Homemade Strawberry Pop Tarts Recipe

Last week, I thought my graham crackers were going to fail, but they turned out awesome. This week, I thought my homemade Pop Tarts were going to be awesome, and they turned out to be kind of a fail- but only looks-wise. My taste testers assure me they taste awesome!

Pop Tarts and I go way back. My parents never kept them around the house when we were kids, so they were reserved for special occasions, like vacations. I remember eating many a Pop-Tart for breakfast in hotel rooms!

I’m pretty sure I’ve tried every Pop Tart flavor out there, but nothing holds a candle to the unfrosted strawberry kind. A little Googling led me to Smitten Kitchen, where I got the inspiration for this recipe. Warning- these are a little time intensive and very messy to make! Be sure to wear an apron, or you will be covered in flour!

Easy Homemade Strawberry Pop Tarts Recipe

(Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp milk (I used almond)

Directions:

• Mix the flour, sugar and salt together in a large bowl.

• Add the cubed butter and use a food processor, pastry cutter or your hands to work the butter in. (I used my hands, and it worked fine.) There should still be little bits of butter in the dough, and it should come together when you squeeze it.

• Whisk the egg and milk together and add to the dough and stir until just combined. You can chill the dough at this point, but I didn’t and had no problems working with it.

• There are really specific instructions on the original recipe’s website as to how to cut these into rectangles, but I pretty much rolled half the dough onto a well-floured surface and used a knife to cut rectangles as evenly as possible.

• Take one rectangle of dough and spread about half a tablespoon of the jam to the middle. Take another rectangle of dough and layer it on top of the rectangle with jam; use your fingers to press it down gently. Take a fork and crimp the edges all together. Using your fork, make a few holes in the top of the tart to let steam escape.

• Line your tarts up on a parchment lined baking sheet and pop them in the fridge for half an hour. After the half hour, bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Mine didn’t exactly come out so cute…

(Dusted with powdered sugar!)

But my taste tester were quite impressed! So much, in fact, that I plan to stash a few away to enjoy as a post half-marathon treat. So excited to devour these!

I’m not going to pretend like these are healthy, but when you compare them to a real Pop Tart’s ingredient list…

‘ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), CORN SYRUP, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, DEXTROSE, SOYBEAN AND PALM OIL (WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS), CRACKER MEAL, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF WHEAT STARCH, SALT, DRIED STRAWBERRIES, DRIED PEARS, DRIED APPLES, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE), CITRIC ACID, CORNSTARCH, CARAMEL COLOR, SOY LECITHIN, XANTHAN GUM, MODIFIED WHEAT STARCH, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, RED #40, YELLOW #6, NIACINAMIDE, REDUCED IRON, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), FOLIC ACID.’