Who else grew up a BIG fan of pop tarts??

Yeah, same. Really the only time we would have them in our house growing up was when my dad went to the grocery. You could count on Bill to pull through for all of us and bring home pop tarts from his adventure to the grocery store. I really liked all of the flavors- cinnamon, chocolate, strawberry- but strawberry was hands down my all time favorite.

Side note but we actually had a debate today in class on the best way to eat a pop tart. We decided on the tactic of eating the outer rim first, and then moving onto the fruit filled center. Who else agrees??

Let me tell you about THESE pop tarts.

Because, dare I say it, they are better than the real deal. None of that fake tasting stuff, just the good stuff in here.  The main parts of a homemade pop tart are super simple. The crust is essentially a pie dough (with a little suga suga added), and the filling is a simple fruit compote (which is typically used with corn starch, but I used chia seeds as a thickening agent instead of corn starch). I wanted to keep the icing super simple, and after testing a few different icings for this, the compote with a little powdered sugar turned out to be the fan favorite!

I feel like people who don’t bake very often (cough, cough, used to be me) could look at this and think “that’s too complicated, next”. BUT WAIT! I swear these are really not hard to make at all!

I’ll walk you through it, ready?

Make your pie dough- aka add all your dry ingredients in one bowl, add all your wet ingredients in another bowl, and stir together. Add in your chopped butter, mix together with your hands, and look at that! Your dough is made! Roll it out pretty thin and cut it into 3×4 inch rectangles.

Then you make your compote by adding the strawberries, sugar and lemon zest in a small saucepan on low heat. Let it all combine and cook together for a few minutes and remove from the heat. Stir in the chia seeds and wait a few minutes for the chia seeds to activate and BAM look at that! Now your compote is done too!!

And if you really want to, you could just buy a strawberry jam and use that as your strawberry filling. No judging here!

Put some compote on half of the pie dough rectangles, place a second rectangle on top and press together with a fork. Brush it with an egg wash and pop in the oven. When you are ready to eat them, top it off with a bit of the glaze and LOOK AT YOU, YOU JUST MADE A POP TART!   I told ya it was easy! Have fun with these and enjoy!!

Thanks for reading!
Emily xx

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Irresistible Homemade Strawberry Pop Tarts

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• Author: Hey Emily Ann
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 9 pop tarts
• Category: Sweets
• Method: Baking

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Description

These irresistible homemade strawberry pop tarts are even BETTER than you remember them as a kid!

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Ingredients

Dough

• 2 c all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 4 tbsp 2% or whole milk
• 1 egg
• 1 c unsalted butter (cold)

Strawberry filling

• 2 c strawberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 2 tsp chia seeds

Glaze

• 1 tbsp strawberry filling
• 1/3 c powdered sugar

Egg Wash

• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp water

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Instructions

To make the dough: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the cold butter (chopped into dime sized pieces) and mix together with your hands, keeping the butter in their dime size. In another mixing bowl, mix together the egg and milk. Add it to the dough and stir with a wooden spoon until it is well combined. Divide the dough in half and place dough in the refrigerator so that the butter does not melt.

For the filling: In a small saucepan over low heat, add the strawberries, sugar and lemon zest. Keep on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the strawberries start to easily break apart and the sugar is dissolved. Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer filling to a mixing bowl and stir in chia seeds. Wait 10 minutes to allow chia seeds to activate and thicken the filling.

To assemble the pop tarts: Place one of the dough halves on a generously floured work surface, and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8″ thick and 9×12 inches in size.

Roll the second piece of dough just as you did the first.

Using a bench scraper or knife, cut both of the dough halves into 3×4 inch rectangles. Place a tablespoon of the filling in the center of half of the rectangles, the other rectangles will become the tops of the pop tarts.

Place the other rectangles on top of the rectangles with filling (like a sandwich), and using a fork, press the sides of the dough together around the edges.

In a small mixing bow, whisk together the egg and water to create an egg wash. Lightly coat the top of each of the pop tarts with the egg wash.

Transfer the pop tarts to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in the oven at 350 for around 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown.

When you are ready to eat/serve the pop tarts, mixing the powdered sugar with 1 tbsp of the filling to create the glaze (only glaze the pop tarts right before enjoying. If glazed the day before serving, the pop tarts will become mushy). Top with however much glaze your heart desires and enjoy!

Notes

Store on the counter for 2 days, or place in the freezer to keep for later, for up to a month.

Keywords: strawberry, pop tarts, sweets, breakfast, pastry