Homemade Pop-Tarts

I'm so behind on my DIY/food projects for the year! I don't think I realized how busy life in general has gotten lately especially with my cake/cupcake business. I'm hoping to get caught back up and on track again, these were a good one to start with. I had every intention of making these in March for my monthly food project and just finally got around to trying them last night.

Up until the last year I don't think my youngest two girls even knew what a Pop-Tart was. I simply don't buy things like this at the store. I've said before, packaged items like these are generally more expensive and I'd rather use our grocery money towards wholesome food that will fill them up. Plus I love to bake so I make them plenty of yummy treats to enjoy and I feel better about knowing what's going into their bodies.

I've seen tons of recipes for homemade pop-tarts all over the Internet and Pinterest. Most of them seemed to use a basic pie dough as the crust and then filled with their choice of jam. I used my favorite pie crust recipe and a good homemade strawberry rhubarb jam for the filling. They were really quite easy to make, I apologize for not taking any pictures of the process; but I have faith in you, you can really make these with no troubles! We liked them just as much without the glaze, but the girls all thought they looked pretty with a little glaze and some fun sprinkles.

They are definitely more of a treat or dessert I think. I won't be serving these for breakfast, they need something more filling and with more nutrition. I made the mistake of buying some store bought crust because I only had enough pie dough for 1 small batch and didn't know how many it would make. Big Mistake! I can't tell you how much I don't like store bought pie crust. I was just being plain lazy. It really only takes a few minutes to whip up a batch, especially when you use a food processor to help do the work for you. If you must buy store bought pie crust, I won't judge.....but seriously, they taste so much better when you make your own.

After I made the first batch, we determined they were a lot bigger than we needed them to be. So I made the next batch more of a kid friendly size. Aren't they cute? And no, mine are not all perfect, I even had some jam oozing out.

Final product! Both big and small sizes, I sure hope you give these a try! They really are a fun treat for the kiddos and the filling options are pretty much endless. The girls are already wanting me to make some with a chocolate and marshmallow filling....yum!

Homemade Pop-Tarts

Ingredients:

Pie crust recipe, your own favorite pie crust recipe or store bought

good quality jam, I used a homemade strawberry rhubarb

1 cup powdered sugar

3-4 tablespoons milk

fun sprinkles, if desired

Directions:

On a lightly floured surface roll dough out pretty thin but still manageable. With a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut off edges to make an even square. Then cut the dough into smaller squares, you'll have to judge on how big you want them. Don't worry if they're not exactly even, you can fix them once you put the pop-tarts together.

To assemble, place one piece of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet. Top with about 1 tbsp. of jam filling, spread the jam a little but not getting too close to the edges. Cover the dough with another piece of pie crust and make sure to seal the edges using your fingertips. Then take a fork dipped in flour and make impressions all the way around the tarts.

Bake at 350 for 23-25 minutes for larger tarts, 15 minutes for smaller. You'll want them to be a little golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Then mix the powdered sugar and milk to make a glaze, add more milk if needed to get your desired consistency. Drizzle glaze over cooled tarts and decorate with sprinkles.

One whole batch of pie dough (2 crusts) should make around 10+ large pop-tarts.