I ate pop tarts every single morning as a kid. Cold, never toasted, and with a glass of milk – it was my go-to. Feeling nostalgic, I decided to re-make my childhood favorite and created these Homemade Pop Tarts with Honey Blackberry Filling. They came together surprisingly easily, and tasted better than my go-to breakfasts of yore.
I took “homemade” very seriously in this recipe and scratch-made everything: the dough, the filling AND the frosting. The best part is that I only used 8 ingredients:
- flour
- salt
- butter
- cold water
- egg
- blackberries
- honey
- powdered sugar
To me, the extra work to scratch-make everything was worth it, and it was a fun weekend activity. Cooking and baking can be pretty relaxing sometimes. Though, if you are in a bind you could also just pick up some store-bought dough and jam (for the filling) and make this a lot easier on yourself.
I was also pretty curious to see what the nutrition looked like for these homemade pop tarts, so I ran the numbers…
If you make five pop tarts, the nutrition for one breaks down to about:
- 310 calories
- 15 g total fat
- 40 g carbs
- 20 g sugar
- 4 g protein
Not too bad, but I would categorize these guys as desserts. Definitely not a part of your complete breakfast.
Diving into the process of making these, it’s just four simple steps:
- Make the dough
- Prepare the filling
- Whip up the icing
- Put the pop tart together
Step 1: Make the dough
Making the dough is really simple. It only has four ingredients (flour, salt, butter and cold water) that get mixed together and then refrigerated before getting rolled out.
Step 2: Prepare the filling
Next, it’s time to make the two-ingredient filling, and it’s even easier than step 1.
Put your blackberries in a sauce pan with honey and simmer until everything comes together, about 10-15 minutes or so.
Step 3: Whip up the icing
Use the leftover blackberry + honey “juice” from your filling and mix that with some powdered sugar and water to make an awesome, vibrant purple icing.
Step 4: Put the pop tart together
Once the dough, filling and icing are ready, you can assemble the homemade pop tarts for baking.
Crimping the edges and cutting slits in the top of the pop tart are both key to make sure the pop tart holds up while baking! While they’re baking, you could clean up, or watch your favorite show, read a book, or go play with your dog… you should probably go play with your dog. Also, if you didn’t get to the blackberry honey icing earlier then you could whip that up now.
After the pop tarts have baked and become golden brown, allow them to cool to room temperature. Then, you can start “decorating” with the homemade icing. Let your art skills shine.
These Homemade Pop Tarts with Blackberry Honey Icing did not last long…
Let’s get economical with these Homemade Pop Tarts with Honey Blackberry Filling:
- 1 cup all purpose flour – $0.15
- 1/2 tsp salt – $0.01
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp butter – $0.38
- 3 tbsp ice cold water – Free
- 1 egg (for egg wash) – $0.25
- 12 oz blackberries (2 packages) – $1.38 (on a great sale – $0.69/6oz pkg)
- 2 tbsp honey – $0.30
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar – $0.16
- 2 tsp water – $0.00
- 2 tsp blackberry & honey mixture from the filling – Free
The grand total is $2.63, or about $0.53 per pop tart. This is more expensive than regular store bought pop tarts, yes, but this is a premium homemade tart. If you are willing to spend the extra dough, it’s worth it.
These Homemade Pop Tarts give the childhood classic a run for its money.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp ice cold water
- 1 egg (for egg wash)
- 12 oz blackberries (2 packages)
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp water
- 2 tsp blackberry & honey mixture from the filling
Instructions
- Chop your cold butter into small pieces.
- Mix all the dough ingredients together until they are incorporated thoroughly, using a stand mixer if you have one. Be sure not to overwork the dough.
- Form the dough into a ball and let it chill for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Cook the blackberries and honey together in a saucepan over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes.
- Strain the excess liquid and transfer your blackberry filling to a bowl to cool. Save the strained liquid for your icing.
- Mix your strained blackberry honey liquid, cold water and powdered sugar in a bowl and mix until it becomes icing consistency, about 1-2 minutes.
- Save the icing in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Once the first three components are done (dough, filling and icing), roll out your pastry dough into two even rectangles (if you can). The dough should be pretty thin, about 1 cm, but not breaking. One sheet will be the bottom and the other the top to your pop tarts.
- On both pieces of dough, cut about 4-5 equal rectangles for your individual pop tarts, then cool the dough again in the refrigerator for a couple minutes on a floured cooking sheet.
- On half of the dough (the bottom pieces), dollop a little bit of your blackberry filling into the center of the rectangle, ensuring to leave room at the edges to crimp the top dough down.
- Bring your top pieces of dough over the bottom pieces to cover the filling, then crimp the edges of the dough with a fork to seal them shut.
- Cut some slits in the top of your dough, and apply the egg wash to the outside of the dough with a brush (put your egg in a small bowl and beat to make the egg wash).
- Bake the pastries in the oven for about 24-27 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Once cooled, add the icing to the pop tarts and decorate them however else you would like.
These look fun to make, and way more delicious than regular store bought pop tarts!
Agreed, hope you give them a try!