Our friends Jim and Colleen invited us over to their house to watch the Super Bowl, and I decided to bring some Homemade Pop-Tarts from Stella Parks' Bravetart. This is a somewhat convoluted recipe that Stella describes as "more like an arts-and-crafts project than a traditional recipe," but I was looking forward to trying it because she also describes the results as "freakishly authentic" and says her homemade Pop-Tarts taste "exactly like the original."
The recipe headnote mentions that the thick strawberry filling for the Pop-Tarts doesn't bubble or drip, and can "survive the wrath of a toaster." Just about everything about the filling surprised me: it's strawberry filling but made mostly of apples, and you form it into sheets. The filling contains ground freeze-dried strawberries processed with dried apples and applesauce. The resulting mixture was a very thick pale-colored paste that I rolled out between two sheets of parchment, cut into rectangles, and put in the refrigerator to dry out. The filling reminded me a lot -- in terms of texture and flavor -- of the fruit wrap strips I occasionally buy at Trader Joe's. I didn't think the color was all that appetizing (the filling has only 1.25 ounces of strawberries and 12 ounces of apples, so it was basically apple colored with a slight tinge of pink) and the strawberry flavor wasn't that strong either. So I decided that I would grind some more freeze-dried strawberries and I dipped both sides of each piece of filling in the powdered strawberries before assembling the Pop-Tarts.
Making the dough is easy. You mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cubed cold butter, and corn syrup, and knead until you get a smooth ball. You can roll out the dough immediately and cut it into rectangles. You then form sandwiches of two dough rectangles around a rectangle of chilled filling. I docked each of the assembled Pop-Tarts and chilled them before baking. The pieces of filling (2.5-inches by 3.5-inches) are not much smaller than the dough pieces (3.25-inches by 4.25-inches), so there wasn't much of a dough border around the edges of the Pop-Tarts. But no crimping was needed. The dough sealed itself during baking and there were no gaps or filling leakage.
After the Pop-Tarts were baked and cooled, I made the glaze. It's just a mixture of powdered sugar, milk, salt, and vanilla. The glaze was perfect to work with -- it spread easily with a pastry brush but was nicely opaque. I added some rainbow sprinkles and the glaze set firm. I was delighted with the way my Pop-Tarts looked; except for my use of rainbow sprinkles instead of the pink, green, and red color scheme of the original, they were pretty spot on.
And the Pop-Tarts were fantastic. The pastry was buttery and very close to the texture of the original; even though I ate my Pop-Tart untoasted, it was still full of flavor. The filling was very good but barely identifiable as strawberry. If I have one criticism, it's that I sort of missed the bright red jammy and intense strawberry filling of the real thing. I have many happy memories of eating a lot of strawberry Pop-Tarts as a kid and the color of the filling still stands out in my mind -- even though I know it's artificially colored. But I do appreciate how the filling in the homemade version stays put so nicely, and my Pop-Tarts were a big hit with the adults and children alike.
This is one of those rare occasions where I think the homemade version of a commercial pastry looks and tastes just as good as the original. The different filling is a dead giveaway between the two, but I'm tempted to make these again and perhaps add a little natural strawberry extract to the filling to boost the flavor. The cookbook also has a brown sugar-cinnamon Pop-Tart variation that I want to try. I give this recipe and its true-to-the-original results a huge thumbs up!
Recipe: "Homemade Pop-Tarts" from Bravetart by Stella Parks. The recipe in the cookbook is substantially different from the one Stella shared on Serious Eats years ago.
Previous Posts:
The recipe headnote mentions that the thick strawberry filling for the Pop-Tarts doesn't bubble or drip, and can "survive the wrath of a toaster." Just about everything about the filling surprised me: it's strawberry filling but made mostly of apples, and you form it into sheets. The filling contains ground freeze-dried strawberries processed with dried apples and applesauce. The resulting mixture was a very thick pale-colored paste that I rolled out between two sheets of parchment, cut into rectangles, and put in the refrigerator to dry out. The filling reminded me a lot -- in terms of texture and flavor -- of the fruit wrap strips I occasionally buy at Trader Joe's. I didn't think the color was all that appetizing (the filling has only 1.25 ounces of strawberries and 12 ounces of apples, so it was basically apple colored with a slight tinge of pink) and the strawberry flavor wasn't that strong either. So I decided that I would grind some more freeze-dried strawberries and I dipped both sides of each piece of filling in the powdered strawberries before assembling the Pop-Tarts.
Making the dough is easy. You mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cubed cold butter, and corn syrup, and knead until you get a smooth ball. You can roll out the dough immediately and cut it into rectangles. You then form sandwiches of two dough rectangles around a rectangle of chilled filling. I docked each of the assembled Pop-Tarts and chilled them before baking. The pieces of filling (2.5-inches by 3.5-inches) are not much smaller than the dough pieces (3.25-inches by 4.25-inches), so there wasn't much of a dough border around the edges of the Pop-Tarts. But no crimping was needed. The dough sealed itself during baking and there were no gaps or filling leakage.
This is one of those rare occasions where I think the homemade version of a commercial pastry looks and tastes just as good as the original. The different filling is a dead giveaway between the two, but I'm tempted to make these again and perhaps add a little natural strawberry extract to the filling to boost the flavor. The cookbook also has a brown sugar-cinnamon Pop-Tart variation that I want to try. I give this recipe and its true-to-the-original results a huge thumbs up!
Recipe: "Homemade Pop-Tarts" from Bravetart by Stella Parks. The recipe in the cookbook is substantially different from the one Stella shared on Serious Eats years ago.
Previous Posts:
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Pop Tarts with Peanut Butter and Jam Filling," August 13, 2017.
- "Pop Goes the Pop Tart: Homemade Pop-Tarts," August 8, 2011.
Comments