Strawberry Pop Tarts Recipe
fresh strawberry jam is the star here
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Pop tarts. Sticky. Sweet. Warm. Gooey. Love in a rectangular pastry. My oldest loves them. And he wanted some today. However, in true “best Mom ever” fashion, I didn’t have any. We had been out for days. He only tolerated my neglectful ways. But his patience wore off and he wore out that “pop tart” button on his AAC device. For those of you who are new hear, my son does not speak and uses a communication app in which he pushes buttons, and it speaks his thoughts.
I could have Doordashed some, but I wanted to make them. I had energy today.
My kids love these and I hope you do as well.
You will need:
Fridge pie dough (two boxes, maybe?)
16 oz fresh strawberries
Sugar
Lemon juice
Powdered sugar
Vanilla
An egg
Parchment paper
Milk (or cream)
Honestly, there is nothing better than homemade goods, but sometimes we ain’t got time for all of that and store-bought will have to do.
But if you have a little time, make something from scratch.
Like these strawberry pop tarts.
Alright let’s get after it shall we?
Oh, wait before we continue:
This ain’t no regular schmegular recipe card. All over the place and filled with stuff that probably shouldn’t be there but you gon’ get it anyway cause chaotic baking is where it’s at.
NOW, we can continue.
We make a lot of pop tarts. And we buy them a lot too. I am busy as hell these days so I don’t always use a from scratch dough, sometimes I buy a pillsbury pie crust and take it from there. Always keep these things on hand, they are life savers for real.
So, use refrigerated pie dough.
Ain’t no shame in it. It’s still homemade, lol.
If you would like to use a from scratch pie dough I will share a recipe next time. For now, just pretend you are too busy for all that, cause I am gonna pretend you too busy.
Easy for the win, y’all.
Preheat oven to 400.
The jam y’all.
Your saucepan is gonna have to be like ya girl, heavy bottomed.
You’ll need ¾ cup of sugar, about a pound of fresh strawberries (diced), and two tablespoons lemon juice.
Mix your sugar, strawberries and lemon juice in the saucepan over medium high heat.
Make sure you are stirring continuously and mashing your berries at the same time.
Bring to a boil, let your sugar dissolve. Keep stirring.
Turn your heat down to medium or whatever will keep it simmering…what, I don’t know y’all stoves. I only know mine.
You are gonna wanna let it simmer for like ten minutes. It’ll get thick like me.
Cut your heat off.
Now, you have to make a decision: chunky like mwah or smooth?
I will tell you that chunky pop tarts sound…interesting and might even be tasty as heck, but we are gonna stay as true to the original as possible, so smooth, y’all.
I use a ninja blender to murder the last bits of strawberry that survived the mashing in the pot. It gets all smooth and creamy.
And thicka than a snicka.
Now, I am not the most patient person, I put that jam in a jar, seal it up and I’ll try to let it cool on the counter, but I end up throwing it in the fridge. However, I am gonna put it in a pop tart to pop into the oven so, you can leave it out or put it in the cool box for a bit.
Unroll your pie dough. You can hit it with a rolling pin but you really ain’t gotta do this. Now, if you want to make eight decent sized pop tarts, consider buying two packages of fridge pie dough for a total of four plastic wrapped dough disks.
You are going to cut the edges (circles don’t have edges do they?) to shape a square and then cut those into fours. You are going to do that with the other three pie disks.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. This is necessary for the mess leaky jam can leave behind but also because your pop tart won’t stick as much and be easier to remove.
You’ll need an egg for an egg wash. Basically, crack an egg in a bowl and beat the jiggle out of it.
Place your pop tart bottoms on the parchment paper.
Take a dollop of strawberry jam and drop it in the center. Gently push it around, spreading it, but not all the way to the edges.
Line the edges of the pop tart bottom, avoiding the jam with egg wash.
Place another pie dough piece on top and gently press the edges so the egg wash can do it’s sticky thing.
Crimp the edges with a fork.
You can poke little holes into the top. I have done this before my my jam always came out the top and it was a oozy mess, so I stopped doing it.
If you choose to do this, be careful.
Or maybe I just suck at this. You might fare better than I did. Who knows?
Repeat until you have made all your little pop tarts. Brush some egg wash onto your pop tarts.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Now, I don’t ever check the time, I just check the pop tarts and if they look done, I pull them out. If they don’t, I don’t. I know this doesn’t help you but like I said, chaotic baking is what I do.
While it’s baking, lets make some icing.
Now, here’s where it really gets chaotic.
I literally grab a cup or so of powdered sugar and dump into a bowl. I add a swig of vanilla extract, and a little milk (or cream), like a tablespoon. I stir the mess out of it and look at the thickness. You don’t want it too thin. I take a bit of the leftover jam (if there’s any left) and I add it to the icing. That’s how it gets its awesome pink color and tastes awesome. No food dye y’all.
I keep playing around with the powdered sugar, milk, and jam ratios until I get a kinda thick mixture.
Take your pop tarts out the oven. Place on cooling rack. Do not put icing on hot pop tarts. Recipe for disaster.
Again, I am impatient I put them in the fridge after being on the cooling rack for about five minutes or so. I let them cool down in there.
Ice your pop tarts. Don’t put too much on there, a little goes a long way. Hit them with some sprinkles if you’d like.
You done.
Go to town on them pop tarts.
Enjoy.
