My son, The Musician, has been teasing for pop tarts since school began. I was less than enthusiastic about buying them, however. In my childhood, pop tarts were bigger. You got more in a package. They seemed to taste better (but that may be a faulty memory, as so many childhood memories tend to be).
Then, one morning, The Musician, always looking for a way to get sweets, suggested in a semi-innocent tone, “Why don’t you make them homemade and blog about them? ” He has learned the way, Boy! has he learned the way.
So. I went on a little hunt to find some pop tart recipes. I figured most of them were just pie crust with jam in them. Our favorite variety, however, is brown sugar and cinnamon. I found them at Chickens in the Road, a fun blog by author Suzanne McMinn.
Anyway, here they are:
Make pie crust (or buy the ready made…of course, that would be defeating the whole “make your own” idea, but it is easier and may be more efficient in the long run for some of you.)
1. Info for Homemade Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts
- Cook Time: unavailable
- Total Time: unavailable
- Servings: unavailable
- Calories: unavailable
2. Ingredients for Homemade Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts
- crust:
- 1⅓ cups fat (butter, lard, shortening, tallow…use a combination of two for the best flavor)*
- 4 cups flour
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- ⅔ cup cold water
- *that may seem like a lot of fat, basically, you are making enough pie crust for 3 pies….play with the amount and see if you get good results
- Filling:
- 3 Tbsp butter
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- Glaze:
- 1-2 tsp milk (you don’t want this runny)
- 1 tsp cinnamon (for the brown sugar filling)
- .
3. Directions:
- Combine the fat, flour, salt and sugar with a pastry blender or in a food processor.
- Add the water a little at a time, mixing with a fork or food processor until it forms a slightly moist ball.
- Divide into two balls and roll out on a floured surface.
- At this point, you can trim off the edges so you have nice, neat rectangles, but I didn’t want to waste any, so these are less than perfect.
- For the filling, you can as I said, use jam or chop up some apple pie filling.
- We chose to the brown sugar variety: Melt butter and combine with sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Cut your pie crust into smaller rectangles…making sure you cut an even number (tops and bottoms).
- Sprinkle some of the filling (about 1-2 Tbsp) on every other one.
- Carefully place a top piece on the filling.
- Using a fork, crimp the edges shut to seal in the filling, but prick the tops to vent.
- If you are using jam or a fruit filling, this is especially important or you will have a mess on your baking sheet.
- Transfer the pop tarts to a cookie sheet (I put a silpat on mine).
- Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes, switching from the top wrack to the bottom wrack halfway through the baking time.
- You will know they are done when they get a little tan around the edges and loose the shiny look in the middle.
- Remove from the pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
- Combine all the glaze ingredients in a bowl, whisking briskly to remove lumps.
- Spread over baked pop tarts.
