Homemade shortbread pop tarts? Uh-huh.
I had been looking for a way to make pop tarts from scratch. The filling was the easy part, the crust is what was perplexing. Recipes I had seen all call for making the crust with pre-made pie crusts. Meh.
Let’s be honest here, pop tarts don’t taste like pie. That’s why Hostess Fruit Pies exist. So all of those recipes calling for pie crust use in this case are wrong. (Or, at the very least, terribly misguided.) After much consideration, I decided that the best option for crust would be a homemade shortbread crust.
As my friend Shari would say: Holy cats!
The shortbread is sweet and buttery and delicious. I flattened the dough into small rounds, placed some decent quality mixed berry preserve in the middle and topped it with another flattened dough the same size as the one on the bottom. These would definitely make Lorelai Gilmore go nuts – aside from the make it from scratch part.
Slice off the sides to give the pop tart its shape. Then, put in the oven for 20 minutes. Once they’re done, take them out and let cool. Drizzle the icing onto the top and add sugar. It’s really that simple.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups butter (unsalted)
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 4 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- jar mixed berry preserves
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- 1/2 cup milk
- decorative sugar
Recipe:
Preheat oven to 350°F
Next, chill the dough for a few minutes until it is easy to form little pancake like shapes. Put a heaping tablespoon of preserve in the middle and spread around. Cover with another pancake shaped round of the shortbread dough. Trim the sides into a pop tart shape/size.
Once they are formed, put on a greased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
While that cooks, mix together the confectioners sugar and milk. (Add in the milk one tablespoon at a time to be sure the icing doesn’t become too runny.)
Take baked tarts out of the over and put on cooling rack to cool. Drizzle on the icing glaze mixture and top that with decorative sugar.
The Things I Think About 
kate made joy the baker’s pumpkin pie pop tarts with maple glaze for my birthday last fall. these look amazing, yum!
Those look better than any Pop Tart I ever had!
there’s a great recipe for homemade pop tarts on smitten kitchen…i’ve made them a bunch of times and they’re fabulous. ( http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/04/homemade-pop-tarts/ ) yours look amazing too…i’m going to have to try those.
I appreciate you acknowledging that pop tarts are different from mini hand pies! I was so frustrated I couldn’t find anything else until I found this recipe! So excited to try it this weekend! 😀