Homemade Pop-Tarts
Updated March 7, 2024
- Total Time
- About 2 hours, plus cooling
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour, plus 1 hour chilling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 6ounces/170 grams cream cheese, at room temperature
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2tablespoons milk or heavy cream, plus more as needed
- 1teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 1tablespoon granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
- 2cups/255 grams all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
- 1egg
- 2cups fresh or frozen berries, roughly chopped
- 2tablespoons granulated sugar, or to taste
- 1 to 2tablespoons water, or lemon or lime juice, plus more as necessary
- 1tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
- 1cup/123 grams powdered sugar
- ¼cup milk or heavy cream, plus more as needed
- 1 to 2teaspoons lemon or lime juice (optional)
- Colorful sparkling sugar or sprinkles
For the Cream Cheese Dough
For the Quick Berry Jam (or Use About 3/4 Cup Thick Store-bought Jam)
For the Glaze (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Make the dough: Place cream cheese, butter, milk, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Using a pastry cutter or two forks, mix together until uniform and smooth. (You shouldn't see chunks of cream cheese or butter.) Add flour and stir until dough comes together and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If it’s dry and not coming together, add more milk or cream (in tiny amounts) as needed.
- Step 2
Move the dough to a lightly floured work surface and gently knead 2 or 3 times. If dough seems sticky or wet, sprinkle on another few teaspoons of flour. When it’s ready, it should feel like fresh Play-Doh, not too sticky and not too dry with no dry, cracked edges or bits of flour remaining. Divide the dough in half and shape into two squares. Flatten them slightly and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or up to 2 days).
- Step 3
While the dough chills, make the jam: Put fruit in a medium saucepan over medium heat. After a minute or so, add sugar, to taste, and stir to combine. Add water or juice and stir to combine.
- Step 4
Simmer (you may need to lower the heat) for 10 to 30 minutes, until the mixture has thickened nicely, adding more liquid if it starts to look too dry, and breaking up large chunks of fruit with a fork or the tip of a wooden spoon. When most of the liquid has evaporated (but the fruit is not sticking to the pan), remove from heat and stir in cornstarch mixture. It will clump together. Set aside to cool completely.
- Step 5
When the dough is chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and unwrap. Place it on a lightly floured surface. (If it’s been in the refrigerator for more than an hour, you may need to let it soften a bit before rolling it out or, give it a few hearty whacks with a rolling pin to soften.)
- Step 6
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Crack egg into a small bowl and whisk.
- Step 7
Using a rolling pin or a wine bottle, roll each piece of dough into a 10-inch square about ⅛-inch thick. Trim the rough edges away with a knife to form a 9-inch square. Cut each piece of dough into three 3-inch by 9-inch strips, 6 total. (While assembling the tarts, you can bake the leftover pieces of dough for a treat. Brush them with a little of the whisked egg and sprinkle with sugar and sprinkles. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 10 to 15 minutes.)
- Step 8
Spoon 1 to 2 tablespoons of jam (or filling of choice) onto the middle of one end of each strip, leaving at least a ½-inch border of dough on three sides. Using a pastry brush or your fingertip, brush a rectangle of egg around the filling (this will act as glue). Fold the dry end over and crimp with a fork on all sides.
- Step 9
Repeat with remaining dough strips. Prick the top of each tart multiple times with a fork to let the steam escape while baking. Move the tarts to the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before icing.
- Step 10
Make the icing: Whisk powdered sugar, milk or cream and lemon or lime juice (if using) together. Add more liquid as needed; you want it to be pourable, but not so loose it’s transparent. Spread or drizzle over the top of each tart and scatter with sprinkles or colored sugar, if desired. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Double the recipe—it’s a lot of work for 6 pop tarts!
Do the butter and cream cheese need to be mixed with forks? Can’t this all be done in a stand mixer?
Brown sugar cinnamon! So good!
This dough was a dream - easy to work with and very flaky result. Used my stand mixer with a very light touch to combine. Tasty tarts, will make again.
Do not add cornstarch
I substituted 1/3 of the flour with whole wheat and found the dough to be really easy. I chilled them before baking and was pleased that dough didn’t weep butter when baked. I had to simmer the strawberries for quite some get the right texture.
These are simple. The length of the directions can give a false sense of complexity, don’t worry. The dough takes maybe five minutes of elbow grease to bring together and it’s nice to handle. I have made them a couple of times with homemade jams. Don’t forget to egg wash the edges to make the dough stick together after you fold the dough to encase the jam.
I doubled the recipe and used my stand mixer. Like someone else commented, they were much paler than the picture. Any suggestions?
I substituted the AP flour for pastry flour and the dough was deliciously tender.
It still tastes good if the frosting is clear. Overall great desert!
I made my dough with my stand mixer - worked perfectly. Glaze recipe is way too thin though. I think the pics must be using frosting.
Easy. Used store bought preserves for ease. Loved the dough, almost looked laminated. It didn't feel time consuming but double the recipe would be great.
It may seem like this is a lot of work for 6 pop tarts but it’s not. Each hand pie is about the same size as a 6th (one piece) of a regular pie. They’re not more difficult to make than a 2-crust pie from scratch. The biggest difference is that the ratio of pastry to filling is a little heavier on pastry for the tarts.
The instructions should be clearer that you don’t blind bake them. I thought the instructions for the left over dough were for the actual pop tarts. Even after reading it over multiple times. Ended up wasting a batch.
The extra bits of dough baked with egg wash and sugar are addictive.
Use the stand mixer
Are you supposed to brush the egg all over the top too? I didn't see that in the instructions, but mine are a lot paler than in the pictures.
I wanted to bake these the night before, but I found that mine didn’t stay crispy/flaky but sorta got soft overnight. Would that imply that I didn’t bake them long enough? Or simply a result of the humidity? Otherwise devine.
I cut the dough strips in half to make 12 smaller Pop Tarts, and used the leftover crust to make a couple more. The dough was easy to work with, and the tarts tasted pretty good.
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