I was really excited to try the Homemade Poptart idea. It’s been one of those things I’ve long wanted to experiment with.
I used a different crust recipe because I’d already tried the recipe Laura uses and we weren’t big fans of it. So I used my own {yes, I’m a rebel like that! ;)}.
One of my readers had recommended that I put lots of filling on the poptarts because, otherwise, she said they’d be really bland. However, I think I went a little overboard and when I put the tops on, there was jelly spilling out — and it only got worse once I crimped the edges with a fork!
I decided to be more conservative with the jelly the next time around and it worked better.
The end result wasn’t all that pretty — and most of them crumbled when I tried to take them off the baking sheet. They tasted pretty good, but weren’t very sweet at all. If your family is used to storebought poptarts, you’d probably need to drizzle glaze on them to make them sweet enough.
My conclusion on the homemade poptart experiment is that it’s not something our family will be regularly making. They seemed very time-consuming to make and they didn’t wow us at all. In fact, it kind of reminded me of my Homemade Uncrustables experiment.
That said, there is some kind of coolness factor to being able to say that you made homemade poptarts. It seems almost on par with the novelty of making homemade marshmallows. 🙂
My daughter made me home made poptarts for my birthday this morning. She used refrigerated pie crust and strawberry jam. They were delicious!
When I “crimp” the edges I use my sandwich pocket maker. My son hates the crust on his sandwich and this little gadget I got cuts the crust and pinches the bread together so I took the middle piece out and used and it worked perfectly. You do need to make sure you poke a few holes in the top or will explode. My kids love that I make non-conventional ones with my homemade peach jam. 🙂 I also make my crust slightly thicker and they hold up better.
I didn’t go through all 46 comments, so I don’t know if this has been said already. BUT! I use the premade pie crust from the refrigerated section and then just use fresh fruit mixed with a little cornstarch (just like if you were making a pie) and that was my filling and they were delicious. My husband even liked them and he is my toughest critic.
I am thinking you could use a ravioli mold and turn out some really cute mini poptarts easily. That being said, I am gluten free so I won’t be trying it. 🙂
OK – You are the best – I have to say that I laughed out loud at the final result – that is SO something I would do, what a good sport you are to post it and I SO know that feeling of just wanting to be done and hurrying through the last torturous steps to get it finished, especially during freezer cooking!
I like them, BUT . . . I prefer to use more of a heavy pastry type crust. Probably something more along the lines of what you use to make your cinnamon twists, and I like homemade chunky applesauce in them. It’s not quite as sweet as apple pie, but the apple has enough flavor to hold on with the crust/dough. 🙂
We always got to make jam tarts with my mom’s leftover pie crust. Roll/cut it to the shape you want, spoon some jam in the middle, bake on a cookie sheet, bake until crust is done/golden. No lid, but no lid needed. And, if you try saving/freezing and reheating, I am sure they would ‘toast’ lightly just fine in a toaster oven – they just wouldn’t “pop” (from a standard toaster). 🙂
Time saving tip: Why not make it into a 9×13 with a bottom and top crust, crimp around the whole thing on a cookie sheet or just make in a 9×13 pan w/o crimping. Put lots of filling in the middle and cut with a pizza wheel on the cookie sheet or knife in a pan and call it cereal bars. I’m going to experiment with once a month mom’s cereal bar crust and use homemade freezer jam this weekend.
I was getting ready to try these, but I think I’ll pass. Sounds like to much work for a pop tart. lol ! I appreciate you sharing your disappointments as well as your success. Have a great weekend! Diane @ MamalDiane.com
I haven’t tried these yet, but I’ve been thinking about trying a cream cheese crust instead. Not super healthy, but maybe a nice snack once in a while. 🙂
I have to put glaze on them for them to be sweet enough and I agree they’re not like a super health food anyway.
I think poptarts are overrated anyway. I’ll take cinnamon rolls any day! Have you seen the recipe that was floating around at Easter with the crescent rolls and marshmallows? I’ll try to find the link and paste it below. I think one could modify it with homemade dough if you wanted it to be healthier.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/resurrection-rolls/
I just bought a contraption from pampered chef that will cut and seal the crust for these or your uncrustables.
I havent tried it yet and i didnt read through all the comments so i dont know if someone already mentioned them but i cant wait to use it!
in the comments on laura’s website (where the original recipe came from) someone said they used the cut and seal and made circular one’s and it worked great!
Love you!!! So love to know I’m not the only one who makes kitchen disasters and then takes pics of them! Today we made the chewy granola bars you posted about a few days ago — I want to EAT THEM ALL! So good.
I think it depends a lot on wether you are using freshly ground wheat with Laura’s recipe. Also with pastry wheat you ack the cup with hard wheat you “sift” the cup.
We’re a picky household and I was a little hesitant to make these but saw them on your menu. I made them today and they were a big hit! I changed a few things because of pantry constraints – I actually subbed 1c. sour cream for 1c. yogurt since I didn’t have any and did 1/2 white unbleached flour, 1/2 whole wheat flour because my husband doesn’t dig the whole wheat. They ended up so tasty – nutty because of the wheat and slightly crunchy. I will definitely be rotating these into our breakfast menu.
I have a friend that makes homemade marshmellows in all flavors and they are DIVINE! She sells them and they are pricey but totally worth it! Your project here makes me think of when I made homemade ice cream sandwhiches for my 5 kids. Totally not worth it! But, I have the privilege of saying I’ve done it!
Really? We loved Laura’s recipe for a flaky pop tart that is more like a pastry. I found that rolling her dough pretty thin, like a pie crust, we got good results. They are a lot of work though, even if they are good!
I just came across a recipe for homemade poptarts yesterday.Here’s how:
Heat oven to 400.Cut packaged piecrust into 3 inch squares.Spread with jam or filling, top with another square, crimp edges together, transfer to cookie sheet, and bake 9 minutes.Top off with pretty frosting and sprinkles. These may not be healthy but they sure looked delicious.;)
I have a very recipe that I use that’s like Laura’s but I use greek yogurt instead of regular yogurt and more white flour. It’s a family recipe that’s always worked well for me:)
Crystal, I think that was me who suggested adding more jam – I see you took me seriously – LOL! For us, the crust was just bland and doughy and it soaked up the jam so there didn’t seem to be much filling left. Like you, my family just didn’t enjoy them. For the amount of effort involved and their lack of interest, we won’t be making them again. My kids would rather eat your muffins and pancakes all day long anyway 🙂
😉
I used greek yogurt and they were delish! Sprinkled a touch of sugar on the outside and kids loved it as a special treat!
It may have worked easier if you had chilled the dough too. An nightly retreat in your fridge would have made the dough easier to work with.
I was thinking that would have definitely made it easier, but I wasn’t that patient! 😉
I tried to make them once, using ready made pie dough. It really wasn’t all that time consuming, but like you, all the filling leaked out. I did lots of fork crimping, although I didn’t poke holes in the top.
I need to try the homemade poptarts. I invested in a Cut-N-Seal from Pampered Chef for homemade uncrustables and wonder if I can use it to made the poptarts. I have gotten my money’s worth for the Cut-N-Seal. My 5 year old daughter will only take peanut butter and jelly in her lunch to school.
Gina at Home Joys has a recipe that worked for me the first time I tried them. My boys really loved them, but they are time consuming! Here is the link: http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2010/05/homemade-pop-tarts.html
They look pretty tasty to me! Crust and jelly = yum.
They do look like a lot of work!
What a crackup.. I made some pigs in a blanket the other day with an almond meal “pastry”.. they looked just as good as your poptarts, lol
jenetta
You really really should. They are totally worth it.
Well, if they were super healthful or my family was big poptart fans, I’d definitely be tempted to. 🙂
That’s how we felt… we tried them but didn’t really care for them. We don’t like the store ones anyway… and these aren’t super healthful as you said… there’s so many other great things to try and things we do like… we’ll stick with those. 🙂
I think your main problem with both the pop tarts and the uncrustables is your fork crimping method. Try just using 1/4 inch of the end of the fork to seal them and you won’t interfere with the filling as much and the texture of the center will be much better since you won’t be smushing 2/3 of the item with the fork 🙂
I think I was a little overly aggressive with the fork because I was just ready to be *done* at that point! But yes, you are totally right that I have in no way perfected fork crimping!! Maybe I should learn a lesson to just stay away from recipes that call for it. 🙂
I tried the crust from the link you put up and after taking one bite, I just threw them out. Blech! Fun to try though and I think with a sweeter crust recipe it would be ok.
I giggled at the end because I remember BOTH of those flops, the marshmallows and the uncrustables!!! Sometimes, though, I think the flops are what makes cooking from scratch so fun. I mean, really… no success story ever begins with, “Remember that one time when…”. After all, THOSE are the best memories!!!
The marshmallows were actually a big success (click through the link in the post to read more) — but I’ve had plenty of other flops to make up for them!
I like this recipe-http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/04/homemade-pop-tarts/
Poking holes in the top is key to them not exploding.
Oh, I’m digging the chocolate idea!!! You people are going to convince me to try this idea again at this rate. 🙂
I was going to suggest using the recipe on Smitten Kitchen as well. I’ve deeply loved everything I’ve made from that site- Deb is amazeballs.
i have a recipe that uses a plastic bag to roll them in. You can freeze them too after they are rolled out. They are whole grain too. My kids loved them and they were so nice you didn’t need the glaze. They turn out perfect everytime. You just need to find the right one and they will work out.
I’ve actually had really good experiences making them…I did like them better when I used my own crust recipe though. My husband and family loved them. I think the trick I found is heaping a lot of jam in the middle, but leaving a good-sized border around the edges for crimping–probably 1/2-1 inch wide. Then you have the flavor of more jam but a lot less mess. Hope you don’t give up on them! They really are delicious and fun.
I agree! We love them here. I use Laura’s recipe without changing a thing and we like the flavor of the crust. I found though that I need to roll the dough out very thin. Also agree on the one heap of jam in the middle!
I made homemade Pop Tarts awhile back (before we were gluten free) and I thought they were really tasty but they were a lot of work. We liked them more than it seemed like your family did but it would be a rare treat.
I did want to share that I made the chocolate coconut cups the other day – thought they were okay – BUT I made another batch with a peanut butter filling (1/2 c peanut butter with 1/4 c powdered sugar) and they were amazing. I will be making those OFTEN!
One other thing- just slightly fork the edges. You don’t have to go very far in. It might help to put a little water on the fork (not dripping) or even a little egg white.
Is it humid in your house? hot? When I make mine and I’ve got the heater on, I pop open the kitchen window. I also put 1/2 the dough in the fridge while I make the first batch, then work on the second ones. It’s a lot easier and cuts the effort time down to 20 minutes or so.
My friend made them in a heart shape which I thought was a neat idea. They were really good also.
We like them too, I made them 2 weeks ago. I agreed they were sweet like store bought, but i used fresh fruit,with no sugar and should have rolled them out alittle more. (we used the yogurt crust) But we paired them up with yogurt in the morning and they were a huge hit. (dipped in yogurt)
I figured this was a healthy breakfast pair with a fuirt.
Ohh, I love homemade marshmallows!