Does anyone else enjoy an old-school, packaged pop-tart? I know I do!
Munchkin asked for them at the food store recently, for the first time, so I grabbed him a box of strawberry ones. Not gonna lie, they were super yummy. I eat well and avoid eating too much junk food; but I did not see anything wrong with indulging in one of those delicious, silver wrapped snacks.
As I was eating my pop-tart, I thought about how fun it would be to make our own pop-tarts! I had never dabbled with the idea but it did not seem all that hard; reminded me of baking a mini pie. So, a few days later Munchkin and I set out to pick up all necessary pop-tart ingredients and got busy baking!!
We loved how these came out; especially my husband! I was a little concerned that they did not taste exactly like a pop-tart and my husband assured me that it was a good thing; after all, mine were homemade and store bought ones are definitely not. I used my go-to pie crust recipe from The Italian Dish; I love this recipe! It is so easy and can be done right in the food processor! I doubled the recipe and I had just enough for six pop-tarts. Normally, when I bake a homemade pie, I follow her instructions to blind bake the crust, which always comes out great. I did this for the pop-tarts, but I would not recommend it; I had a hard time working with them afterwards and many of the bottoms broke while adding the top dough layer. Just make sure you score the bottom of the dough well before adding the filling, to prevent bubbling.
I cooked my apple mixture down first and added a corn starch and water mixture to create a thick, apple cinnamon center. I was also not shy with the filling; I did not want to end up with all crust and only a small taste of apple cinnamon. I even had some leftover green sugar sprinkles in the cupboard we used for the top!
Check out the recipe I put together below and give it a try, you wont be disappointed!!
Homemade Apple Cinnamon Pop-Tarts
Total time: About 2-2 1/2 hours, including dough chill time
parchment paper or ridged baking sheet
pizza cutter (you can use a knife if you don’t have one)
large and small mixing bowls
Dough Ingredients (you will need to double this to make six pop-tarts):
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into slices
1/4 c. ice water (this is approximately, I usually use maybe half this amount per dough)
Place flour and sugar in food processor. Pulse.
Add about half the butter. Pulse.
Add the rest of the butter.
Pulse until the mixture turns into coarse crumbs.
Through the feeding tube, slowly add the ice water and pulse until the dough forms a ball. Make sure to not add too much, I only use about half this amount when I make my pie crust.
Take the dough and flatten it into a disk. Place between two pieces of floured plastic wrap, roll up, and set in the fridge for 30 minutes. Caution: if you leave it in for too long you will have a hard time rolling it as the butter will harden.
To make the filling you will need:
3 Peeled Granny Smith Apples
Chop up apples into small pieces.
Mix apples, sugars, lemon juice, and cinnamon together in large mixing bowl.
In a large saucepan, combine the apple cider and 1/2 c. water; bring to a boil.
Add the apple mixture and reduce to low; cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
In a small cup or bowl, combine the tbsp. of cornstarch and tbsp. of water and mix thoroughly.
Add the cornstarch mixture to the filling, stirring well to evenly distribute it.
Remove from heat, leave lid off so it may cool.
Once the dough is chilled, you are ready to start assembling your pop-tarts!
1. Preheat oven to 375. Roll out dough, no more than 1/8 inch thick; a little thinner is OK. Using a pizza cutter, cut out a rectangle and set your scraps aside, you will reuse this as you continue to roll out your pop-tarts. You may find the dough is very sticky; you can roll the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap to help with this. Or, you can add flour to lessen the stick and use a flat faced spatula when transferring the dough to the baking pan.
2. Using the pizza cutter, cut the dough into smaller, even rectangles. Transfer to your baking pan (you can use the flat spatula to do so, if needed) and score with a toothpick or fork. You will get six small rectangles from each dough batch. If you do not have a ridged baking sheet, make sure to line your sheet with parchment paper.
3. Add your filling. Don’t be shy, but leave space around the edges for the tops to fully enclose the filling. *As I said before, I blind baked the bottoms (which I do not recommend) so my picture will look a little different, but I want to show you how much filling I used. I had a little filling left over so that is OK if you do.
4. Add your tops and make sure to score them as well. Using a floured fork (so it does not stick to the dough), crimp the edges; press top edges down so they meet the bottom dough layer and holds in the filling.
5. All assembled! Place in oven and cook for 15-20 minutes; or until the edges are golden brown. Once finished, transfer to a wire rack with your spatula and let cool completely before glazing.
For the Glaze You Will Need:
Whisk ingredients together in a small mixing bowl. If your glaze is too watery, add another tbsp. or two of sugar confectioners sugar.
Pour about a 1 tbsp. of glaze onto each pop-tart; to distribute glaze evenly.
Add sprinkles, if desired.
Let glaze harden for 10-15 minutes.
This was a very fun dessert to make!! The crust is delicious and the filling was just right! I am not usually a fan of cooked apples but I was definitely eating the filling with a spoon it tasted so good. I hope you give them a try and let me know what you think!
Homemade Apple Cinnamon Pop-Tarts! Does anyone else enjoy an old-school, packaged pop-tart? I know I do! Munchkin asked for them at the food store recently, for the first time, so I grabbed him a box of strawberry ones.
