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Hi Bold Bakers!
This week I want to show you how to make a homemade version of a very popular breakfast or after-school treat: Homemade Pop-Tarts! And now that it is summer, many people have more free time so there’s no better time to practice your hobbies in the kitchen.
Homemade Pop-Tarts are not complicated to make, they are simply short crust pastry (aka pie crust pastry) and a filling of your choice, be it jam or whatever takes your fancy.
Now, how good you are at making pastry will make a big difference but do not worry, that’s why I’m here. In this video, I show you all the basic tips you need when it comes to pastry making. Follow my tips and you’ll have beautiful pastry every time.
I would just like to point out that when I was growing up in Ireland my mum would give us her leftover scraps of pastry and a jar of jam. We would put jam on odds and ends of pastry and pierce them together with a fork. And then when she had the oven on for dinner we would bake them off. We proudly placed our creations in different corners of the tray so we could remember which pastry belonged to one another, for fear that my sister Carol-Ann might eat my pieces. Long story short, maybe my mum, Patricia Stafford, invented the first Pop-Tart and we should have a chat with the Kellogg’s family about some royalties. Just sayin’! 🙂
Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts
These pop tarts represent everything I love about baking. You can take some ingredients that are so simple and make something so satisfying and best of all homemade.
Homemade Strawberry Pop Tarts
Ingredients
- 2 ⅔ Cup (375g/12oz) plain flour
- ¾ cup (200g/6 ½ oz) cold butter, cubed
- 2 Tbsp icing sugar
- 2 egg yolk
- 4 Tbsp water
- generous pinch of salt
- Egg wash (egg yolk mixed with water)
- Strawberry Jam
- 1/4 cup (2oz/60g) Icing sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- water (just enough to make a thick icing)
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Put the flour, icing sugar and salt in a large bowl (or in a food processor).
- Rub in the cold cubed butter until it resembles bread crumbs.
- Mix together the egg yolks and water and add to the dry ingredients.
- Mix in until a dough forms. It doesn't take long.
- Wrap the pastry in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minute to allow the gluten to relax. (you can freeze the pastry at this point)
- Roll out your dough on a floured surface, thinly, until about 1/4 inch thick.
- With a pizza cutter or knife cut your pastry to 3inch x 4inch rectangles. You will need 2 for each pop tarts.
- Egg wash your pastry, this will help the 2 pieces stick together and give your pop tart a lovely golden color. . Prick the top with a fork to release steam while baking
- Spoon the jam onto half of the pastry. Take care not to over fill or you would have a jam explosion.
- Bake at 400oF (200oC) for 22-25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Mix some icing sugar, vanilla extract water together until thick and spoon over the pastry. And of course finish with sprinkles.
Recipe Notes
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts
This tastes simply like Christmas wrapped in pastry. Warm, comforting flavors that remind me of the holiday season. Who doesn’t want that in their mouth.
Ingredients
- 2 ⅔ Cup (375g/12oz) plain flour
- ¾ cup (184g/6 ½ oz) cold butter, cubed
- 2 Tbsp icing sugar
- 2 egg yolk
- 4 Tbsp water
- generous pinch of salt
- For the filling
- 1/2 cup (100g/3oz) light brown sugar or white
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon (8g) plain flour
- Maple Icing
- 1/3 cup (1oz/30g) powdered sugar
- 2 to 3 tbsp. maple syrup
Instructions
- Put the flour, icing sugar and salt in a large bowl (or in a food processor).
- Rub in the cold cubed butter until it resembles bread crumbs.
- Mix together the egg yolks and water and add to the dry ingredients.
- Mix in until a dough forms. It doesn't take long.
- Wrap the pastry in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minute to allow the gluten to relax. (you can freeze the pastry at this point)
- Make the filling: Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour together in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Roll out your dough on a floured surface until 1/4 inch thick.
- With a pizza cutter or knife cut your pastry to 3inch x 4inch rectangles. You will need 2 for each pop tarts.
- Spoon your filling into the center of the piece of pastry
- Egg wash your pastry, this will help the 2 pieces stick together and give your pop tart a lovely golden color. Prick the top with a fork to release steam while baking
- Bake at 400oF (200oC) for 22-25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Mix the icing ingredeint together and spoon over the pastry.
Recipe Notes
Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tarts
A triple whammy of chocolate and fudge, you can’t go wrong with that.
Don’t miss my other Pop-Tart recipes:
Ingredients
- 2 1/3 Cup (315g/10oz) plain flour
- ¾ cup (200g/6 ½ oz) cold butter, cubed
- 3 Tbsp icing sugar
- 1/3 cup (2oz/60g) cocoa powder
- 2 egg yolk
- 4 Tbsp water
- generous pinch of salt
- Fuge Filling
- 1/4 cup (1oz/30g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup (2oz/60g) brown sugar
- 2/3 cup (5floz/150g) milk
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 ounces chocolate , chopped
- 2 tbsp (1oz/30g)butter, cup into small cubes
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- https://gringalicious.com/chocolate-mousse-filled-pop-tarts/
- chocolate frosting
- 1 cup (125g/4oz) powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 tablespoon (1/2oz/15g) melted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Start by making the fudge filling. Stir together cocoa powder, brown sugar, and milk in a small sauce pan and cook over medium heat until it comes to a simmer.
- Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes.
- Remove pan from heat, add remaining chocolate, butter and vanilla and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool and thicken.
- Put the flour, icing sugar and salt in a large bowl (or in a food processor).
- Rub in the cold cubed butter until it resembles bread crumbs.
- Mix together the egg yolks and water and add to the dry ingredients.
- Mix in until a dough forms. It doesn't take long.
- Wrap the pastry in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minute to allow the gluten to relax. (you can freeze the pastry at this point)
- Roll out your dough on a floured surface until 1/4 inch thick.
- With a pizza cutter or knife cut your pastry to 3inch x 4inch rectangles. You will need 2 for each pop tarts.
- Spoon your filling into the center of the piece of pastry. Make sure the filling is evenly distributed because it doesn't melt down while baking
- Egg wash your pastry, this will help the 2 pieces stick together and give your pop tart a lovely golden color. Prick the top with a fork to release steam while baking
- Bake at 400oF (200oC) for 22-25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Mix the icing ingredeint together and spoon over the pastry. And of course finish with sprinkles.
Recipe Notes
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Meet Gemma
About Us
Meet Gemma
Hi Bold Bakers! I’m Gemma Stafford, a professional chef originally from Ireland, a cookbook author, and the creator of Bigger Bolder Baking. I want to help you bake with confidence anytime, anywhere with my trusted and tested recipes and baking tips. You may have seen one of my 500+ videos on YouTube & TikTok or as a guest judge on Nailed It! on Netflix or the Best Baker in America on Food Network. No matter your skills, my Bold Baking Team & I want to be your #1 go-to baking authority.
There are a couple mistakes in the recipe, I would recommend rechecking the conversions. 3/4 cup of butter is 170g (NOT 200g as it says in the recipe). Also 4 tablespoons water = 1/4 Cup and typically the simplest measurement is recorded in a recipe so I think this should also be changed.
I tried making the strawberry pop tarts and they were really good. Except for one thing, the pastry. I followed the recipe exactly, and I had a dough that was dry, hard to roll out, and it wouldn’t stick together. I don’t know exactly what the problem was, but I think there need to be more eggs to hold the dough together. I would recommend just buying pastry for pies at the store
Hello Gemma, could you PLEASE put the exact amount of butter used in this recipe. How many grams of butter is needed???
is it: 170g. 185 g. 200g. PLEASE CLARIFY THIS
These look amazing. I was watching a show with pop tarts in it and all of a sudden I had a craving for them and wondered if I could make my own. I definitely want to try this recipe! I might make one with a marmalade filling and orange icing. For some reason that seems appealing.
Hi Gamma. Just watched your video on making puff pastry without all the work of folding etc. That same page directed me here for pop tarts, but…I found a short crust pastry recipe instead of puff pastry!..not what I wanted!. So..do you have recipes and/or a video showing tbe final baked product using your easy puff pastry recipe?
These are delicious, definitely going to be keeping these around. The dough was easy to work with and my 8yo was able to help.
The strawberry ones were the only good ones, the chocolate ones are dry and the cinnamon ones are good but there’s not enough filling, so if you do make them double the filling.
The instruction to roll the dough to 1/4 mm must be a typo. Did you mean 1/4 inch or 1/4 cm?
I had hoped these would be gluten free.
I had to bake mine for a lot longer than 22 minutes. It was closer to an hour of baking time. I’m not sure if that’s because the oven in my dorm didn’t preheat correctly or what. I’m hoping to make this gluten free when I go home so my mom can finally enjoy pop tarts after so many years of not having them! Also do you have any tips on how much water to put in egg washes? Thanks!