Homemade Pop Tart Recipe | Flaky, From Scratch Pastries
Skip the box and make this homemade pop tart recipe from scratch! With buttery, flaky pastry and your favorite homemade jam or fruit filling, these easy pastries are perfect for breakfast, lunchboxes, or freezer meal prep. They're simple to customize, family approved, and so much better than store bought!
Servings: 10
Calories: 600kcal
Cost: Varies
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Pastry Cutter or food-processor
- Rolling Pin
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
Pastry Dough
- 4 cups all-purpose flour spoon & level into cup to measure
- 1 ¾ cups lard butter, or coconut oil
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar You can use white vinegar, but I prefer apple cider in baking
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup cold water
Filling
- ¾ cup jam Jelly, pie filling, fruit butter, or applesauce (1 heaping Tablespoon for each Pop-Tart.)
Wash
- 1 Large egg
- 1 Tablespoon water
- 1 Tablespoon sugar to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Mix flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in lard, butter, or coconut oil. Note: In order to achieve a flaky crust, your lard, butter, or coconut oil needs to be cold. It’s the pieces of solid fat distributed throughout the flour which melt upon baking that create the flakiness. You can freeze your butter or lard before cutting it in. The large side of a cheese grater works great with frozen butter.
- Fat is fully cut in when the flour is crumbly pea-size pieces. Add in liquids (your egg is a liquid in this recipe) until the dough just holds together. You don’t want to over mix it.
- Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Separate pie dough into four equal balls, place other 3 pieces of dough back in the fridge.
- Sprinkle flour on the counter, no need for parchment paper with this dough. Roll dough out to a ⅛ inch thick. Using your cookie or canning ring, cut out your circles. If you want the same rectangle shape of pop tarts (I'm too lazy to measure and cut out the dough with a ruler and pizza cutter for anything except homemade croissants) you can roll dough into a 9 x 12 rectangle and cut into 3 x 4-inch rectangles.
- Place cut out dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Put this in the fridge as you roll out the disc of pie crust in the same manner for the tops (depending on how thin you roll, I get 10 circles per disc).
- Bring back out the cookie sheet with the bottom pieces of dough. Place a good-sized Tablespoon of fruit filling in the center. Take your top piece of dough and center it over the filling. With the tip of a sharp knife, cut three slits in the center. Push down on edges of dough to crimp and seal your pop tart. Use the tines of a fork to press them together firmly.
- Once all your pop tarts are filled, topped and sealed, place the cookie sheet back in the fridge.
- Mix together your egg and water until well blended.
- Bring back out the pop tarts and brush with the egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar. Place in preheated oven and bake for 28 to 32 minutes (my oven was 30 minutes).
Video
Notes
Recipe Tips and Troubleshooting:
Making homemade pastry is simple once you know a few tricks.
- Keep all of your ingredients cold.
- Don't overwork the dough.
- Chill the assembled pastries before baking.
- Use thick preserves to prevent leaks.
- Vent the tops so steam can escape.
- Avoid overfilling each pastry.
- Room Temperature: Store cooled Pop-Tarts in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Refrigerator: If your kitchen is especially warm or humid, refrigerate them for up to one week.
- Reheat: To reheat, warm in the oven or toaster oven until heated through. This helps restore the crisp pastry better than using a microwave.
- Freezer: Allow the baked pastries to cool completely before wrapping them individually. Store in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
- Thaw: Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or warm directly from frozen in a low oven until heated through.
Nutrition
Calories: 600kcal | Carbohydrates: 58g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 37g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 17g | Trans Fat: 0.004g | Cholesterol: 71mg | Sodium: 489mg | Potassium: 88mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 54IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 19mg | Iron: 3mg
