I made some with rhubarb. Yum.
Now I know why our modem wasn’t working yesterday…my boys would’ve been all over this one. Sort of like Jacob, okay, just like Jacob. Attack, Attack! Goonies, yep a great movie. My husband had our son watching Godzilla way to young, “they’re hurting him!”
Love the suggestion with for the dough trimmings. This is a Thanksgiving tradition in my family with leftover pie crust. Certain family members are more excited about these than for the pies themselves. We roll out extra crust dough, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and then roll the dough up tightly into a snail/spiral shape (as you would for cinnamon rolls) and slice it into thin spirals, then bake it on a cookie sheet. My Yankee grandmother insists the technical term for these is “doodinkles”, but I’ve never heard anyone else call them that.
I don’t know, I think you missed the mindless and extremely processed point of the pop tart. The Gilmore Girls would be horrified and ashamed.
Deb,
These look FANTASTIC! I never actually thought about making pop tarts myself.
My daughter loves pop tarts, but I try to avoid buying them at all costs. She is goingto LOVE THESE!!
Judi
You are so nutty–that’s what I love about you! But you’re forgetting the one true beauty of Pop Tarts. Pop Tarts=Lazy (harried/frenzied) Mom’s best friend–they are not as good as fresh pastry filled with fresh ingredients, but they are always there for you!
Yes, I saw them in Bon App too – wanted to try them – they look so yummy!
My boyfriend will flip for these. I’m intrigued by your savory suggestion.
Glory be. Forget my husband… I will love MYSELF forever if I make these. I love Pop Tarts, in all their processed goodness, but refuse to eat them, because of all their processed goodness. These look GREAT.
As a bonus, my pregnant, Pop Tart seeking friend would probably love them too.
Also, I’ve never seen the Goonies either. *shrug*
Why did I never realize you could just make pop tarts? When I was a kid my siblings and I never got to eat this sort of junk food unless we were camping or at a friend’s house. I never developed a great affection for them, but I was super excited when I saw this come up in my email. They had great potential in my mind, but I was always let down by the dry, artificial reality. This recipe is what I always wanted them to be.
The rhubarb suggestion sounds fantastic! Little tiny rhubarb tarts….mmmm
Yummie. I love cinnamon. I (also) saw them in Bon Appetite and wanted to give them a try.
My kids love the homemade poptarts I make. My recipe is very similar to yours only I use butter flavored crisco along with a bit of real butter. It helps hold it together better for me and I don’t have to refrigerate the dough. I don’t ice ours either. The kids get plenty sugar as it is so I lightly sprinkle the unbaked poptart with a bit of granulated sugar to make it pretty for them!
Thanks for the tip on the jam! I never thought about mixing in a cornstarch slurry. to keep it thick. I would like to try a cream cheese version with bacon or sausage bits, some herbs and scrambled egg bits to see how that would taste.
THANK YOU so much for posting this! We live in Spain now and my husband has been pining for Pop-Tarts since the day we discovered they don’t have them here. Yours look much better, though, and Nutella is one thing that’s definitely not scarce around here. So I’ll be trying this ASAP. By the way, Alex cracks me up …”and you haven’t yet??!” Funny!!
You might actually save me from my cooking despair! I swore to my hubby yesterday that I was giving up cooking ANYTHING! LOL. Thank you for this inspirational post! Back to the kitchen I go!
AMAZING!!!!!! Thanks for sharing I do like pop tarts it is not my favourite but this recipe sounds GREAT! will try it for sure!!!!
HOLY YUMM-O.
This WILL be saved and used in my daily life.
THANK YOU.
How many pop tarts does this make? Sorry if I missed that.
Thanks for the tip about a dough being sturdier if it has an egg in it!
There was a time right after I was married that husband and I ate pop tarts for breakfast a couple times a week. Then when I became a SAHM I realized the huge sugar crash I was having mid morning when I had pop tarts for breakfast. I stopped buying them (reluctantly as I am the kind of person who always wants to try the new flavors that appear). I may have to try adapting these to the latest flavor I see on the shelves – chocolate chip cookie dough – and call them dessert instead of breakfast…
You have just made a thirteen-year-old in Tokyo very, very happy.
Oh wow! The opportunities for filling options are endless! Those look really good. I’m guessing you can’t just pop them into a toaster for 3 minutes and be done with breakfast, though!
My mom just celebrated her 50th birthday and I’m throwing a party for her on Saturday. Growing up, we’d get pop tarts as a special treat. I can’t wait to make these for her! Thanks for the recipe!
I didn’t eat a pop tart until I was 30 and on a ski weekend with friends. Wasn’t impresed. Haven’t had another one.
But homemade little jam turnovers, I think I would enjoy them. I love linzer tart cookies.
I made these when King Arthur ran an ad with the recipe. Long story short? It was in the midst of the very first giant teenage drama in our house and what did these homemade Pop Tarts do? THEY BROUGHT OUR FAMILY BACK TOGETHER AGAIN! Highly recommended for healing any family rifts!
OMG. I was not a pop tart kid growing up and have to make these. These grab-and-go treats just took a verry sophisticated/gourmet turn!
These are so pretty, Deb! I can’t even pick a favorite filling – I’ll be having them all, please. ;)
These sound amazing! I am planning to try them out this afternoon. For the alternate filling ideas, should the chocolate chips be melted? Or can you put them in solid? Thank you!
Katie — You should be able to put them in solid. I didn’t actually test that method — I suspect other formats of chocolate would work, such as a slick of ganache or a square from a thin bar of chocolate, if that is easier.
Such a cool recipe! I love this.
Just when I decided to cut out sweets & extra sugar…
these pictures are beautiful. What kind of camera do you use?
I just made the cinnamon/brown sugar ones. YUM! My kids beg for Pop Tarts. I think they might just faint when they get home from school today.
I made the homemade poptarts and gave them out as Xmas gifts. I used the traditional (old school) fillings and toppings, but loving your cinnamon and sugar version….yummy!
This looks a whole lot better than the ones out of the box. Neat Idea!
Suzanne
I am soooo going to make these this afternoon! We all have a soft spot for Pop Tarts here (though I try to keep them to a couple times a year), but even my kids know HOMEMADE IS BETTER.
amazing. i never had a pop tart growing up either, and had a similar first-time experience to them as you did.
I’ve never been a pop tart fan. I didn’t have them at home growning up and the one time I tasted them, I thought they were gross. It occurs to me with this recipe that with the right filling, these would be a great base for a fruit topping instead of the usual shortbread. I see stewed apples and figs with a brown sugar filling for fall, strawberries or cherries with a chocolate filling. Peaches and appricots with frangipane…I could go on and on! I guess I’m missing the snack aspect..ya think?
oh no you didn’t…
I’ve never even thought of making homemade pop tarts. I don’t really enjoy the store bought kind, so this recipe might change my entire pop tart philosophy!
Oh boy, this is probably the most evil post yet! Blueberry Poptarts are one of my most favorite treats, but with 400 calories per serving, I just can’t bring myself to splurge on them. I will most definitely be making these and having a stash in the freezer is a great idea!
This reminds me of the first time I tried the forbidden Lucky Charms cereal. I thought I had a bad batch, because the marshmallows were crunchy. Shudder.
This also reminds me that I need to bake Nutella pop tarts NOW.
When this post showed up on my feed – I actually danced a little jig around my living room. My kids thought it was funny, so we all marched around the house chanting, “pop tarts, pop tarts!!” I am making these babies this weekend!!
I can’t recall the first time I had a pop tart but it was at least high school and at a friend’s house at that. Since then I don’t get what the fuss is all about with pop tarts. It always felt like the proportion of filling to crust was way out of whack. This recipe though, looks intriguing…
Also, I’ve never seen Goonies, Fragglerock or any other kid shows of the 80s much to my husband’s dismay!
DEB, I just want to FLING myself on you. Or these. Whichever.
I love bought Pop Tarts (but um, I can see how an untoasted stale one might have put you off for life; they need to be hot and jammy) but have them oh-so-rarely (we’re talking once every couple of years, here), since I have principles against buying sweet stuff/bought baked goods – I don’t even really eat chocolate or anything, I’d rather “save up” the calories and make a really super-mega-foxy cake or batch of cookies to round off a week.
But HOMEMADE POPTARTS? Oh. My.
I think I’ll definitely make some sort of glaze (saltedcaramelsaltedcaramelsaltedcaramel) for them too. Why hold back.
Hmmmm. I went through a phase of eating poptarts after long runs instead of power bars because they tasted very slightly better, and comparing the ingredients, they seemed about equivalently not very healthy or natural but packed with energy for refueling! Then I gave up on weird pre-made foods for refueling entirely (surprise, surprise, bread with peanut butter and banana will accomplish the same thing!), however, your recipe may very well inspire a return to the pop-tarts for marathon training regimen! :)
I almost fell out of my chair when I saw you MADE pop tarts! I have to admit that I do love a frosted brown sugar cinnamon one fresh out of the toaster, but they’re darn expensive and not so healthy for you. At least if I make them myself I can consider them dessert!
Do you think I could mail these? My brother and sister would love them but they live a few hours away.
I just found a recipe for nutella yesterday, while i was making the beef stock from your blog. the pop tarts look yummy. i stopped eating them when i developed a better sense of taste and what i was willing to put in my body. now these are worth a try, especially with the home made nutella.
i am now officially hooked on food blogs.
yummy! these look amazing! question Deb, do you ever use silpat mats for baking? just curious your opinion of them? thanks~ Julie
WAITAMINUTE, WAITAMINUTE. PEANUT BUTTER AND JAM POP TARTS. I’M SO ON IT.
These look great but one question … which set of dough rectangles are you brushing the beaten egg on … the bottoms or the tops? Can’t wait to make these!
Lori — You brush them on the bottom, on the side you spread the filling on. It ensures that the bottoms and tops glue together at the edges.
Julie — I don’t use silpats. I rejected them a while ago, when I did not have a dishwasher because there was no way I was going to have to hand wash floppy silicon mats every time I baked something. Now I have a dishwasher but I still just use parchment paper, does the same trick and I’m convinced you get better browning and edges on things than from a soft nonstick mat.
ok, first I would like to say that brown sugar cinnamom pop tarts are KING! & second, everyone knows you make ‘cheats’ out of leftover crust dough, not just King Flour!Thses look great & I am going to make them w/ my neice & nephew SOON, :)
I’m fairly new to this blog and thoroughly enjoy receiving the recipe e mails. I’ve made several of your dishes with great success. Thanks for the fun! I’m not a Pop Tart fan, but I’m sure my husband and son will enjoy these. As a matter of fact, I just purchased my first jar of Nutella last night while shopping for chard for the creamed chard recipe. Is that Karma? Hmmm…I think I’d better get to the kitchen now.
I’ve never eaten a pop tart, and I kinda figured that having lasted 30 years I might as well just hold out, but…now I think I’ll have to switch that to never eating a commercial pop tart. Or can I just secretly call these thin turnovers? Hmm, probably not.
This made my day!
This is so funny. A couple of my friends and I were just talking yesterday about how much we love pop tarts but that none of us every buy then (except for one of my guys friends. Men, they can totally buy them and not feel bad about it). I think the reason I like them so much is that my mom wouldn’t buy them. They were a special treat that a few of my childhood friends had at their houses. These look so much better. I have to try this soon!!
I am with you, my mom wouldn’t let us eat “junk” food. Loved them in college. These look amazing! No glaze, no worry – just frost the top! MMMM.
I loved poptarts when I was in high school. I ate the contents of one foil packet every morning for breakfast. I also ate donuts and drank soda instead of the comparatively more “healthy” school lunch. I re-energized with ramen noodles after dragging myself home each day.
Years later I marvel that my mother took me to the doctor to find out why I was suffering from they symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome. And we wondered why I had those chronic headaches, and luckily we had medicine for the depression. Sheesh.
Hurrah for real food and a healthy diet of homemade goodies and non-preserved poptarts! Now if only I had a recipe that surpassed for homemade oriental-flavor top ramen (sans MSG!).
I am not a pop-tart fan either, but think these could be the first step in a conversion!
Perfect timing for me. I’ve been sending care packages to my elderly aunt and uncle recently and am always trying to find something a bit unique beyond another box of cookies and this is perfect. I think I’ll make them a variety pack…some jam, some nutella and some cinnamon sugar; thinking maybe I’ll have to make a pack of them for me too!
So fun! I can’t wait to try. Brown sugar cinnamon and s’mores were my favorites!
Deb, I love poptarts – only the brown sugar cinnamon w/o icing tho’ – now I am definitely going to have to try these. One question – do you think egg replacer (not egg whites) would work in place of the egg in this recipe? My son is very allergic to egg whites – thus why he can eat the store bought pop tarts. Thanks for your help and I love your blog.
PS. I have loved watching your Jacob grow…my Jacob (Jake) is now 21 years old and out of the house :(
these look incredible!!! i told my friends i was going to make poptarts and they all said, “uhh why?! you could just buy them.” then i mentioned Nutella and immediately they all agreed, “say no more. we are in”–‘in’ as in psyched to eat them!!! i can’t wait to test them out:)
oh and i agree with kirsten (#10), you have the cutest baby ever! i bet you have a fun everyday!
Amazing post!!!
Good recipes and fantastic photos.
Thank you very much for sharing.
I am 33, and have never eaten a Pop-Tart! And I’m proud of it! haha
This homemade version looks rather tasty, though. Thanks for sharing.
ok i made these right after i saw you posted the recipe, Sooo good! i loved poptarts before going vegetarian almost a year ago and missed them as the husband buys them every week for his lunches. These taste so much better. The cinnamon sugar ones are my fave but i’ll be experimenting with different flavors soon. thanks so much!
Darn it! I’ve managed to avoid eating pop tarts all my life, but now I don’t think I can resist any longer. A homemade pop tart filled with nutella sounds very enticing.
Those look so good…
I made a pie this weekend from a recipe that used egg in the crust and it was the best pie crust I ever had! It’s now my new go to recipe for pastry…
Holy cow! I’m 62 & have never eaten a PopTart in my life, which is odd considering I love most pastries. But I am SO making these! Cream cheese & homemade raspberry jam, blackberry, rhubarb, rhubarb & strawberry, cherry, apple, Nutella, almond . . . oh, someone save me from myself! I thought a recipe I recently found for homemade Snickers bars was bad! I don’t think I should actually THANK you for this, but will anyway. Excuse me as I wander off in a sugar-induced haze of possibilities……..
I made the Bon Appetit recipe and they were a huge hit. I actually filled them with jam mascapone cheese. I have to try your filling next.
Wow, these look absolutely amazing – i’m going to have to try them this weekend! The part about the Goonies made me laugh, because my husband and I had the same conversation when he learned that I hadn’t seen it!
OMG Deb!!! Just literally LOL’ed that you, like me, have never seen the Goonies! And what’s more, I have absolutely NO DESIRE to!! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE that you made over one of my favorite childhood treats (waaay before I got all natural-foody). I’m usually a baking wuss, but I just may have to give these a go. Thanks for always brightening my work days with your food and wit!
I also saw these in Bon Appetit. I am waiting for the perfect time to make them, probably a period where I can wear elastic-waisted pants without shame.
These look good. Like the different fillings and may try the savory ones over the sweet.
If you wonder at traffic jump, a celeb with 1.7M followers just tweeted this recipe. She’s been know to crash sites on volume alone.
Bookmark’d.
Oh my goodness, I am soooo going to make these! Thank you :)
I was never a fan of REAL pop tarts, so I’d love this, as it doesn’t taste like it came from a package!
Wawaweewa! Those look delicious! I was planning on going dancing this weekend, but I think I might stay home and make these instead.
@ Louis – really? which celebrity? i must say she has excellent taste in culinary websites!
Oh man, poptarts were a delicacy when I was growing up (as was really any breakfast food with sugar!). I was so excited when it was my birthday or a special occasion and my mom would let us get a sugary cereal or poptarts for breakfast. Kids really have no appreciation for real taste obviously, because I had the same reaction as you when I tasted a poptart as an adult.
I would LOVE to make these in a mini version, filled with nutella. My boyfriend could probably scarf down a batch of about 2 dozen in a matter of minutes.
I might have missed this in a earlier comment, but when you recommend freezing them if you want to eat them later (a genius idea btw), you say to freeze them unbaked between layers of waxed paper. Just for clarification, do you assemble them, then freeze them? Or freeze just the rolled out dough and thaw and assemble? I assume it is the former, but just want to be sure. :) Thanks for a great recipe!
They look too good to be true. It is wonderful. I tried to make them a couple of times, but haven’t turned out that good. I will use your recipe next time.
You are a mind reader! Just yesterday I made your oreo cookies and was thinking that pop tarts were next on my list. Thank you!
My mouth is watering!
I didn’t have poptarts growing up either, though I either had them in college or shortly after. They weren’t worth the effort of toasting though every once in a while I eat another one to remind me they aren’t that good. My husband would really love these, especially if I sub in a little cheesecake filling. Yum!
*dies of happiness*
I’ve never had a pop tart before, and I *am* in college right now. Growing up, the store-bought “pastry” in my house was the toaster strudel, which is totally delicious, in my opinion, and apparently a different beast altogether. This, however, looks delicious. And of course, Jacob is adorable. :)
I have never eaten a pop-tart in my life. I grew up with healthy-eating, hippie parents, and such a thing would have been verboten. By the time I was in college, I still wasn’t tempted — they look so cardboard like and unappealing.
These homemade pop-tarts, on the other hand, Wow! They look terrific. I’m not much of a cook, but your gorgeous photographs have inspired me to try.
Just when I was wondering “What should I bring to the breakfast social at church on Sunday?”, you gave us this. Wonderful!
My dad literally eats a 12 pack of poptarts a week, no lie. And at least a cake and a few dozen cookies and stays rail thin but I digress.
Since Papa loves Pop Tarts my kid coerced me to get some. Those suckers are incredibly salty! These will be a happy substitute, thanks!
Sounds yummy! I can’t wait to try it. Especially because I, too, never understood why people would eat the store-bought kind.
You’ve done it again! Can’t wait to try this one!
Oh! I am so going to try these this weekend… AND I think I shall use some of the apple butter I canned last year for the filling :D
but!
a better question is…
do they taste better
hmmmm
I think I’ll try and make these with a plum filling instead, but try to get them looking as close to the real thing, icing and all :). I reckon if I cook them in between two sheet pans, they’ll keep super flat like normal pop-tarts do. And btw, I’m secretly envying your child’s ridiculously thick hair; some of us were not so lucky in the baby- toddler phase…
I was so tempted to buy some at the Trader Joe’s just now but happy I didn’t so I can try these! I hope you’ve seen Goonies by now?
I didn’t drink Kool-Aid when I was a kid. My mother wouldn’t let me. Go figure. . .
I loved Pop-tarts a kid. It never occurred to me to make my own, but these looks super delicious and way more tasty than the ones that come in a box.
Lordy, look at all these comments! I do like the blueberry, frosted ones once in a while, and my husband is very fond of the cinnamon brown sugar. Somehow I bet these will be MILES better than the store-bought ones!
I want to adapt the chocolate peanut butter filling from the crispy bar recipe you mentioned/highlighted above for this recipe. Maybe slather the ganache lightly over the pastry. OMG…I’m gonna kill me yet!
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing this with us!
Yeah! Can’t wait to try these. My daughter and hubby LOVE pop tarts. I only buy them when we’re on vacation – which makes them “special”. This still works with my daughter (age 8) but she’s starting to question the “specialness” of some things! : )
omg!
a.) i didn’t have fruit loops, lucky charms, etc etc etc until halfway through college either. my parents weren’t anything like hippies at all, but they just didn’t let me have that stuff – juice had to be the real thing, snacks were real foods, sugar was a HELL NO ARE YOU CRAZY when it came to breakfast, etc. i’m glad for it though actually, i do secretly like ONLY the brown sugar pop tarts once in a great while – untoasted. but not stale! ew. but they are their own food.
b.) i’ve never seen the goonies either, and every person i’ve ever dated uses it as a party trick when things get boring. “hey, guess what stephanie hasn’t seen!!” sigh. at this point though, i don’t want to see it because i’m sure i won’t get it having missed it when it was age appropriate. then i’ll be the girl that doesn’t like the goonies, omg!
i flanked my comment with “omg!” – wow. i swear i don’t really talk like the omg idk my bff jill girl.
Yum!! I saw these in my King Arthur catalog. I know my kids would love them! I’m going to have to try them out.
brilliant! takes me back to the 80s (in a good way!).
Tell me why are you so cool!
i have always disliked poptarts but my brother gobbles them up, i cant wait to make this for him.
I’ve loved pop tarts since I was a kid. But I’m a vegetarian now, and the icing has gelatin in it, so I haven’t been able to have any for years. It never occurred to me to make my own, and I love baking. -facepalm-
So I nearly died of joy when I saw this. Guess what I’ll be making tonight? So excited! :D
These even look like the real thing…brilliant!
Hard to know to save this under breakfast, or dessert! My 15 yr old daughter was just commenting on how she’s never had a Pop Tart, but I don’t know if that means she WANTS one, or is privileged enough to have a Mom who makes things from scratch! Off to the coal mines for me (kitchen)…I have a teenager to impress…I miss my children ENJOYING me and ADORING me, now I have to woo them with FOOD!
I love how all of our husbands seem to be the ones dying for pop tarts! What is it about those nasty things they love so much?? These on the other hand I could stand behind!
I never had pop tarts growing up either. I think I had one at a friends house during a sleepover and I remember it was like sweetened chalk. Needless to say I’ve never had the desire to go near a pop tart again.
But this – I love. And thanks for the savory variation. I’m partial to mini-versions of most baked goods – my mini muffin tin gets a serious workout in my kitchen.
Cheers!
Nun-uh. Deb I can’t even believe how cool you are.
I just IM’d my husband about the recipe and his response was:
“What? seriously? let’s make them. TONIGHT. no questions.”
ha! just wanted to share.
Cinnamon-brown sugar poptarts are my hiking and finals standby – untoasted but not old. However, I’m always acutely aware that the reason the crust has a nice chewy texture is because of all of the unnatural ingredients. So, these will be a joy to try — especially excited about the savory possibilities!
WHHHAAT? Homemade pop tarts?? No one told me people were allowed to do THAT! I’m gonna have so much fun making these this weekend. Screw the wedding!
BRAVO! A recipe that Chunk from Goonies would be proud of. Already I have plans for Nutella, Strawberry Jam and S’Mores. Thank you for providing quite the flashback to simpler, more sugary times!
Wow, I had been thinking about making the St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake for my contribution to the Teacher Appreciation Week breakfast at my son’s school. Then I had a lightbulb and thought I’d make homemade pop tarts (w/TJ’s pie crust for speed).
So I checked out your blog to see how involved the Butter Cake really was and saw THIS post. I’ll take it as a sign and go make pop tarts. I’m thankful for the reminder to add cornstarch to the jam. And yeah, the packaged version is much better toasted. But it’s all relative.
Can i just say that i really glad you said you had never seen the goonies before? I also have never seen goonies and you know what? i refuse to out of principle. i won’t submit to peer pressure. So thank you for coming out and for letting all these other non-goonies to come out. I don’t feel so alone in my sans-goonie-ness.
also, your pop tarts look amazing.
okay, these look SO good!
I made some from a blog (i think Honey and Jam) once but i used premade pie crust…totally cheating but they were amazing.
next step, these!
This is so timely! My 15 year old son has been bugging me to buy Pop Tarts for weeks but I have refused based on their high disgusting factor. I emailed him the link to this recipe and we now have a date to make these this weekend.
I first heard of making these on Chez Pim’s website. I used some leftover pie crust to make my own with the different jams in our fridge. The little things were bite-sized and delicious. What a great way to use leftover pastry dough!
Sometimes I secretly crave Pop Tarts, when nothing else will do, but these look so much better and flakier. And filled Nutella, be still my heart!
Awesome recipe! I haven’t had PopTarts in many years and would love to make this less-processed version! Thanks for the tips.
Awesome! I know what I’m making this weekend. I grew up on pop tarts in high school but the last package I bought as an adult a while back really didn’t taste all that great. Since my husband and I have sworn off processed food for good this year I guess I’m going to have to make the homemade version..pumpkin filling came to mind (who says you have to wait until fall for pumpkin!).
As for the Goonies..I grew up on movies (I hear movie quotes in my head at times..yeah I know I have a slight problem) and I’m still a movie lover and that’s one of my favorites.
In my family, the things the King Arthur people told you about are called “pie cookies” and are the most desired side effects of making a pie/tart/quiche (anything with a pie crust). Both for their great taste and their charming irregularity (typically cut the leftover pie dough into strips, but leave the ends ragged as well as the “end pieces”. Makes me want to go make a pie right now.
What about a peanut butter and jelly version?!
I’ve been seeing weird peanut butter and jelly pod-looking packaged things and the grocery stores and this would be a so much more delicious and healthful version…especially with whole-wheat flour…
Pie scraps — Aw, man, now I feel like I have to clarify that I’ve always known to do this — what a sad thing it would be if all of my pie scraps until now went to waste! What charmed the living heck out of me was that the King Arthur crew wrote the suggestion into the recipe. I mean, that’s cute, right? Don’t you just want to hang out and bake cookies them?
These look amazing, thanks for sharing and for the suggestions! I want to make them, but can’t decide between Nutella (although I’d use the Green & Black’s kind) and jam…
What timing. I just bought a box of poptarts last night. Such a guilty pleasure. This weekend is poptart makin’ time.
Oh my gosh! All I saw was Nutella and Pop Tarts, and I was hooked. Could there be anything more heavenly than a pastry filled with Nutella? I don’t think so. Thanks for the recipe, I think I’m going to head to the kitchen now to whip up a batch. So excited!
I cannot stand the nastiness of pop tarts, but my husband loves them. I’m excited to try this to give him a healthier and tastier version!
I was so excited when I saw these I almost peed my pants. This is my weekend project and I cannot wait – cinnamon sugar here I come!
wow. look these so delicious!!! i want to make them for my family
I haven’t gotten so frustrated with dough for a long time! The dough seemed a little dry when it was coming together. I think the egg was a little small. I added a little extra milk, but maybe too much because the whole thing became a sticky mess as I was rolling it out. I was also combatting a warm kitchen with a freezer to full to fit much of anything in. My little squares couldn’t lie flat so then when I took them out they started to crack. Ack! Well they are in the oven right now. Not beautiful at all. I made a filling with lingon berries. Thank you Ikea! They are starting to smell good so I think they whole process will have been worth it.
No icing? Oy.
They look pretty tasty, though! :)
Savory tarts are a great opportunity to think seriously out of the typical American breakfast box. Fillings like those used for Indian somosas (potatoes /peanut/coconut/cilantro chutney) or chickpeas. Nouveau quinoa with Southwestern twist (quinoa, cheddar cheese, black beans, pepper, onion, corn, cheese). These are clearly empanada analogues and all the classical and not so classical fillings associated with them.
Commercial products have taught us all that packaging is all. Yeah for the “pop tart”.
I just had my first pop tart this year, and the only thing I really liked about it was how the crust had a pleasant crumblyness despite how tough it was. Not exactly short, but not totally hard either. I was going to try making a crust with some of the flour subbed out for starch, and you just reminded me. Thanks!
YUM!!!
Yummmm, My baking 11/12 classes are going to be making these…we’re working on pies and these are so much more interesting than turnovers. Thank you
I got the same goonies reaction also.. then further caused disbelief when I fell asleep during a forced ‘omfg cant believe you’ve never seen this, you must watch it now’ screening….
My children love pop tarts, especially my son who is autistic. We are planning to switch him to a gluten free diet. Would you be interested in trying to make a gluten free pop tart recipe??
I have a soft spot for Pop-tarts. I’ve loved them since I was 4. I’ve had to cut down on them drastically in recent years, I only eat 1-2 a month. They’re just too sugary and the wheat version isn’t very good, the wheat is much too grainy. I’m thrilled you posted a DIY Pop-tart recipe, I can’t wait to start making my own version!
So, I posted this to my Facebook page, and got tons of interest from friends. We totally all want to make these, and freeze them ahead of time to make in the morning. We all also want to know how to frost them. Can you suggest a make-ahead frosting that could be applied prior to freezing and make it through the baking process–in a toaster oven?? Or a fridge-stable icing that could be put on after baking?
Wow, I thought I was the only one who never ate a Pop Tart in my formative years! I was 22 before I had my first and last taste of a Pop Tart.
I have a friend who will be 65 this year and she still eats Pop Tarts for breakfast, for the life of me I can’t figure that one out. In nearly every other area of her life she is committed to health and longevity. I think the “longevity” is going to come form the preservatives in the Pop Tarts, at least that is the joke.
I love your ideas for the savory version. I bet I could come up with nearly an entire meal made up of just little savory and sweet Pop Tart selections. The more I think of it, that sounds just about right. I believe I have my next “theme” dinner. Thank you.
I was allowed PopTarts every so often when I was a kid. I hated them then and assume that I still do now. The “pastry” fills me with sadness. On the other hand, these look delicious. A local bakery here makes them with pate sucree dough, which I think is a little too rich and sweet. Don’t get me wrong—they’re delicious, but it’s more like eating jam sandwiched between two Breton butter cookies (yes, I realize how delicious that sounds, but it’s a bit too much for breakfast).My favorite thing about them, which I think would work well with these, is that they sprinkle coarse sugar on top. The crunchiness and little bit of extra sweetness is awesome. Husband and I are on a diet, but we believe in doing everything in moderation, even eating pastry every once in awhile. Since these look easy to freeze and break out as an occasional treat, I’m going to be making strawberry-rhubarb ones next weekend.
Confession – we buy poptarts when we go camping in the summer. I am SO making these ahead of time with my homemade jams and some savory ones – thinking Fontina cheese, spinach and ham. I am so there.
Definitely have to try these. Since, at last lable-look several months ago, regular pop tarts have the triple whammy no-no (HFCS, soy products and hydrogenated oils), I refuse to buy them. Health food versions taste like cardboard (my husband and teenage sons’ opinions). I’ve tried homemade pie crust & jam (too runny and soft for reheating) a few times and gave up… I can’t wait to try these!
I made these last night – the end result was great, very pretty and super tasty. I was surprised by how well they held up in the oven… no nasty oozing or spilling from the filling. I will note my dough was hard to work with as well. Super soft – as soon as it got a little warm, it got sticky. Granted, I didn’t have quite enough butter on hand, so I used some crisco as a substitute. But it was my large butter chunks that made it a little harder to roll out. Definitely shoot for pea sized or smaller, and return dough to fridge as needed. My husband ate almost half the batch before bed. I went with a variety of fillings strawberry jam, nutella and brown sugar. All three were great. Thanks for the recipe and letting me share my own experience.
I made these last night! They were incredibly easy (even with the added step of whipping up a quick homemade jam to fill them with) and the pastry really did taste like poptarts! But how did you get nine! I rolled out my dough halves and cut each into thirds and ended up with only 6…
Angela — Very thin, very very. It’s definitely work. Putting the dough back in the fridge from time to time (or as I do, in the freezer for 5 minute stretches) helps keep it firm enough that you can roll it uber-thin without it being impossible to pick up. Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
These were so yummy, but how many batches did you have to try to get them that pretty? Luckily we’re a taste over appearance kind of household.
I have still never had a pop tart and I’m well over college age! I have never understood the appeal… but a homebaked breakfast goodie on the go, that I can see doing… I wonder if I could roll out the dough w/ my pasta machine to get it thin nice and quick…
I made these last night, to satisfy my teenage daughter, and they were very tasty…I personally think they need to be bigger to allow more filling in them! I also brushed some of the egg on top and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar before baking. I loved how they turned out, and we even have one leftover from last night to try in the toaster! Next time I’m trying a thin slice of cheese topped with a thin slice of ham (to keep the melted cheese inside!).
A ruler is key to 9×12, then marking off for 3×4 pieces…
Tasty crust recipe, and easy too (I love my KitchenAide Food Processor…). Thanks Deb!
Deb- These are chilling in the fridge right now. I made a tiny pie out of the scraps and the leftover jam filling, and it’s in the oven right now. It will be my reward for waiting for these tarts. I’m so excited! They look good (though just not as beautiful as yours) and can’t wait to try them! Oh, and I made 12 slightly smaller ones.
Wow! My husband, who eats pop tarts almost every work day, would FLIP for these!!
I just finish making these, though I upped the whole wheat to a full cup (I grind my own flour so I can make it as fine as I want) and I used apricot jam my friend made from her own trees last summer. So Very Amazing. I’ve never had a poptart but I have no doubt they pale in comparison to these!
These were great. Kudos on the dough–I like that it’s a “heartier” pastry dough. It was easier to work with (especially with fillings) and tasted fabulous. I made the mini ones at your suggestion and they were the perfect size to take on a picnic. Thanks!
Looks like fun! I love the brown sugar cinnamon version of poptarts…but they are so bad for you! These look great and a nice change from processed. :-)
I have got to try these sometime. I have always liked Pop Tarts. Of course they’re not as good as homemade anything but they’re not bad.
I just made pop-tarts with my son’s friend. She came over after school the other day so we could bake together. The taste of mine were good, but they lost their shape. I am going to try yours. Thanks for sharing!
Made these yesterday, and they were flawless. Cinnamon sugar was fantastic, next I want to try a strawberry-rhubarb!
Deb-
I wanted to thank you for your wonderful, inspiring website and amazing recipes. Also, I wanted to let you know how great it is that you read through all the comments and answer questions…this is a rare blogger thing and I am super impressed!
Thanks!
Hayley
Ugh you had me at Nutella!! It sounds soooo good, but unfortunately I’m on a no-sugar, no-gluten kick right now and can’t make this–yet! I will be sharing this on my blog (including one of your pics with a link back). Yummmm!
My poor kids have not had a pop tart since we had to give up gluten due to food allergies. I can easily convert this recipe to GF. My kids are so excited to have pop tarts again! Thank you!
You know what? I bet you could add large sugar crystals to the top of the pastry and no one would even MISS the glaze. This is what I do to my scones, to make them look FANCY. :)
Oh. My. Gods. I have nutella, and I know what I’m making for breakfast tomorrow morning… my husband will be thrilled! Thank you, Deb. As always, its a pleasure reading your site!
Being a teenager i love poptarts! These poptarts were so delicious and not even that hard to make! It was a nice alternative to the store bought kind. Thanks so much for this recipe and all of your others. I love reading your blog and it inspires me more and more each day to cook and appreciate food, thanks :]
I made these on Wednesday night, using 1/2 c. whole wheat flour and substituting almond milk for regular milk (lactose issues). I was craving brown sugar cinnamon, so that’s what I made. Holy moly, were these delicious!! I am trying very hard to not consume all of them by myself. :)
Next I think I’ll make them a wee bit smaller and with either an apricot-brandy or raspberry filling. I’m so excited you posted this recipe. Thank you again! :)
NUTELLA? my jaw hit the ground. why are the most simple ideas the ones that shock me the most. i should have been making these for YEARS.
I am making these STAT. They look delicious!
Seems to me that if you wanted the hard top you could use a thinned out royal icing, like how sugar cookies are sometimes frosted.
Not that it would be necessary, of course.
Wish that you had a printer friendly version of the recipe. Otherwise, thanks! I am eager to try them.
Carolyn — There is a “Print” link at the bottom of each post, before the ad begins. For this post, this is the link.
These can be made with savory fillings also. I make them for my sons lunches. I just reheat before school and wrap in foil. “Turkey pot pie” is their favorite, right behind the strawberry filled.
hands down THE most popular item we’ve made in my baking 11/12 class this year. My students were drooling during the demo and plotting their fillings. Thank you for the recipe (on behalf of 60 17 year olds)
Wow……i want.
Deb, I just made these and they were amazing. The pastry was flawless and it was SO much better than a pop tart! I used nutella, as i love the (fake, cheaper) stuff. Thanks for this, I never even thought about making pop tarts, and now I never want to live without them!
Wouldn’t you know it, the week I find out I’m diabetic I find this recipe…I’m sure I can make a diabetic friendly version of a homemade poptart if I try hard enough! I’m going to give it some serious thought anyhow. If I fail my teenagers will still love this recipe.
I made these today and they are spectacular. I substituted in 1/2 c of whole wheat flour and it’s great. Serving them on a fancy plate with a scoop of vanilla-bean ice cream tonight — Pop Tarts have gone Uptown!
While this might be extremely late, you never having a pop-tart is not nearly as weird as my girlfriend. She’s never had a PBJ. No, she’s not allergic.
Wow, these look amazing. Can’t wait to try them. I am a big fan of King Arthur Flour and I can’t believe I haven’t run across this recipe.
Oh my god! I have th e same reaction as your husband – homemade pop tarts!! simple and yet genius!
thank you, i love pop tarts, so home made tarts should be even better.
Thank you!
I made them! I did 12 pop tarts, the perfect size. I made strawberry jam and nutella. I have to say, the nutella ones are my favorite. I’m so thankful that you posted all those hot kitchen tips, because it is hot and humid today. Thanks for posting this amazing recipe.
Where does the brushed egg go on the dough, on the outside or the inside? The way I read it, it sounded like the inside, but I put it on the outside because that is convention… right?
-m
Morgan — The egg brush goes inside the bottom lid; it’s for “glue” not “gloss”. I’ll update the recipe to clarify this, since you’re the second person who asked.
PS-
I used 1 cup Whole Wheat Pastry flour and 1 cup White pastry flour. I made half with jam, and half with cinnamon. My 8 year old son: “that’s a whole lot of awesome.”
-m
Just made the dough for these! I’m so excited I don’t even know which varietys I’m going to try out. I’ll probably wait for tonight when the kitchen is cooler (and my pesky sister isn’t making a mess of it with her boyfriend) to actually make them.
You should thank your husband for encouraging you to make this recipe… it was posted on both Lifehacker and Consumerist. :)
Helpful tip offered:
Put the butter and a cheese grater in the freezer for 30 minutes prior to making dough. Grate the butter into the flour mixture. It mixes evenly and is easier to work with.
Helpful tip needed:
I have problems rolling any kind of dough. It comes out reggedy and of uneven thickness. Any Tips?
YES! Thank you! I love in Italy – which is amazing for food but terrible for pop-tart cravings and you just gave me the best idea! I’m trying this, tnx!
I took these to a church social today. They weren’t as pretty as yours, Deb, but they were a huge hit! Thanks for all the great ideas!
I’m going to stuff mine with an apple pie-like filling! YUM!
After my bf saw the recipe posted on Lifehacker yesterday he of course decided we (rather, I) needed to make these, so I made them this morning. The dough was a bit tough to work with since it would get too soft and be hard to roll out — I ended up rolling with parchment underneath and plastic wrap above, which made things much easier, and everything else went swimmingly. Everyone who has tried them has loved them, and my little cinnamon sugar cookies were delicious, too. Thanks!
What a treat, I made these today with my 5 year old, she was thrilled, and each step was so easy for her to handle. We made the cinnamon filling, but she does not have a sweet tooth (I swear she’s mine, but this has me totally confused, not love sugar?). Love the savory recommendations everyone has, we’ll try something savory next time.
i made these yesterday. the dough was a bit wet and i ended up cooking them a little too long. you don’t need to wait until the TOPS are golden brown–they were done when the edges were baaarely golden brown. when you’re making them, at least for me, putting a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar filling on each pop tart seems like too much, almost–like it would be a bit of a stretch to put the second rectangle on top and still have it cover the filling, but you should put as much filling as you can inside (definitely a full heaping tablespoon) because it cooks down a bit and it tastes better with more filling! i used half wholemeal flour (which is really whole grain-y) and half white flour and they turned out pretty well–a little crumbly but that is to be expected. the nutella ones were pretty great too! i had trouble controlling myself after making these. they really tasted like actual pop tarts, especially the brown sugar cinnamon filling. thanks for this recipe. everyone was amazed with me!
I haven’t made the pop tarts yet, but I just made fig (and pear) newtons. I imagine that the difference between store bought pop tarts and homemade pop tarts is just like the difference between store bought fig newtons and homemade ones. Yum!
One of my favorite childhood memories was waiting for the pie-crust remnants to come out of the oven. Forget the pie – we wanted the sugar crust pieces!
deb, these look spectacular!
i do have a question though, before i start baking– when you take two sheets of dough and cut each into thirds, how do you come up with nine rectangles (rather than 6)? i’m just trying to figure out if i missed a step or something.
thanks!!!
Bethany — I need to word that better. You’re dividing each side by three: 3 column, 3 rows. Thus, 9 rectangles per sheet. Hope that clarifies.
You’re not kidding about the hot kitchen/cold dough thing. I made this recipe yesterday in my hot and humid as all get out Ohio kitchen and was cursing the dough as it oozed all over my counter. Popped it back into the fridge for 10 minutes or so, and then it behaved perfectly. I made three kinds: raspberry jam, chocolate chip, and cinnamon sugar and am giving them to my daughter’s preschool teachers as part of “Teacher Appreciation Week”. I suspect they will be appreciated.
I am currently viewing this recipe at work and can not stop staring at it. Sounds and looks fantastic!
OMG!! This is just over the top amazing!!!
making them A stat!
How did I miss this one?! My oldest is going to flip when I make these!
Oh my….I think I’m in love. We may never eat anything else.
jana
Thanks for the great recipe, wish I was as neat and tidy. Here’s my attempt at apple and nutella filled ones. http://bit.ly/cmgwrk
I was actually told by a (male) friend that I couldn’t replicate a PopTart. After reading your recipe, I think he’ll be eating his words. Thanks!
THANK YOU!!!! Pop Tarts are the #1 reason I argue with my kids about eating breakfast at school. If I make these and keep them handy, they will eat them instead! You know they have to taste better!!! And if kids get to pick their own fillings, they’ll be excited to eat ’em up!
Made these last night…definitely a challenge, but I’ve never made anything so fun! I made cinnamon ones and strawberry ones, and I made icings for both (confectioners sugar and milk). For the cinnamon, I added cinnamon to the frosting, and for the strawberry I added some lightly crushed rainbow sprinkles (to make them kitsch). Sooo adorable, although not as pretty as yours. And they really do taste like pop-tarts, but so much better! I am smiling just thinking about them, thanks for the recipe. Also, I baked the trimmings up with some cinnamon sugar and dipped them in the extra frosting. Mmmmm!
I’m going to try this sometime; in the meantime I’m linking to this. Its right up my alley- my blog is all about DIY foods. Pop Tarts will always have a special place in my heart because I ate them as a kid, but they really aren’t very pleasing to my adult palate. When you make them yourself, you can adjust it to how you like it!
I just discovered your blog, love it! My “pop tarts” are in the oven, baked up the scraps while the tarts were chilling and am snacking on them right now :) I didn’t have any difficulty with the dough. Rolled it out well chilled on a marble slab. Made strawberry, cinnamon and nutella fillings. Plan on icing with royal icing. I used to live in Boston and would buy the “pop tarts” from Flour bakery, I have repilcated the sticky buns hopefully I’ll be successful with these too.
How many pop tarts does a single recipe make?
It makes 9.
But I LIKE the fake strawberry filling, especially with the icing on top! But you have me: I must make homemade poptarts…if I can find the fake filling.
Even if it is Mother’s Day this weekend…I might make these.
Just curious. I have a love for sweetened condensed milk, would that be possible for a filling?
Randi — Definitely. I bet it would be gooey and delicious.
I just made these pop tarts and they were delicious! So perfectly flakey and everything turned out well. Thanks!Also, do you just take recipes from books and do them?
After reading and re-reading the entry for a week, I finally made these tonight. Half strawberry, half blueberry. They were AWESOME (and, oddly, smelled like mac & cheese). I used organic whole wheat pastry flour, which supposedly has less gluten and makes for flakier crusts — and it’s true. They came out VERY crumbly, in a good way. I had a bit of a time crunch, and the dough was starting to rebel, so I ended up making 6 instead of 9. They were bigger, but no one complained. Thanks, Deb!
I have made these a number of times, but I make my own raspberry filling. I have literally had people oohhing as they ate them and offering to finish off any leftover ones. I do not use a frosting, and I cut mine with a round 2 1/4″ – 2 1/2″ cutter. Here’s the filling recipe:
5-6 C. fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries(If frozen, use 2 12oz. bags)
3/4 C. sugar, or more, to taste
1/2 tsp. cinnamon; 1/4 tsp. nutmeg; 1/4 C water, 4-6 T. cornstarch
In Med. saucepan, cook berries and sugar until simmering and large pieces have disappeared. Stir in spices. Mix water with 4 T cornstarch; add to berry mixture, stirring constantly until mixture is very thick jam consistency. If needed, add more water and cornstarch. Put in a container and cool in fridge until cooled and much thicker. Fill pastries with a well rounded T of filling.
These are best eaten within a day or two of making; they store best lighly covered, and can be frozen.
These were great! made the dough on Monday, assembled the tarts on Tuesday, then refrigerated them until I baked them Wednesday night.
Recipe was on point, but next time I will use more filling than I think I need. I brushed egg on top of the pastry and sprinkled turbinado sugar to give it some crunch = SO GOOD!
I make homemade quickbreads and muffins every weekend for my husband to eat for breakfast when he gets to work. I’ve also on occasion bought organic pop tarts at Whole Foods. But I’m definitely gonna give these a whirl tomorrow for him. I have lots of frozen blackberries from last summer I need to use up and some homemade strawberry preserves, too. He’s really looking forward to them.
This site is at the top of the list of my favorite food blogs, and definitely my go-to site for all things yummy. Thanx so much for all the work you put into this, Deb. It’s a real treasure.
I worship Pop-Tarts on my own food blog. I’m a bit psychologically disturbed by seeing the “inside” of a Pop-Tart. I preferred the myth that they came from outer space. They are a sort of manna, after all. I am sure they cannot truly be assembled by mere humans, but this fiction on your blog is nice entertainment anyway.
My wife keeps linking me to these recipes… Do you think it’s a hint or something? :)
i made pop tarts quite a while ago and I loved them so much. That was the bet thing that happened to me during the last strawberry season. I’m going to make the nutella variant tomorrow! :D
Thank you for posting this. A friend linked it on twitter and I made them for my mom’s mother’s day brunch this morning. They were the biggest hit! I made several different fillings, though, and cut them all in half so it would be a nice sampler basket. The big favourite was peanut butter, honey, and banana. A close second was nutella and raspberry jam.
http://twitpic.com/1mi9fa
These should NOT be called pop tarts. They are so incredible! I did use 1/2 c. of whole wheat flour and just a smidge more milk, maybe another 1/2 to 3/4 T. because of the WW flour.
I’m really going to use this dough recipe for pie crust in the future. Very flaky and delicious.
I made them for husband’s breakfast this week and, after we split one to try it, he said they may not last until morning. LOL
ah! i just made some mini brown sugar cinnamon ones. my coworkers are going to LOVE these tomorrow morning!
i didnt have nutella or cornstarch in my apt, but next time, i will be sure to so i can experiment with other fillings. yum!
i LOVE these! i never want to buy pop-tarts again. i’ve made these 3 times and i’ll be making them again tonight! they are so easy and delicious
I literally just made these with a friend and we are finishing the last remaining crumbs. It was SO good. We didn’t say but two words to each other while we ate them! The pastry was perfectly flaky and the rich flavor was well worth the effort to make them. We are very satisfied. :D
I made these over the weekend with the intention of bringing the extras to work on Monday, but they just didn’t last!! I used Bonne Maman Four Berry Jam to fill half of the batch – which were divine and for the other half I used Cocoa Haze (aka non-hydrogenated Nutella). Although the “nutella” ones had a lovely flavor, the texture was a bit chalky. Did anyone else have this experience? Was it because I didn’t use the hydrogenated Nutella? Any suggestions on how to keep the Cocoa Haze filling creamy?
As soon as my daughter is big enough to eat solid food I’m making these. Scratch that, I’m making these for myself this weekend. Thanks for the recipe.
I just put another batch in the fridge to chill. The batch I made this weekend didn’t last long at all. LOL
The other thing we are finding easier is to just do the egg wash along the edges of the bottom pastry so it isn’t so slippery and hard to handle.
I asked my husband if he wanted me to make more of these this weekend for next week, and his response was that I could make them everyday. I will probably make several batches this weekend for him to share with his co-workers.
Thanx again, Deb. :0)
I forgot. I’m still only getting seven of these per batch and that is using the scraps to make a seventh one. Not sure why that is, but it’s okay coz they are soooooo goood.
I’m anxious to try savory ones, too. :o)
I can’t believe how good these were. I’m on my 3rd batch in a little over a week :-)
These totally blew my mind. I’m not sure what I did wrong with the pastry… it only made eight, with some re-rolling, and I only brushed the edges of the dough with egg after spreading on the Nutella. When I bit into one of these babies, hot out of the oven, it was like a little bit of Heaven in my mouth. They were even better chilled for a few hours! My brother devoured them, and I just so happened to have two unexpected guests this afternoon, who both ate and loved the tarts. I’m definitely making these again.
MMM!!! Looks so tasty!! :D
Thanks for sharing!
I love the note about the trimmings! My mom taught me to do this if I have a few trimmings left over with pie crust. If I have more than a few; I make little jelly rolls with homemade jam.
Why, yes; I have been known to buy refrigerated rolled pie crust and just make a batch of the cinnamon sugar or jellyrolls instead of messing with a pie. Totally a party hit!
I have made these 3 times already. The third time was the jack-pot thanks to my best friend and her pop-tart loving husband.
These would be my TIPS. Don’t be afraid to roll the dough out thin (we’re not making sugar cookies), they taste better, and you get more tarts per batch. Make the top pastry piece larger than the bottom. If you put egg on the top, it will give it a shiny finish which looks great for the savory pop-tarts, but brush the egg on after the poking and pinching with the fork (prevents sticking). Be generous with the flour when rolling them out. I made the sweet ones about 1/3 the size of a ‘real’ pop-tart and the savory ones the actual size of a pop-tart.
I tried all the fillings you recommended, and liked them all, but these were my favorite.
SWEET: Banana diced into small chunks mixed with home made caramel syrup. SO good! Especially hot out of the oven with some ice cream.
SAVORY: Some potent pesto sauce on the bottom, a layer of sauteed mushrooms, a fat chunk of mozzarella cheese, topped with some pieces of barbecued chicken. I am still dreaming about this lil’ guy… YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS!!!
Just made these and they rock the free world. We’re ex-pats living in Switzerland and my kids were PSYCHED! The only other Pop-Tarts we can get here are $9 per box from the American store. I’m so glad to discover your great website! I’m newly Smitten.
oh geez. pop tarts were part of my college “freshman 15” business. i had no idea about nutrition. not only did i eat pop tarts fairly often, but i would also have life cereal for dinner and FROOT LOOPS for dessert. clearly i had a cereal-company-based problem…
these look wonderful! weirdly i want to go buy pop tarts now… even though it’s been like ten years since i’ve eaten one… :)
Just made these–whole wheat version with brown sugar filling–and they are Ah-mazing!! A little sprinkle of brown sugar on top and made a couple with icing…delicious!
I tried pop tarts for the first time a few months ago due to couponing and LOVE the brown sugar ones, but hated the idea of how unhealthy they are. Thanks to you I can make them & be at peace!!
These just taste exactly like normal Pop Tarts. . .
. . . if you multiply the deliciousness factor by about a billion.
I found that they were pretty difficult to roll out and cut, but that might just have been me. I did the cinnamon filling and W-O-W. Wonderful! I’m taking them to a breakfast potluck tomorrow.
Mine are chilling in the fridge now. I made “Elvis” (PJ&banana), “Buckeye”, fudge/banana and fudge.
They are tonight’s dessert. I had and have always had a hard time rolling out dough in a rectangle but I made it work. Next time I might use my Pampered Chef round sandwich crimper or make they in an Amish fry pie shape.
Thanks for a fun recipe!
From my little girl-
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
You Rock!
Hey, these were so awesome!
I’m 15 years old, and I just spent the afternoon procrastinating my studies and making poptarts. My family loves them, and I’m personally extremely proud of myself for making my first ever pastries.
Thankyou so much :)
Forget the kids! LOL I’ll make these for me.
I have made them twice this month. The first time, following the directions perfectly (except I used a cookie cutter to make a flower shape and put rainbow sugar on top, the were darling) but they were a bit salty. Second time, I doubled the sugar and halved the salt. Delicious, but more of a dessert than a pop tart. My family won’t leave them alone. :D THANKS!
I just made these with a little nutmeg in the dough. For the filling I used frozen blueberries plus a little corn starch and sugar cooked and smashed with a potato masher. They were amazing and everyone was very impressed!
I’m having alot of trouble with the dough. What if the dough is too soft to work with even after popping it back into the fridge? I really don’t want to waste the dough. Is there a way to save it?
J — More time in the fridge. It will always get firm once truly cold.
living overseas and found this post-my husband loved waking up Saturday morning to these! Thank you so much-blogged if you want to check them out :)
I have made these several times now and they are always a big hit. I have a friend being deployed to Iraq and would like to send these through the mail to him. I am a little worried about them getting stale but even more worried that the butter in them might turn rancid. Shipping time is approximately 2-3 weeks and I plan to vacuum pack them with a food saver prior to shipping. Any thoughts?
Hmmm… I definitely want to try making these, but I’m trying to come up with a chocolate peanut butter filling. Any ideas on how to make one?
made these earlier this week. Awesome! we put a cream cheese frosting on them and it was nearly over the top.
Thanks Linda!
You’re recipe looks fantastic. I don’t allow my children to eat anything remotely fun, so this will be a nice homemade treat!
Do you think it would be possible to make a meatloaf poptart? I’ll try it and let you know the results!!!
Bon apetittttt!
Yum.
Hey Deb! I was introduced to your blog very recently and have already tried 3 of your recipes, all of which turned out great! I love, love, love your blog. Anyway, I was soooo excited to make these and they really turned out lovely and delicious- especially the cinnamon filling. I can’t wait to try the savory kind. But I was wondering, could one just use a rectangular shaped cookie cutter to punch these out rather than hand cutting them?? Thanks! Looking forward to making more of your stuff!
My husband loves pop tarts, I did too (in another life) but what an inspired idea to make your own! I must try these! I love your ideas and your wonderful photographs.
Wow — these look incredible! I, too, hate the traditional pop-tart. Particle board may be a little too kind…
P.S. Don’t feel too bad about Goonies — I’ve never seen Star Wars. ;0)
I’m from Montréal and to my great surprise this weekend in Le Journal de Montréal there was an article about your site and your homemade pop tarts recipe. In the weekend section they have a chronicle about different interesting websites and yours was right there. They even included the link for this recipe (http://bit.ly/boBYqm) and therefore to your complete site. It was actually my husband that spotted it first asking me if this was the same site where I got all those good recipes. I guess I’ll have to add your star on my walkway next to my daughter’s.
Renee — Thank you for sharing! I would love to see the clip, if it is not trouble for you to scan (and please don’t go out of your way if it is) — my email is thesmitten@gmail.com. Thanks again.
These were delicious! I made mini-poptarts so I could try out more flavors. The pesto was a nice idea, but I definitely liked the sweeter versions better. Thanks for sharing such a fun, easy recipe!
YUM! I made these for the first time this weekend and they were DELISH! I did half whole wheat flour and the brown sugar cinnamon filling. I will definitely make them again, and next time I will make them half size as some suggested and will make a little more filling. Might sprinkle some cinnamon-sugar on top toward the end, too. Thanks for an incredible recipe!
I’ve made these a couple times now and my boyfriend, who’s not a big sweets fan, loves them. I tried a natural peanut butter/unsweetened chocolate/granulated sugar combo, but calling it a disaster would be too kind. I’ll stick with your jam version, seedless blackberry, thank ya very much. We won’t speak of Nutella… keeping it in the house is dangerous.
Oh! And also, I use the pastry dough for mini galettes for the boyfriend and I. Perfect, a lot easier to deal with than pate brisee. Thanks!
Thank you so much :) I’m a vegetarian and poptarts aren’t available in my country (except off our version of trademe, and its about $20USD for a box of 16) so this has made my life SO MUCH BETTER. :)
I just made these, and it came out MESSED UP to say the least! The dough clumped up all over the rolling pin, and even if it hadn’t, there wasn’t even close to enough to make nine pastries. Am I doing something wrong? I followed the instructions religiously…
so with the savoury version I sprinkled the trimmings with parmesan instead of sugar like suggested for the sweet ones and they were delicious!
I made the mini version for my daughter tea party 5th birthday party this weekend. Thanks! They turned out great! I posted about it and linked to you here: http://mamabeefromthehive.blogspot.com/2010/07/homemade-pop-tarts.html
My mother cooks every day but I stay out of her way and out of the kitchen. Last week I did decide to make this recipe and it was amazing! great flakey crust that wasn’t too sweet… the filling made up for that! The Nutella version was the best, imo. My ma liked them so much we made savory versions for dinner later that week… mushrooms and cream cheese and homemade pesto with mozzarella. Very yummy! Thanks for all the great ideas and easy to follow instructions :)
I have two words to you regarding a filling for the sweet variety:
Lemon Curd.
Can you say YUM!!!
I don’t have Pop-tarts in my country, but I used to eat them all the time when I lived abroad, especially the cinnamon ones, yumm. So, it’s really great to come across such recipe, I’ll sure try to reconstruct this flavor at home. Thank you.
Oh wow! I just made these and they were soooo worth hassling with pastry in florida weather! They were delicious in every way. Thanks so much for the recipe, I can’t wait to try the nuttela version!
J and anyone else having trouble rolling these out…
It really does help to roll this dough out between a couple of pieces of wax paper.
Hope this helps. :0)
The Nickel Dinner in downtown LA does a strawberry version which has tart freezedried flecks of strawberry as sprinkles – they’re lovely :)
Wow! I never imagined Pop Tarts could be homemade! Sounds a lot better than the stuff I got in college from the vending machines! I’ll try making some next weekend! Thanks for the great recipe!
I printed this recipe ages ago because my husband and daughters are pop tart fans. Last night, while I made dinner, one of my girls made the brown sugar cinnamon version (almost all by herself at age 11), and they are fantastic! The girls had a fun breakfast on this first full day of school. I had one too. At work. With coffee. I’m converted.
I am a recent college graduate, and I somehow managed to survive all four years without touching a store-bought poptart. This homemade version of poptarts is absolutely fantastic. I used maple syrup, brown sugar, and a little cinnamon and flour for my filling. I made Deb’s peach hand pies a few days ago, and found that I would have liked the dough to have been a tad bit sweeter, so when I made the poptarts, I added a tablespoon of brown sugar along with the white sugar when making the dough. It was the perfect amount of sweetness for me. My mom and brother loved them. Thanks for sharing!
This was a great recipe! Thank you. I made the cinnamon brown sugar and can’t wait to try others. My niece and nephews loved these. I have added these to my favorites and I know I will be experimenting a lot with these :) Thanks again!
I just scratched your itch and a batch of part-wheat, miniature size (2×3″) pop tarts! The recipe made 18 minis. LOVE ’em.
dark chocolate chips
and
homemade fig preserves
What a wonderfully whimsical idea, Deb! Cook on, girl…
My first comment on smittenkitchen, I love your blog !
I just thought I’d share with you a good pop tart dough – Nick Malgieri’s “Sweet Dough for Pies” from his book How To Bake. I discovered this while making a double-crust pie last night. His recipe has egg like yours but more sugar/less salt and some baking powder. I had extra dough so I rolled out a rectangle and filled it with apricot preserves, yum. (Note: Kellogg’s doesn’t even make peach let alone apricot!) The crust had a great consistency and wasn’t too sweet.
Here are the ingredient proportions: 2-1/2 c. unbleached* flour, 6 T sugar, 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/4 tsp. salt, 8T unsalted butter cut into pats, 2 large eggs beaten. I did this all in the food processor (pulse dry ingredients a few seconds, add butter, pulse until looks like cornmeal, add beaten eggs last) I added a little ice water so that it would form a ball like the recipe stated. Dump onto a floured work surface and knead a few times before diving in half [wrapping, chilling] like your recipe.
*Mr. Malgieri’s recipe called for bleached flour but I prefer unbleached.
Very easy, homemade pop tarts are a great recipe for people who are nervous about rolling pastry, use lots of flour on the surface and the pin. This dough can be bunched up and re-rolled easily.
My last comment would be to bake some a little pale knowing you can put them into the toaster the next day!
made these yesterday and they’re nearly gone already!
i’m thinking about using this as my pie crust recipe…it turned out so well!!!!
Oh. My. Word. These are soooo good.
I ended up rolling the dough out so thinly that I was able to get three sheets.
My husband came downstairs and said, ‘it smells great in here’. . . I said, ‘i made homemade pop tarts with strawberry jam filling for you.’ He said, ‘i’ve never eaten a pop tart before.’ Blasphemous.
These are great. Much better than the store-bought pop tarts. My only regret: I wish I had doubled the recipe.
If I prepare them and freeze them can I put them in a toaster frozen? or is the “oven-baking” step necessary before re-heating in the toaster?
Holy WOW! These look Awesome, I totally stumbled on your recipe! Cant wait to give a whirl!
I saw these and thought “I HAVE to make those!” So I did. I used Nutella to make mine. The younger kids were excited over “pop tarts” until they saw these. They didn’t care for them. However…
The older kids (6, 9, 10, 12) all loved them! And so did I! These were more like gourmet pastries rather than pop tarts. The crust is sooooo much better! I think this would be great with an apple pie type filling as well. I think I will try that next time and sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on top during last few minutes of cooking to give it extra flavor. As it is fall I know it will be great!
You had me at Nutella.
No, really, if you put Nutella in any recipe, I will make it – Nutella is my recipe kryptonite, my one true weakness. I cannot say no to Nutella.
And so, I made a batch of these tonight and it was HARD for one key reason: I have no idea where my roller is. I had already mixed everything together and had the dough on the counter when I realized I couldn’t find it. I racked my brain trying to figure out how to roll the dough, when I finally just mushed the dough between two silicone baking mats and rolled it with a cylinder of non-stick spray. My dough was a challenge to work with because of the rolling issue and I ended up making my pop tarts bigger and with a thicker crust than yours. It was a mess – a disaster in the kitchen. They came out delicious, though. Flakey and filled with Nutella. I will try this again soon, but next time with a roller.
Hi! These are beautiful. I have been reading your recipes a couple of years, and always enjoy the beautiful creations that you share. I wanted to tell you that I included a link to this recipe on my own gluten-free and allergy-aware food blog so that my readers could benefit from your filling suggestions/ideas. Thank you for all the pretty food! :) ~Gigi
my mom would never buy pop-tarts…we were so upset leaving the market after she handed them back to the check out gal…”sorry, we’re not getting these.”….then one day in college I had one…pretty good. Your version look amazing…I will now make them for my kiddos! Brilliant.
Woohoo!!
just made these! well, technically they’ve till got another 10 minutes in the oven… but still, my kitchen now smells heavenly!!! =))
I have a feeling they wont last till breakfast 2mrw.. -_-
ah well.. *grins*
This is the first recipe that I bookmarked on your website months ago and just got around to making them last night (not that I haven’t baked numerous others). Soooo YUMMY! My kids have never had a “real” pop tart, but they definitely loved these, as did I. I made the mini versions, some with black cherry preserves, a little frosting and red sprinkles on top and the rest with brown sugar filling. A definite winner!
haha i got to make these
I made these finally and posted photos of them on Facebook. People commented like crazy asking me about the recipe and how easy it was, etc. I made them with my boyfriend and together we tackled our first real “pie crust” recipe. First of all, bravo on your adaptation of the crust recipe. We are seriously considering using it for an actual pie crust for Thanksgiving. But secondly, the 9 little rectangles of hard-earned love that come out of the oven are soo worth it! I can’t wait to make more. I haven’t been able to tear myself away from the sweet prospects before moving on to savory but I hope to get there someday.
Thanks!
Zoe
I have to chime in with YUM! I made a chocolate version by adding several tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder to the dough, and filled them with chocolate chips melted and mixed with just a little bit of heavy whipping cream (so the chocolate would keep a fudgy texture after baking… I hope). They’re in the oven right now, and starting to smell delicious. I found a sugar cookie glaze recipe that hardens up at room temperature that I’m going to use to frost them when they’re cooled.
I am making these right now, and I’ve run into a problem. I used 120g of all purpose flour & 120g whole wheat pastry flour. This is equal to 2 cups. I used 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup shortening (ran out of butter), which means I have an extra 8g of fat in my dough. Those 8 grams shouldn’t make a difference, especially considering half of the flour is whole wheat. These are substitutions I make frequently.
And yet, the dough is SO OVERLOADED with fat that I have big gobs of it, and the flour is nearly completely saturated – and I haven’t even added the egg or milk.
Any idea what’s going on? It seems I’m going to have to double the flour to compensate.
The shortening might have a greasier feel as you put it together. How did it go once chilled?
I actually ended up adding about 75% more flour before I could add any liquid. It wasn’t just greasy, it was even fattier than shortbread. Once I got the fat to flour ratio to a workable level, I added the liquid and it worked fine.
I did have to pop them in the freezer a LOT while rolling them out, and my kitchen wasn’t all that hot, and when they were done, they were more like pie crust than the sturdy-looking things you have. But I guess that’s expected with the way it started.
All things considered, once I figured out the dough, they were tasty. I filled half with apricot jam and the other half with fig jam. I’ll make them again in the future – the far, far future because between the dough issues, the rolling, measuring, cutting, freezing, filling, and baking, they were NOT worth the effort. Maybe for Mother’s Day or a special brunch.
So I stumbled upon this randomly. and for the thanksgiving holiday i decided to adapt this to be more festive.
I adapted your crust to a ginger bread crust. (which only sort of worked out)
And i filled each tart with pumpkin pie and pecan pie filling. They are in the oven now. So I guess we’ll see.
After they come out i’m going to glaze some with a cream cheese glaze and the others I made a side of vanilla bean whipped cream.
I’m hungry.
I’m planning on making some Reese’s peanut butter pop tarts for our annual cookie day and was wondering if there is some way to make the pie crust chocolate?
You could swap a few tablespoons of the flour for cocoa.
Great recipe.
Never saw your options/opinion for icing and am interested.
I was thinking royal icing was the best choice for a hard set pop tart type icing.
Printed!! These look amazing and I love all the variations:)
I made these yesterday and they were sooooo good!! I blogged some photos here: http://stampinlibby.blogspot.com/2011/01/whats-cookin-wednesday-homemade-pop.html
Thank you for posting this, I made them yesterday and they were soooo good!! I made the brown sugar cinnamon filling and substituted half whole wheat flour for white. I thought they were fantastic as is, but my 3 & 5yr olds were not impressed. No problem, I made a quick powdered sugar/butter/milk/vanilla glaze and they LOVED them and now want me to make them every day. :-)
Great recipe!!!
I only made half a recipe to try it out first.
After the dough formed I placed it in a gallon bag and then rolled it out inside the bag… less mess and the dough filled the entire square shape of the bag after rolling, then I slit the bag open on the sides and the dough did not stick at all to the bag.
I made 4 pop tarts from the half recipe.
These were good and fun to make but we all thought they were lacking something…maybe icing? It seemed like we were just eating a lot of pie crust. We used nutella and sour cherry preserves, though, and both tasted great!
Used cookie cutters to make shaped pop tarts!! Love and kids loved them too!
My friend reported that she offered my (6yr old) son a Pop-Tart at her house the other day & he said “What’s a Pop-Tart?” I think I could feel comfortable giving my kids this version – they look lovely. Definitely planning them for breakfast on our next snow day!
When Kellog’s Pop Tarts first came out, they were a lot like these! I made these using the fresh blueberry jam I made from blueberries that were on sale. Yummy! They tasted just like I remember them from the old days.
WOW! My daughter & I made these this afternoon. SOOOOO much better than the box. We made the brown sugar cinnamon filling. I sprinkled cinnamon & sugar before baking and they were outstanding. None left. I can’t wait to make them again!! Thanks for the recipe!
I am going to make these tomorrow. I think it will make a nice breaky for the hubbles. I wish I had Nutella in the house, because that sounds fabu! Also, my mother always made crust cookies, so I do too.
We made these today – filled with homemade plum preserves and topped with freshly whipped cream – so delish! Thanks for sharing this recipe!!
~h
Do I need parchement paper or what would happen?
Parchment paper creates a nonstick surface so the pastries don’t stick. You could try lightly greasing the pan instead.
I am with Jonathon. Nothing about this was easy and it didn’t work out well. My kitchen is 68*. I think I used about a half pound of flour to keep it from sticking. Not sure what else I could do as I had it in the freezer but it needs to be out for a little bit so you can roll and cut it. By that time it was getting warm enough it was sticking as I pulled it off the floured granite counter.
They’re ugly but I hope they turn out tasty.
these are unbelievably delicious! I was daunted by making my own pastry dough but this was much easier than I had worried it might be and the family went BONKERS for them! YAAAAAAAY for Smitten Kitchen!!!!! I am eternally grateful.
I love you for making these. PopTarts are one of my guiltiest pleasures! I will definitely be trying this recipe out with apricot-pineapple filling. Thanks SK!
Can’t wait to try this today while I’m home with two sickies. My four year old may be able to forgive me now for an unfortunate ban that was put in place after my husband started giving Pop-Tarts for breakfast after I left for work. Yet another use for the jam I made this summer. I’m thinking strawberry rhubarb or blueberry sprinkled with white decorating sugar on the egg wash.
I just made these yesterday and they were delicious. I blogged about it and linked back to you: http://acraftyescape.blogspot.com/2011/02/homemade-pop-tarts.html Thanks!!!
Well, I made them, and I loved them. The family, well, not so much. They said, Too sticky. It tasted to me like a little pie crust with something yummy in it. I don’t make too many pies, and family doesn’t like pies anyway, so maybe in time. Lots of butter, not too healthy, but fun to make and fun to eat! I made cinnamon, and I also made chocolate and nutella. Thanks for the fun adventure.
I need to try this recipe out for sure! I love Nutella! These look so tasty! Thanks for sharing!
Funny story – it hasn’t been all that many weeks since I jokingly said to one of my sisters that I should see if I could find a recipe for Pop-Tarts. We like them, but don’t eat them very often because of the “not real food” issue. These look amazing! And as excited as I am about the brown sugar and cinnamon filling, I am SO excited about the savory suggestions. :)
Do you think it would work to substitute lard for up to half of the butter? I’m a little low on butter right now and patience is not one of my virtues. :)
Lard works in pie crust, so in theory it should work, right?
468 comments … Too may to read now. I am about to make strawberry pop tarts BUT i don’t do pie crust. I have purchased a package of ready made and rolled out pie crust. Off I go. I will post results as available.
I just made these! Yum! I used 1 cup of WW flour. I also subbed out the butter with plain yogurt. Chewier than the butter version I’m sure, but cut out about 150 calories per tart! Will definitely make again =)
These are so good. . .I made the cinnamon and brown sugar filling. The pastry is flaky and light and wasn’t too complicated to make. Keep the pastry cold. . .it’s much easier to work with. I put them in an airtight container after baking then I simply popped them in the toaster and LIGHTLY toasted them to warm them up. Great with a cold glass of milk. I am eager to make savory filled tarts as an appetizer. . .just dreaming up what I can fill them with. . .as the possibilities are endless!! :o)
I just tried this recipe after weeks of anticipation, except I filled it with a peanut butter and jelly mixture (4 tablespoons creamy peanut butter, 5 tablespoons grape jelly and a pinch of flour). They are delicious! It’s almost a full meal in itself. I’m excited to try the cinnamon sugar filling once I make it to the grocery store again!
I’m not usually one to post comments (as in, I never have before) but I made these last night and of course they were fantastic, and I wanted to throw out a filling suggestion that was, for me anyway, pure heaven. Pumpkin butter (for some reason, currently available at my Chicago Trader Joe’s) with a maple glaze. Personally, I was a double fudge kind of girl back in the day and would normally choose chocolate over anything in the world, but if you can get over autumn flavors in spring, this seriously makes for the most delicious pop tart I could ever imagine.
I just made these today and let’s just say they will not last through the night. The cinnamon sugar ones were amaaazing! Thanks to my California residence I have amazing strawberries at my disposal to chop up with a smidgen of flour and brown sugar to make strawberry tarts. Those were unbelievable. My husband couldn’t stop eating them! I think these are extremely dangerous and only for the strong, self -willed people (hello, gym). I cant wait for an excuse to make these again!
Wow, these looked sooo good and sooo easy but apparently my rolling technique or something is failing. They keep falling apart. And sticking to the surface (I floured, I swear I did). I would LOVE any tips out there…I’m a very very novice baker always trying to get better. I so hoped to do these for my daughters snack tomorrow in 1st grade but I think I’ll have to find something in the store instead. :(
I made these about a month ago for my boyfriend and his friends, they love them! Will most certainly play around with fillings!
I made these this morning, they are fantastic! Great job on the dough- mine came out flaky and firm- perfect.
The filling I used Marionberry local freezer jam and I added a pinch of cinnamon and the zest of half a lemon. I used the cornstarch slurry as recommended, came out perfectly as well.
Val-
Some tips on your dough: it sounds like it isn’t holding together before you try to roll it. I add the chilled butter into the flour/salt/sugar in small cubes and rub the butter into the flour with my fingertips for a pretty long time- about 5 minutes- so there are still pieces of butter still in small bits through the flour. An easier way to be to just zap it in your food processor until there are small pea sized butter bits scattered thru. Also to check if its ready, push small wads of flour together and see if it sticks. If it does, it’s ready for you to add the milk & egg.
My trick after you mix the milk/egg into the dry ingredients is to leave the mixture in the bowl and to knead your crumbly mixture with your heads. Just push the dough mixture and let the warmth of your hands melt the butter pieces a little so the entire mass starts to clump into a dough ball. When it all holds together into a sticky lump, you’re ready to dump it on a floured surface. Divide the lump into two sections and either wrap with saranwarp/refrigerate or roll out.
I just poptsarts i shop at walmart but i never see the lowfat ones so i do not buy them.. because i am trying to lose weight ,, now that i a recipe from u i sure try them Thanks from ohio
@Val –
I had the same problem the first time out, so I got myself a silicone baking mat like this one… http://www.amazon.com/Pragotrade-USA-INC-Silicone-54-0201-W-N/dp/B0030V8ZPS …made a huge difference for me, since the mat sticks well to the counter but not to the dough. I also find that you can be really quite liberal with the flour applied to the dough and mat (perhaps more than you imagine).
Also want to say that I love this recipe. I’ve made it several times, am having loads of fun, and my wife & co-workers are reaping the benefits (and, er, the calories). Other than some obvious jam fillings, I’ve had good success with these:
– Cabot, Portobello & IPA Fire Mustard
– Bacon and Maple Syrup
– Chocolate/Mocha Chips
– Lemon-lime marmalade
– (Tonight’s as-yet untested experiment) Okinawan Sweet Potato and Arugula
Okay, I saw these when you first posted them, but just this morning got around to making them. Oh. My. Stars. Apart from the fact that they took me a LOT longer than I anticipated (2.5 hours from starting to sitting down at the breakfast table), and the dough was a little trickier to work with than I thought it might be, these are heavenly. My husband wants everyone to know that even though they are approximately 11 weight watchers points apiece (give or take based on filling), they are divine, and totally more than worth it. I will most definitely be making these again, probably in a doubled or tripled batch so I can freeze them prior to baking and have them on hand for a much shorter breakfast prep time. My kids were about to come unglued with the “aretheyreadyyet? aretheyreadyyet? aretheyreadyNOW??” :)
Also, thanks for the pre-warning about needing to pop the dough in the freezer in short shifts – this dough has proportionally more butter to flour than other pastry crust/dough recipes I’ve used, and I found that even on this cool morning, the dough needed frequent re-chilling in order for me to not tear my hair out while assembling the tarts. I should look back through the nearly 500 comments so far and see if there are any tips about this. :)
OH, and I made some of ours this morning with apple filling. Just one tart apple chopped small, a couple of spoonfuls of white sugar, 1 of brown, tsp of cornstarch and a sprinkle of cinnamon. I precooked the filling in the microwave (shame) for a few minutes to ensure that they would be cooked fully after the tarts baked, and they were incredible. Pie for breakfast – what could be better?
Oh, just saw @Val’s comment – I always roll out pastry dough between 2 sheets of wax paper. Don’t have to clean the counter, or my pin (most of the time), easy to roll, you can even flip it over to get all the seams, and if it gets too soft (which happened to me), you just slide it onto a cookie sheet and pop it in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes. Easy-peasy. ;)
Hello – I made these for my kiddos for breakfast this morning using cinnamon & strawberry filling – they enjoyed them – however, next time I’ll make them for “snack” instead. I also shared a link on my blog so that others could #1 read the recipe for themselves and #2 visit your blog. Thanks!!
Never had a pop tart till college too…then it was maple and brown sugar with margarine on top after the toaster oven. These look way better!
I just made these with my boyfriend today in my kitchen. We must have not rolled out the dough good enough or let it chill long enough, because we did exactly what this recipe said and only got 6 tarts out of it! We measured the dough and it was a 9 x 12 when we rolled it out, but somehow we had no leftover pieces and it only made 6? Anyways, the 6 we did make were FABULOUS! So delicious! Flaky, buttery, everything a puny and flavorless PopTart could never have! I will definitely be saving this recipe. Thanks!
I made these this weekend using Pamela’s gluten-free baking mix and almond milk – make sure to leave out the tsp of salt. I was so HAPPY that I could still work the dough relatively easy on floured parchment paper – sometimes with gf flours they are too sticky. Oh how I have missed toaster pastries – although these are WAY better. Unfortunately I did not use unsalted butter and the baking mix had sea salt, so I ended up with very salty toaster pastries…which I have been enjoying regardless of this. I am really enjoying your recipes – peanut butter chocoloate chip brownies (with Pamela’s baking mix) – THE BEST!
Made these tonight – half with strawberry jam, half with granulated maple sugar & cinnamon. Yum!
Hey just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the images aren’t loading properly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different web browsers and both show the same results.
Thanks for this share. Time for me to say goodbye to those processed poptarts.
These are amazing! I made these to take to a friend’s house and 1 didn’t make it there. Soooo good!
I made the recipe yesterday and it came out tasty but flaky. I swapped 2/3cup to whole wheat though, maybe it was that. I just thought the dough would be more flexible but not really.
Hi Deb, I was never in the US but my girlfriend was eating pop tarts on our holiday in Thailand all the time, and she used to love them, so i was looking where i can buy them and found your recipe ! This will be soo much better than a birthday cake :) Thank you so much ! Greetings from Austria
We had such a tought time with the dough, it was a sticky mess!!! We put it in the freezer but still no good. Not sure what went wrong, we followed the recipe exactly as outlined.
Just made these for a blogger get together this morning. I had some fresh blueberries and quickly made some jam for the filling. I can’t even begin to say how heavenly these are. They are worth every single calorie!
EEk!! So excited to try this!! Finally a healthy version of a poptart for my kiddos! Thank you so very much for sharing!!
I made these with raspberry jam (leftover from the crescent jam and cheese cookie) and orange marmalade with mini chocolate chips. Amazing and fantastic. The crust was so flaky and light! I didn’t have any issues with the dough, but it’s probably because where I am, it’s still annoyingly and persistently 50 degrees.
I didn’t have milk on hand, so I used rice milk and it was fine (not that it matters in a dairy-free context, since it was still loaded with butter :))
Question: I’m planning to make these with my daughter this weekend, but I’m confused by the assembling part. If I roll out two pieces of dough and cut them into thirds, how does that make nine pieces rather than six? What am I missing? Thanks!
I made these this morning for the family. Instead of using egg as the “glue” for the cinnamon filling, u used a dollop of honey, it came out magnificent. Thank you so much for the inspiration
I love this recipe! I just wanted to know: should the baking time for the mini-poptarts be tweaked a little because of their size?
I want to make these for my sister’s engagement party tomorrow morning. can i make these tonight without refrigerating the dough and still be ok? Let me know ASAP! time is running out! :)
OMG Can’t wait to make these!!! In Holland they don’t have POPTART (only really expensive at US supermarkets) And I love poptarts so much! Ill have to try them!
I tried a batch of poptarts 2 months ago that were an epic fail, but kept coming back to your recipe for filling ideas. Made YOUR recipe today, and they were nothing short of perfection! Only complaint is that 10 hours and 4 batches later, I only have 35 poptarts to show for it! Im going to make them again and again, for sure!
Thank you for the recipe, but a quick (and potentially silly) question. Could I just bake the bread part? It’s the only part of a poptart that I actually like (I eat the middle with the filling so as not to be wasteful). How would this affect the baking of them?
What an awesome post! I’m a freelance food writer doing research on DIY toaster pastries (perfect for back-to-school.)
I live and die by King Arthur (we’ll not exactly die), but to me they are the ultimate source and I’m actually following their recipe for the article. Just curious, why did you change the dough recipe so much? I haven’t made that many of them, so I’m not sure what I can change and what I can’t.
Love, love, love the blog!
Alysha @ ShesOnTheRun
Alysha — I’m not sure I follow. I changed the dough recipe very little, as it was pretty perfect the way I found it. I added more directions, though.
Or…you could go to the store and buy a whole box of pop tarts and save the hassle of making them.
Made the nutella version and they are fantastic, thanks! We will be making them again.
I had trouble picking the pastries up after filling them in order to put them on the cookie sheet. They fell completely apart and I had to toss the whole mess. Do you have a suggestion on how to easily get them from counter to cookie sheet? I was so disappointed because they were looking so great already!
Amanda, I’d lay them out on Parchment paper, then slide the whole sheet onto my cookie sheet
just wanted to say I made this today and we all loved it! i am now a follower and can’t wait to try more of your recipes…thanks!
I made this yesterday. They were A HIT ! Thanks for posting this!
Made these today and needless to say they were a smash hit! Very delicious! I can’t wait to make them again and use different fillings (I made strawberry this time).
These look AMAZING! Pop-Tarts have become a staple in my house, and I’m sure that a homemade version will bring these delectable treats to a whole new level!
I just made these and they are so delicious!
Here’s what I filled them with:
1) basic apple pie filling w/ added crystallized ginger
2) homemade ginger-peach jam
3) shitake & crimini mushrooms, spinach, fresh thyme/oregano, goat cheese (all sauteed w/ onions & garlic) w/ half whole wheat pastry and sesame seeds on top.
4) tofu, black bean, peas, cumin, curry, red pepper flakes, onions, and garlic w/ half whole wheat pastry.
Next time would probably do all whole wheat pastry flour for the savory tarts or maybe all of them.
Thanks for giving me a great jumping off point for this amazing pop tart adventure. By the way, I tried a pop tart made by a local (SF) bakery that were jalapeno and cream cheese filled. SOOOO good.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9888905@N02/6160066723/in/photostream/
These are an all time favorite in my house! I put it on my blog and linked to you!
These look wonderful! I was just searching for a breakfast treat and possibly a way to keep my suitemates and I from eating the nutella straight out of the jar. Now I can do both! Thanks!
love, love, LOVE these! just made chocolate and apple ones…dee-lish!
I’ve been craving the idea of poptarts for awhile and was debating paying extra money for the “organic” ones but since I’m in graduate school I kept putting it off. Then I saw this recipe and realized I already had everything to make them. I didn’t start working on them until late at night and miss read how many it made so I didn’t quite get my dough thin enough to make 9 (only got 6). Popped them in the freezer for later in the week when my boyfriend and I need nostalgic pick-me ups and can’t wait to make them again (with proper rolling and cutting)! Thanks for including pictures in your recipes they help a ton (and made me realize my mistake)! Can’t wait for the cook book!
They were fun to make!
Made these for my suitemates -I’m in college- and they were beyond an instant hit! They were sooooooo delicious and PERFECT, they disappeared in less than an hour. The only thing….my dough yielded less than yours did, and the same thing happened with cookies I made a few weeks ago. Not sure why…..it could be because I am cruelly forced to measure out all my ingredients on the floor of my dorm room, causing some wacky measuring, but whatever the case, at least my final product tastes super dooper delicious. :D Thanks!
I think its so cool that I am not the only one who was an adult when she saw the “Goonies” for the first time. I was invited to go with my best friend by my mother did not let me go to the movies, so I did not get to see it when I was a kid. I finally did see my first movie in the theater on my first date when I was 16 and it was Lethal Weapon. That was wild! Now, I am a huge movie buff. The recipe look great and I will try it this weekend.
Wow, these have been popular! No surprise though. Thought I’d let you know I used 1/2 cup ww flour and 1/2 cup almond meal in place of equal amounts of the flour. A little flakier and I had to go a touch thicker on the dough, but well worth the added depth of taste!
Mmmmm…the idea of a pesto pop tart might be the most delicious thing I’ve heard in a while…
I just couldn’t depart your website before suggesting that I actually loved the usual information an individual supply on your guests? Is going to be back incessantly in order to check out new posts.
I can’t wait to try these. i have been looking for homemade pop-tarts as the store-bought ones have soy in them and I am allergic to soy. I can’t wait to make them and try them
Cannot wait to make these over winter break! They will go so good with a cup of coffee and a quiet morning.
I just made up a batch of these. This is great! To buy pop tarts in France it costs over 8 euros from the Import grocery stores. You can’t buy them anywhere else and that’s just the small boxes that are sold for $1.50 at Wal-Mart.
So great that I can make my own very fast now and they taste better. I tried marshmallow in mine but I think I’ll use fluff next time if I can find that ;-)
I’ve actually never had poptarts before because they have gelatin in them and I can’t eat that. But this is just awesome and I can’t wait to make them! Definitely at the top of my list of things to bake :)
Mine are quite ugly, and I only got 6 out of the recipe ’cause I got sick of dealing with the pastry dough :-P Next time I think I’ll just roll one large dough instead of trying to make two. They’re cooling off now, but I can’t wait to try one :-) I will make these many more times and mix up the flavors (I did orange strawberry this time).
Wow, lots of comments! Just wanted to encourage those who, like me, had trouble with the dough (I made the whole wheat and strawberry jam variation). I got fed up with my tough-and-falling-apart dough and just threw them in the oven…butter was leaking out everywhere, looked like one big blob). They finally cooled down and even though I could barely pick them up, I took a bite…and MELTED. Wow are they good! buttery and delish! So even if your tarts come out ugly (like mine), they’ll taste good! Definitely gives me some motivation to try again!
Hi there,
My 6 year old only likes junk food. I am trying to find more wholesome options than what she normally prefers. Though, I realize pop tarts in any form are probably not the best choice. Anyway, would love the cinnamon icing recipe when you get a chance!!!! And, I am thinking a mushroom strudel filling might be yummy!!! Thanks!
Hm, odd question: if I were to freeze the dough by itself, how long would it last do you think? I’m thinking at least a month or two, right? I think my plan (I don’t have a whole family to feed, just my lonesome self) that I’ll make a batch and slice up the pastry into the right size… then freeze and decide on my fillings later! Our toasteroven should handle the baking just fine in my opinion.
Wow these seems to be surprisingly popular considering you could just go to your local grocery and buy a box for less than $5…which would take all of ten minutes. But then maybe I just think this is a lot of effort for a Poptart.
Totally agree with you on the size thing. The first time I made them to “true” pop-tart size was also my last time. I since have been making them in small rectangles and even used a circle pastry cutter. I feel like the large sized versions of these takes away from the delicate pastry by making them feel visually heavy. Seriously, homemade pop-tarts are ahhhhmazing!
These are amazing! I made them using all of the filling ideas (raspberry jam, chocolate chips, nutella, and cinnamon-sugar) and they were insanely delicious. The crust is perfect and you can make them in so many shapes and sizes… Thank you for this recipe!!
I just made them, supper delicious! Thank you! :) My roommates are so happy :))
Just baking some up that have puréed peaches & cinnamon filling. Thought I’d try something hearty on a few to see if it would work as a grab & go breakfast item …. So we’ll see how they turn out with honey ham, cheese & egg (whisked & fried first) taste
So I always LOVED pop tarts. Pop tarts were my breakfast almost every day since I could eat solid food. Then one day I opened a box of Kellog’s pop tarts and found them covered in dead ants and mold. The ants were baked inside of the pop tarts as well. I never bought or ate them again.Very sad, but I didn’t trust store bought pop tarts any longer. That was three years ago. Then I found this recipe and have made these twice now. Delicious!!! I found a solution to my pop tart problem!
I just a made a batch of these and they smell wonderful! I made small pain au chocolat pockets with the scraps of dough and they turned out as good if not better than the poptarts.
These look so delicious. And such a great idea. I tried them out the other day and they were absolutely wonderful. We even tried out a few savory flavors. You’ll have to check it out on my blog; seemegcook.blogspot.com :)
O WOW. I know I have delicious plans this weekend.
I made these about a year ago and they turned our fantastic! I was thinking of making them again but with scrambled eggs as a filling… how would you do this? undercook the egg slightly and/or add extra liquid so they don’t dry out when cooking?
Okay, dumb question or perhaps one that’s already been asked: can these be put in the toaster? I’m thinking of making them for my college student employees (I think they’d get a big kick out of it0), but shouldn’t they be served warm, either fresh out of the oven or the toaster?
The pop tarts, not the students. :D
I can’t wait to give these a try and add it to my recipe book! This year I am making homemade gifts for everyone, which is a from scratch recipe book. Early in the year I went looking for healthier options for snack foods and after the hunt began I became addicted to finding recipes for packaged foods.
Yours look awesome! I made some homemade pop tarts last week using your recipe as inspiration. I used some regular pie dough (no eggs) I had left over from making quiche. They tasted great dusted with a little powdered sugar and the flakiness was far superior to crumbly store bought pop tarts.
Mine don’t look nearly as appetizing as yours but feel free to check them out:
http://cookingwith-gina.blogspot.com/2012/04/homemade-pop-tarts.html
Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
There are so many comments, maybe this was covered but maybe not…also I realize this recipe was from last year so I am not sure if you will see this or not but I am going to make these for my daughter’s teacher appreciation breakfast and my husband is worried about frosting (he is a lover of the real pop tarts and they have frosting). So, do you have any frosting suggestions?
Hi Jeanine — The simplest frosting would be a powdered sugar (with just enough milk to liquefy it) glaze. However, I have quibbles with those glazes because even when they’re set, they can still get muddled and sticky. So, I might recommend more of a royal icing glaze, which, as I’m sure you’ve seen on decorated cookies, will fully harden once it is dry. I hope that helps!
Made this over the weekend and loved them! Another SK recipe home run! My husband loved these too. The dough is wonderful. I substituted 1/2 c whole wheat flour. Instead of making them the traditional rectangle shapes I used a round biscuit cutter and did circles; this made assembly faster.
We ran out so I’m making another batch today; some to eat right away and some to freeze.
Hi im not sure if this is covered in the comments, but urgent question!
gonna make these babies on saturday, but was wondering if i can do up til the step of assembling the tarts, and then refrigerate it in cling wrap and bake the following day?
Thanks :)
I was imagining a piecrust-type pastry, so I had a moment of panic when I was cutting in the enormous amount of butter and adding so much liquid. It was downright gloppy! The kneading instructions threw me off too. But then I realized that this is much more like a shortbread than a piecrust. Phew! Everything turned out perfectly, and they were a *huge* hit. I’ll need to make these again very soon.
I am making these!!
I tried these for the first time today, and they turned out great.
do you have a calorie count for one?
I’ve made these “poptarts” three times now, and each time the crust was absolutely amazing! Even when the filling was less than super (my experimenting creates some scary combinations most of the time) the crust more than made up for the fillings’ shortcomings. Just a note for fellow tinkerers, the first two times I did use 2 sticks of butter, but I felt the pastries became too greasy, so the third time I tried using just 1 stick of butter, and it came out just as tasty!(And this is real butter I’m talking about) To go along with that health note, I also added a 1/4 cup of bran and it didn’t mess up the formula or anything. A very moldable recipe!
I can’t wait to try out this recipe with my daughter! She’s always begging me to buy Pop Tarts, and I rarely do because they’re garbage. I just so happen to have half a jar of Nutella in the cupboard. So excited!
I’ve made these a few times. And enjoyed them each time. This time around since I am on a restrictive diet I changed a few things to make them egg, dairy and soy free. I wrote about it on my blog. http://www.natashasfood.blogspot.com THanks for posting these! They are super delicious!
Important question!!!!!!!! What kind of jam should I use? Does the flavour matter at all?
Kat — You should use whatever jam you like, that you want to eat in your tarts.
My 12 year old son is making these today. He is kind of a vanilla freak and will be filling them with chopped up vanilla candy chips – the kind you melt and coat things with. They will be fairly colourful inside, but hopefully will rock his world.
My nine year old boy/girl twins are making this as I type. We are using apricot jam, blueberry jam and grape jelly as the fillings. I just discovered your website during a Google search and am bookmarking it! I look forward to explornig your other recipes, as I bake all the time with my kids.
I’ve nail the strawberry ones. This morning, my boyfriend (not a bit sweets guy), suggested bacon filled pop-tarts with maple icing. I almost told him that I love him for the first right then. Instead, I’m going to make him some and drop it off for him at work :-)
I have made these with Trader Joe’s version of Nutella, and homemade blackberry jam. The crust is absolute perfection. My husband prefers the chocolate tarts, but I love the fruit ones because they aren’t as sweet. I am baking some right now with blueberry jam, and I can’t wait to try! Also, I just saw your suggestion to make savory tarts. That WILL be happening, and you are invited, of course. Is Washington, D.C. a far drive? :) Thank you for sharing this recipe! I will be making these again and again.
I’ve been trying to find decent healthy store-bought toaster pastries and gave up. This recipe looks like just the ticket! But I must comment that other than the cinnamon or the smore’s flavors, I was never very keen on the Pop Tart brand. We always ate Toast ‘Ems (cue the ’70s wayback machine). They had more bountiful filling and a thinner softer crust which was totally edible when cold. The only problem was this thin crust created a more unstable product when ejected from the toaster. Many a time the tart broke in half during the removal process. Then there was the unfortunate lip burn from the mass of hot fruit filling. Yeah, still worth it.
Working with what I have on hand, I’m going to try a filling with cashew butter, butterscotch chips and ground coconut.
I can’t wait to try these! My ex-h introduced our four year-old to pink frosted POP TARTS during his time with her last weekend and as she described them to me on Monday morning I wanted to die! Not POP TARTS! What’s next? Lucky Charms?! Oh well, like the author of this awesome website, I was hoping my daughter could make it to college before ever eating one of these! I’m going to do my best to make these and hopefully she likes them better!! Wish me luck!
I would be more impressed if you had not simply copy/pasted the text from the KAF website, which contains the same typo, “Remove the dough form the fridge.”
Jenna — Thanks! Will fix. I’d be more impressed if I never made typos. Alas, they are everywhere on this site.
I love Pam’s comment, I hope he told her “I love you” after she baked those bacon tarts for him!
I never noticed any, Deb, before this. I just contemplated this recipe for weeks. All my filling leaked out during baking. English majors must not make good bakers.
Such a bummer! What kind of filling did you use? Some (like jam) are definitely runnier than others. The egg wash should ideally prevent it from happening.
[Side note: I see that I wrote, “the egg is to help glue the lid on” in the recipe. If that word choice makes me cringe, I cannot imagine what it must do to an English major!]
Just put mine into the fridge as I preheat the oven. I made the cinnamon filled ones. Instead of cutting them into 9 3″x4″ rectangles, I did 12 3″x4″ and was able to make 6, while keeping the other half of the dough :)
Will let you know how they turn out!
Deb, I missed that sentence completely and used no egg wash at all. Explains everything. The crust was good though and I just spread jam on the top of them. I froze the remaining pie dough and I am scouring your site today for a way to use it. Thanks for the inspiration. I’m jealous of the ingredients you can get in NYC that I can’t find in Kansas, even special pasta shapes! Congratulations on the cookbook, I can’t wait to get it. Next time I will read the directions for the pop tarts.
If I wanted to fill these with homemade apple butter, should I thicken it with the cornstarch and water like you did with the jam? How think should the filling be? I’m so excited to make a fall-y version of these!
Oh yummy day! I made 4 batches, par-baked, and froze so my kids can reheat in the toaster. Thanks for such a delish recipe!
Yeah, I won’t be trying this recipe again. Pastry *should* be half fat to flour. 8oz:8oz made a disgusting mess and a waste of ingredients.
My advice is use Mary Berry’s sweet shortcrust pastry:
175g plain flour
100 cold butter, cut into cubes
25g icing sugar
1 large egg’s yolk
1 Tablespoon of iced water.
This yields a light crisp pastry with a nicer, more even texture because of the finer sugar.
I just made these and decided to put apple sprinkled with with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg inside. Delicious! The pastry was so flaky and wonderful. A FAR cry from a pop tart, I must say.
My next try will be to make them savory. I am thinking that I will do spinach and feta. Also might even try ground beef, onion, raisins and cinnamon.
I just started following your blog and have not been sorry about any of the recipes that I have tried. Thanks for the inspiration!
This dough was WAY too soft. It was a pain to work with, so I ended up flouring it heavily and then rolling it out between two sheets of parchment because I was hoping the taste would be better than the consistency. Sad to say, it was FAR too buttery/salty in the end. Still, I never would have thought to make my own pop tarts had it not been for this recipe and the beautiful pictures, so thank you Deb!
We (the kids and I) make these every weekend – we love them THAT much. Our favorite fillings are the jams and preserves we make during canning season but hubby likes a filling made of chream cheese/ranch mix.
They were grate but the pastry was a little to thick so this time i am going to make them a little thinner but otherwise they were excellent!
Hi i’m am going to make these this weekend, with my grandkids. the will love and we are going to make it with nutella & banana.. yumm can’t wait!:)
This recipe is so fun!
I plan to make these for a valentines morning treat for my guy, heart shaped of course with raspberry filling. I am wondering what is the best way to store these?
Thank you!
These are wonderful – they manage to be flaky and sturdy at the same time. We used strawberry jam from this summer and although ours weren’t quite as pretty as yours (they were rolled out by a 3 year old, after all) we will definitely be making them again.
Made these with leftover sour cherry jam. Delicious! Don’t know if I will make them again anytime soon… they took quite a bit of time. But it was fun to do at least once.
i made it….. and it was so delicious…… my husband enjoyed it my kids enjoyed and my customers did to!!!!!!!1
These were wonderful! I made half with good quality raspberry jam and the rest with the cinnamon filling. They were a success!
Hi, just wondering if you have a gluten free variation of this yummy looking recipe! Thanks!
Is there a way to make the pastry chocolate? And if i wanted a gram pastry could i substitue some of the ap flour for gram flour?
i was looking for some semi-healthy snacks to add to a care basket for some buddies. these are PERFECT. everyone loves a pop tart, yeah?
I don’t think it’s just the temperature of your kitchen, the dough is pretty hard to work with if it’s not chilled. It’s not very forgiving.
I have made these before, but am going to make them for a work bake sale and want to prepare them the night before. My plan is to assemble them entirely the night before, and then take them out the morning of, let them warm up for a half hour, and then bake. But do you think this will wreak havoc on the egg wash and ensue in drippy pop tarts? I’m going to use strawberry filling. Thanks!
I am making these today and going to bake them tomorrow. Here’s the flavors I intend to make:
– Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup: Cheese stuffed middle, tomato soup frosting
– General Tso’s: General Tso’s chicken stuffed middle, I’ll run it through my food processor to make it into a paste like, toasted sesame seed topping
– Mashed Potatoes and Gravy: Mashed potato stuff inside and either a gravy frosting or a buttermilk frosting
– Pizza: Sauce and pepperoni or sausage stuffed interior, cheese melted on top
– Sloppy Joe: Run sloppy joe ingredients through a food processor to make a paste, no frosting
I’ll probably just make the first two.
Deb, you might want to take a look. The following website has copied the images and the text as it is on their site.
http://www.moredesignplease.com/moredesignplease/2011/2/23/home-baked-pop-tarts.html
Hey Deb, there are two eggs listed in the ingredients for brusing on the pastry.. is it the same one? are you supposed to brush the top of the pop-tarts like you do with pie? It’s not written in the directions.. Could you clarify, please?
Thanks!
Hi Bunny — There is one egg listed in the group of ingredients under “Pastry.” That’s the only one that goes in the dough. The second egg listing is separate and says “1 additional large egg (to brush on pastry).” That’s just for brushing. Hope that helps!
I made these in strawberry jam and they were SO delicious I decided to make them for my son’s birthday party. I needed some finger foods so I made two other different kinds and called them hot pockets! I threw ham in the food processor and then rolled it with some shredded cheese and then browned some italian sausage and added in some sauce! It was a monster themed party so I used 3 different monster shaped cookie cutters, one for each flavor, instead of cutting squares. Everyone loved them! It was 98degrees and your tips for hot and humid weather were definitely needed. Tons of work but so so worth it! Thank you!!
We made these for our Pop for Father’s Day and they were fun, very yummy but nothing like a store bought Pop Tart (and that was just fine!). We didnt poke them enough to let the steam vent so ours were a little puffy. And our shapes were a bit random. It’s an easy dough to work with though and we’ll probably make them again.
Is there an easy way to make the pastry chocolate I wonder?
I don’t know about pastry chocolate, but I used homemade nutella: http://leitesculinaria.com/78672/recipes-homemade-nutella.html and it came out fantastic. (The cinnamon/brown sugar is my current fav, though.) I also used the ½ c of whole wheat flour substitute, and it’s excellent.
Just wanted to say thanks – these are fantastic!
Love your blog. The food photography is awesome.
So for the make ahead options could you bake these, individually freeze and then pull one out each morning like the boxed versions? If so, what would be the best reheat or toast method?
Calories are my biggest concern. I wonder if it’s possible to use egg whites, splenda, and sugar free jam?
I’ve made these half a dozen times now and people always rave about them. I’ve done Nutella, blueberry, strawberry and cinnamon sugar. They are particularly well-received at bake sales! Thanks for all the wonderful recipes.
I’m making and ancient roman baked good whose only description is in a play: “sesame seeds, poppy seeds, wheat flour, and chopped nuts.” (called laterculi)
It might not be authentic, but I think they’d be great as pop tarts. And I like that you chose a sturdier dough that wasn’t too sweet.
I’m thinking two different fillings. One would be poppy seeds and crushed walnuts and/or almonds cooked in honey, and the other would be sesame seeds and pistachios and/or hazelnuts also cooked in honey.
So here’s a question. You were sure you wanted an egg in this dough. Is that really vital to the structural integrity (okay, so of course it is since you deliberately put it in) – but what would happen without it? Seeing as how the Romans pastry rarely uses eggs (never? Need to research that)
My four year old niece does not appreciate Thanksgiving dessert flavors yet, so she requested something strawberry for a special Thanksgiving kid’s dessert. I tested this recipe over the weekend using four-fruit jam, as well as nutella, and this morning, my co-workers were swooning over the results. The crust is flaky and buttery, while remaining flat like actual Pop Tarts. Going for the full Pop Tart effect, I added a vanilla-lemon glaze and white crystal sugar for the jam flavor, and chocolate glaze and gold sugar for the nutella. It was more work than I thought because it turns out that living in Florida = hot kitchen. Refrigerating the dough for at least 15 minutes made the second dough ball infinitely easier to work with. I also found it easier to apply the egg wash “glue” one tart at a time, since assembly took me a while. It’s a load of work, but the recipe is delicious perfection. Thank you!
THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!!!!
I absolutely LOVE poptarts, but because I am severely allergic to apples, I can’t have ANY of the fruit flavors they make (apple is often used to cut the fruit filling and to provide “fruit chunks” in the filling). Now I can make some for myself!!!! *Squees in excitement*
I tried this it doesnt work dough isnt right
Hailey — Can you tell me more about what happened when it didn’t work?
Delicious!!! Everyone loved them young and old. My friends 12 year old daughter tried them and said they were better than pop tarts.
These are incredible! I adore them and so do my family and friends! Just curious, after being baked, how long will they keep??
Thanks for the tip about putting the dough in the freezer! That saved me…My dough was very sticky. I ended up rolling it out between sheets of plastic wrap and that worked great, but still had to use the freezer to get them off the plastic. Final result, with cinnamon sugar filling, was amazing!!
Okay, I’m a pop tart-aholic, or was. Then I started reading into the effects of artificial ingredients on children and am not mortified by artificial, chemical laden stuff but my children have still eaten pop tarts and other various crap at my in-laws house. My 5 yr old is way too smart and no matter how hard I try to convince him homemade poptarts are better he still begs for them at the store. Soooo I need a recipe that is as similar to the “real” things as possible. The last two recipes I used were more pie crust like, but it almost needs to be more cookie like. This recipe seems that way, is it? Do these taste pretty close, only better, than the “real” poptarts? Obviously, anything homemade is better tasting but i’m looking for a similar dough.
amy — As I mention in the post, the egg and the milk here differentiate it from a tender/flaky pie dough style pop-tart, gives it more sturdiness; I find the texture here more authentic, but no so authentic that, well, I wouldn’t care for them. (Don’t like the originals that much, I know that makes me a weirdo.)
I just made a batch of these for my 2 year old, and even my hubby liked them! And he can’t STAND Poptarts! Now he wants me to make him some savory ones so he can take them to work with him! Thanks for the Wonderful recipe!
Curious…could these be made ahead, frozen & reheated in toaster?? Don’t additives and junk in regular pop tarts, so we don’t buy them. But I’m all for making these on a Sunday and popping in toaster on weekdays for the kids. Thanks so much!
anna — Yes, but these glazes need to be added after toasting/baking.
Made these beauties, and totally enjoyed…well, almost totally. Actually opened up my Pop Tart maker kit that I got over a year ago at Williams Sonoma..heck, maybe it’s been 2 years. it’s been sitting in our pantry, forever it seems. Very easy to use this gizmo. My only complaint is the actual filling. While the small amount of flour might seem like a brilliant binder for the sugar that will melt, it gave a chewy texture to the filling, bordering on hard. I’ll try another filling next time, or leave out the flour.
Cheers all,
Jeff
P.S.
I did use a “go to” James Beard recipe for “Very Short Dough”, and added a couple of tsps. sugar for a pate sucree “like” dough.
I was wondering what alternative ingredients you suggest using for the cornstarch in the jam filling? I try to not use a lot of corn products in our diet. Thanks.
Julie S — Arrow root and potato starch are common substitutions. I’d probably use arrow root first.
I made these today with homemade blueberry jam, for Pi Day! (pop tarts totally count as pie, right?) They were ridiculously delicious. I’ve never made dough from scratch before, because I’ve been so afraid of screwing it up, but this was quite simple and came out beautifully. So flakey and buttery, and just the right level of tenderness! Thank you for the lovely recipe :-)
I’m so excite to try these out! My kids will love them! Thanks you so much!
I’m so excited to try these out! My kids will love them! Thanks you so much!
I love poptarts. Homemade ones look really good.
Has anyone tried these with a gluten free flour?
an alternate thickener for cornstarch try tapioca flour
How long do frozen pop tarts need to bake for? And should it be at the same temperature (350)? Thinking of doing the work before, and baking as needed… :)
I made these and my family loved them. Even my sister, the pickiest eater ever, liked these. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I just taste-tested the first batch out of the oven and they are PERFECT! I did 2 different fillings. For the first, I did the cinnamon filling, but added just a pit of cocoa. Yum. For the second, I used cranberry-apple jam (Food in Jars recipe) that I made last summer. The dough was incredibly easy to work with and held up great. Nothing leaked or fell apart. Can’t wait to make them again, but I think I’ll do a savory filling next time.
So awesome. These make such great surprise morning breakfast gifts at work!
I forgot in my first comment (#622) I had wanted to comment on the “charming tip from King Arthur.” My grandfather was an amazing pie-baker (he was an old farmer who learned to cook after my grandmother went blind) and always made sure he had a bit of dough leftover – this would become the “baby” pie. He would flatten the leftover dough, brush it with milk, and sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar. YUM!
I just made these this morning. Amazing! I only did the cinnamon ones to start, but I will be making blackberry ones now. The crust was perfect!!! So easy to work with!
I just made these, with whole wheat flour and cinnamon just like the recipe, I also glazed halve of it. When my husband tried it he said it tasted like pop tarts hahaha he even said that if it wasn’t because they were still warm, he would have thought they were store bought . This dough is delicious, it didn’t turn out sweet and I love that. Too bad the reason why I made them (2nd toddler ) didn’t like them. I will make these often, and will try the savory versions
What I appreciate is that you can make these even healthier by using a whole wheat flour blend. You could even make them gluten free too! Or you could also use a fruit-only jam too. Pinned to my “Frugal Family Fun” board.
Thanks so much for this. We are Americans living overseas and my two boys miss Pop Tarts. These are so good and unlike many recipes I find online, I was able to find all of the ingredients here. I just shared this on my blog, and gave you credit for the success!
nefis :)
I have never seen the Goonies and I am not far off my half century.
I’m not sure about facsimiles of junk food classics because for me, the whole point of junk items is the fact that they are a little hokey. That well made, home made, healthy ingredient thing going on kind of misses the point?
That said, a home made version of fried pies that retains a bit of McDonalds? Yes, I would do that.
I made these the other day, and did a variety of jam, Nutella and cinnamon brown sugar. The jam were a little runny to work with but tasted great, the Nutella were easy and delicious. But the cinnamon brown sugar filled came out hard and dry. They had good flavor but the filling was dens and not chewy. Was I suppose to add some kind of liquid to the filling, or maybe I used too much filling?
Sonja — It shouldn’t have been hard, but I was trying to emulate the store-bought cinnamon filling, which is always a bit firm.
Hmm, well maybe my people are just overly picky then :) We don’t eat Pop Tarts as a general practice, so we didn’t have a gauge for “normal”. Like I said, they tasted good, just kind of crunchy (possibly overfilled on my part). If I do the cinnamon ones again, maybe I will add some butter to the dry ingredients, or not put as much filling in. Thanks!
I should note that I don’t even like cinnamon pop tarts and their weird inner texture, but for some reason, felt it essential to emulate it. :)
Super flaky and tasty, but not so pretty! My coworkers will enjoy them anyway. I think I was expecting something along the lines of Ted Bulletin’s Homemade portraits, which have a much firmer pastry. This was good, but not exactly what I was craving. I’ll keep looking!
Thank you for the information you have provided, I was pleased to read the article in this blog.
hi deb! i’m going to make these early friday morning for a coworkers farewell. do you think i can make the jam filling the night before to save myself some time and dishes on friday morning? also, does jam v jelly make a difference, do you think? or is it just personal preference?
thanks!
Tory — Definitely you can, and use whichever is thicker, will just make things easier.
The whole wheat with Nutella filling is my daughter’s favorite thing to bring for her school snack, she especially loves bringing them to share with her whole class and they all LOVE it. Thanks for a GREAT recipe, we’re making them again today!
sound good today i visit this blog and found it very helpfull good working keep it up
I made these today in my UBER small kitchen (not sure I can even call it a kitchen . . . it’s more like a baking closet) ~ and they were AWESOME!!!! I’ve never made a pie crust with butter and egg. Oh my goodness. WAY. BETTER. THAN. SHORTENING. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Btw, this recipe was made in our home to prove to my son that perhaps I had a good reason for not making these at 6:30 IN THE MORNING!!! They took us awhile. :) Boy, are they delicious.
Making pop tarts now smelling them bake
I made this recipe yesterday and my daughter now believes I am, without a doubt, the best cook ever and Mother of The Year!
I used fresh blueberry jam I had made with berries my kids and I picked; the jam came out much, much too thick (which is what led me to use it as a filling in the first place) so I omitted the corn starch & water/thickening step. I also decided to add a lemon glaze, because I love the flavor combination of blueberries and lemon. For that, I just mixed fresh lemon juice and lemon zest with confectioner’s sugar. I did not find it lemony enough but my daughter does; next time I will probably try to add some lemon extract or lemon oil to strengthen the lemon flavor.
This was wonderful! The only comment I will add — it’s not really a criticism, but it’s a “heads up” to folks who are considering making these — these are fabulous hand pies, but they are not poptarts beyond appearance. While I’m not looking to replicate the strangely alluring cardboard quality of the poptart dough, this luscious and flaky crust just doesn’t even trigger poptart nostalgia. I think to do that the dough needs to be sturdier, less flaky, more cookie-like. I’m not sure how to go about that but I’ll keep trying! I will make these again for sure because they are so very good, but I’m not sure I’ll call them “poptarts” (although, that does get me some serious “brownie points”…!)
Thanks for the delicious reipe!
How about making them with fresh fruit instead of jam?
I am going to try these with some watermelon jam that I made that came out way too thick. You have to “cut” it to get it out of the jar. :( I also made some raspberry/jalapeno jam last year that tastes great, but I used Pomona pectin for the first time and didn’t do it correctly and ended up with “lumps” of pectin in it. No way can I eat all of that myself (since I can’t give it away now), so I’m going to open a jar, take out the lumps and use the jam as filling. My stomach is rumbling just thinking about raspberry/jalapeno pop tarts! :D
G — You certainly can, pie-style but to chop the fruit much smaller, however my concern is that the baking time is so short, it may not have the time to get nice and juicy inside. Pre-cooking the fruit filling for 10 minutes to make it more compote- or jam-ish will probably have a better outcome.
These look amazing! About how many regular sized pop tarts does this recipe usually make?
Kathryn — Ugh, not sure why I never counted but if I remember correctly, I’d say 8 to 10.
No icing? Gotta have icing!
I was wondering if anyone has tried to make these gluten free. Would the change in the flour be too much? My mom needs gluten free and thinks these would be good. Please let me know if anyone has tried this or if they have any ideas to make it work correctly. Thank you.
I would love it you could maybe give us a recipe that would mimic the Sugar Cookie Pop Tarts that they came out with for Christmas. I hadn’t eaten a pop tart in 30 years and bought them on clearance, just for fun! Omg, the flavor ws like a hot sugar cookie in your mouth! Divine! So maybe, you could use your wizardry and test a recipe!
So yummy! My crust to filling ratio was off (the crust was too thick I think) and I couldn’t get as much filling as I wanted in there. I kind of solved that by adding a strawberry sugar glaze/frosting. So yummy. I’m going to remake these in a heart shape version for my friends for Galentine’s day!
I kind of have a lot of feelings about these.
First of all, POPTARTS ARE PIE FOR BREAKFAST! Not a problem, just observing.
Second of all, I made a dairy free version of these with shortening and almond milk. I also tried about 1/4 Whole Wheat flour because yummers. I loved, loved, loved the crust texture and flavor after baking. However, it was ridiculously hard to work with during assembling. It stuck to everything and fell apart easily even after adding a fair amount of flour to the rolling pin, workspace, and dough itself. Any advice there? Because of this, I couldn’t roll it very thin so only ended up with 6 pastries and the crust was a bit thick for the cinnamon and sugar variety. It actually seemed just right for the raspberry jam ones I made since the jam was heavier and thicker.
Third, I need some baking help. After rolling, cutting, and topping the dough, I tried scraping it off my floured surface with a spatula. The dough stuck a bit and fell apart and when it didn’t do that, it got scrunched up and was the wrong size for the companion square. So tops were smaller than bottoms and then they both squished funny when I picked them up to put on the pan. Any advice for a slick way to lift up the dough?
Thanks! My 2 year old liked these so much she stole one off the counter behind my back and ate the whole thing for lunch!
I made this recipe (thought the directions were great!), filled them with Trader Joe’s Speculoos cookie dough spread and sprinkled the top with cinnamon and sugar…the spread has a gingerbread flavor and they were amazing! Everyone loved them! And when I filled them with strawberry jam I made an adapted royal frosting to glaze the top (after they were cooked and cooled) and before the frosting set added rainbow sprinkles…yum!
I’m on a quest to find a homemade nutella recipe and when I saw this post got excited that you came up with one but then saw you are using jarred nutella. Any chance you’ll work on a recipe for homemade nutella?
I made some that had organic raspberry jelly for the filling. Do I need to refrigerate these after they’ve cooled? I live in the desert where it is HOT!
Thanks…they are just awesome!!
Amy — They should be fine at room temperature (like a cookie) but they might last longer in the fridge if it’s as warm as you say.
hi !
really helpful post, will definitely give this a try :)
Hi! My son has food allergies, and he can NEVER have anything pre-packaged that isn’t 100% natural and free of his allergens (which is a good thing, to be honest)–so when I saw this recipe, I got really excited! And I still am! I haven’t made them yet, but I was wondering if the results might still be the same using Earth Balance or cold coconut oil instead of butter in the dough? Also, have you tried making these with any tree nut butters, like almond or cashew with the chocolate? Or even with honey? I’m just wanting to get my ducks in a row before I start adventuring in my kitchen :)
I decided to try these to use up some of the apple butter I still have from several years ago. One half-pint jar was just right for this recipe. I used 3/4 c of whole wheat flour in the pastry (just happened to be what was left in a bag) and it worked just fine. Quite to my surprise, they came out quite good! I half-expected to have the filling pouring out from all sides, but it only leaked a tiny bit on two of them.
There was a lot of pastry trimming left – it was too much just to make ‘pie dodies’ (my family’s name for the cinnamon-sugar trimmings), so I put together 5 more pop tarts instead. I wouldn’t have wanted the crust any thicker so I think I rolled it about right.
All in all, a great way to make a healthier breakfast or snack!
Thank You. I have copied this by hand from my phone. My accomplishment for this day, at noon. The apples in oj are simmering all night in slowcooker. I have had four tasting bites mid night.
😊 My exciting life. ✌👋
I was a teenager when I had my first pop-tart. My parents only bought them twice in our lifetime. Trying anything new is an experience, and anything after that can lend to more experiences, or not. Sickly sweet after the first couple of bites, and the crust reminded me of stale bread. I made these yesterday and having baked since I was 13, yay! The recipe did not need to be tweaked – I only made the pastry portion. The fillings are totally up to me, and I used my homemade jams and jellies.
Nutella – have yet to try it.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. My daughter and I had so much fun making these together. I’m going to write about you on my blog, http://www.lillianlum.com. Have a fab day!
So I have a dairy allergy and cannot do butter substitutes because they contain other ingredients I’m allergic to. I often use a butter flavored or vanilla flavored olive oil when baking. Do you think this would work!
I’d really love to make these but I have a question about the dough.
Here in Michigan we enjoy pasties, but I haven’t really found a good recipe for pasty dough (pronounced “past – ee” in case any one is pronouncing another way). Almost universally, the recipe I find is for the dough is a pie dough recipe which entirely too fragile for a pasty. The filling is usually a cup or more of packed potato, onion, meat and rutabaga. They’re big, they’re heavy and they were made to be eaten by hand and a pie dough just won’t do it.
So my question is: If I subtract the sugar, do you think this dough could be adapted for a pasty? Would it be sturdy enough? Would you consider making some because I did search your recipes and you don’t a have pasty recipe. Inquiring Michiganders want to know!!
Sadly, I’m totally unfamiliar with pasties. Are they closer to empanadas in texture or pop tarts?
Pasties were made for miners to take with them into the mine for a hearty lunch or dinner. They’re meant to be eaten out of hand, can have around a 1lb or more (usually a little less than a pound) of filling and are baked so they are probably more similar to something baked en croute, except it’s not a puff pastry or a delicate pastry dough. I’ve seen some recipes that used melted shortening and a goodly amount of water with idea that some gluten would develop and make the dough sturdier but they were commercial recipes and I struggled to reduce the amounts to a reasonable size. I haven’t seen any that included an egg but it makes sense to me that an egg would add some structure. I just Googled pasty and found the best recipe I’ve seen so far, so maybe I’ll give this one a try.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113207915
Ah! Okay that sounds so good. We love love love this dough (for empanadas) (and also the filling), so I can vouch for it working too.
you might want to try a pie dough that is made w boiling water. they’re used a lot in the UK for things like game pie that are meant to stand alone, filled with meat and potatoes. the crust is super sturdy.
Hi! My kids have never had pop tarts. My daughter friend had a full on pity fest for my daughter yesterday because of it. ☺️
I’m curious… does the dough have to stay in the fridge that long or can I use it right away?
How many Pop-Tarts does this recipe make?
I like pop tarts as a treat every so often but am always looking for ways to avoid going to the grocery store because I always seem to buy more than is on my list.
Another idea for a filling if you are a fan of chocolate is to do a maple flavoured filling with maple butter, something that I like to spread on my toast instead of the usual strawberry or gooseberry jam.
I made the homemade Pop Tarts for the 1st time yesterday. I used a homemade finely chopped peach pie filling & frosted them. My family loved them! Before my husband went to work today he ask me to make your recipe for cinnamon filling today. He loves sweets, but hardly ever request a certain thing. Thanks so much for sharing your recipe!
i think i’m going to try to make these with a date/nut filling…
Any suggestions on a suitable icing?
I’d use a cookie icing, royal icing, for a firm icing like you get in the packaged tarts.
I’m reading through this recipe and get to “Please invite me over.” LOL Made the start of my day!
I’ve seen this recipe before, but your directions and suggestions are understandable. Thanks for posting!
Took FOREVER! I was two hours in when I started baking these things! Good Luck to the rest of you.
WHERE IS THE FROSTING?
Wondering how the pulp from your strawberry rhubarb soda syrup would work in these. Could I use it straight or would I have to cook it with water and corn starch, per this recipe? Would they store the same or need to be refrigerated? Also wondering about reheating these. I see you mention they can be frozen and reheated. I am assuming they should be defrosted before going into the toaster? Is that correct? I am guessing they can just be eaten at room temp as well.
Thanks!
You’d want it to be jam-like in thickness, so reduce it on the stove as needed. I don’t think they must be defrosted before going in the toaster, but I’m picturing a toaster oven on a medium-low setting until it defrosts, then you can bump up the heat.
Wow, you weren’t kidding about it being a delicate dough. I’ve made these twice so far trying to perfect the process! Roll, fridge, wait. Score, fridge wait. You get the point.
The crust is light and flaky – which is beautiful and far better than a store bought tart. Everyone I’ve feed them has loved them. However I’m not sure the time and effort involved is worth it. Maybe third time will be the charm!
The pastry part of this recipe is absolutely perfect. It is so buttery and melts in your mouth. Thanks so much for this!!! I have created my own fillings and you can be so creative. I recently made a frangipane peach filling. Amazing! Also. I find the assembly very time consuming and challenging. I opted for cutting circles and making turnovers. Everyone was just as happy. I know they are no longer pop tarts, but it was the flavor and texture that everyone wanted, not the shape.
Another winner recipe from you, thank you! My 8 year old and I made these and LOVED them! It was easy, your instructions were spot on and it didn’t take 2 hours since we didn’t refrigerate the dough. The mini ones are the way to go for sure, but a variety of large and mini out of the prescribed recipe with jam, chocolate and cinnamon and sugar fillings.
the trimmings, when prepared as you suggest, are call petes des soeurs (nuns’ farts) in French. Might just be a Canadian thing, I don’t know.
I make these all the time – they are a favorite of everyone! They do take a while, but I freeze them ahead of time and bake the morning I want them. I make the mini versions – Nutella w/powdered sugar; Strawberry or cherry jam with a pink glaze and sprinkles on top to emulate Pop Tarts of my childhood. Yum!
These are DELICIOUS. But taste nothing like a store bought pop-tart (for better or worse). I imagine there is a lot of chemical that goes into the store bought variety. While these are a very yummy treat, I will continue m hunt for a more accurate store bought copy cat recipe (does one even exist??). Nonetheless, thank you for a delicious recipe! 😊
King Arthur AP is too strong for these. Try Francine Type 45 — Amazon has it. Makes a world of difference.
Hi! I plan on making these tomorrow and wondering if the butter needs to be cold like when making pie dough? Thanks!
The kids LOVED these with chocolate and raspberries and made as s’mores. Awesome recipe!!
I have been making this recipe for probably around 8 years now. The cinnamon version is, by far, my favorite. My only “complaint” is that there are far too few servings and it needs to be automatically doubled. I see you suggested salted caramel – which sounds DIVINE – but we can’t purchase that here. Is there a recipe for that so I can whip it up myself? Thanks in advance.
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Why does it say 2 1/2 cups of flour is 8 1/2 oz??
Just made this – 5 with strawberry jam and 4 with cinnamon sugar – and they came out great! I didn’t find the dough fussy at all. It helped to use plenty of flour when I rolled it out and to refrigerate the tarts before baking, just as Deb suggests. I will definitely attempt a savory version next time.
These are perfect for finishing up cranberry sauce leftovers! I added a little cornstarch to thicken it up and they were fabulous.
these pop tarts would be amazing with chocolate chip cookie dough! My brothers boyfriend loved these
On the do ahead…refrigerate for a week before or after baking the tarts? I’m trying a mini version for a baby shower.
I’d freeze them before or after baking.
I made these with Nutella and they are fabulous. I will be making them again with homemade jam. The Nutella actually made a hard bar of chocolate inside which surprised me but was delicious. The crust is very flaky and yummy too.
Any suggestions for icing those pop tarts? We love the hard crunchy icing in our house 😊
I might use an egg white or meringue powder frosting like you’d use for cookies. I’ve got a recipe here.
I made these for the Emergency Medicine Department at LA County Hospital. I send them a monthly care package (my daughter is a doctor there). I cut them out in about 1 inch circles. They were perfect. The crust is one of the best – and I use if for so many things now.
The best compliment I got from one of the doctors was “I think I just made love to one of those tarts” . The only thing they all seem to love more is your brown butter sea salt rice krispie treats. They are referred to as crack by anyone I give them to.
Made them with gooseberry jam. So delicious! The pastry blew me away. Can it be used for a regular pie?
How long does it take to bake them from frozen/uncooked as recommended in the recipe?
Probably not more than 5 minutes longer.
Looks delicious. Any suggestions for using a gluten-free flour?
I’m curious if anyone has used plant-based “butter” for the dough? And soymilk for the milk? Guess I’m going to be experimenting this weekend!