Homemade Brown Sugar Cinnamon Hand Tarts
For many, pop tarts are a nostalgic food, but the ingredients are subpar. Although a little labor intensive, the result of this recipe was well worth it. I will be including the ingredients I used as well as easier to access ingredients listed.
Ingredients:
For the tart dough:
2.5 cups einkorn all purpose flour or regular all purpose flour
2 tsp coconut sugar or granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
16 tablespoons butter, cold and cubed
1/4 cup cold water, more or less based on the texture of your dough when baking
For the filling:
1/2 cup brown sugar (you COULD try coconut sugar here, but I’m going to be up front, I think it will affect the texture of your filling)
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1 tablespoon flour
For the egg wash:
1 egg and 2 tbsp water
For the glaze:
3/4 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tbsp milk
Cinnamon to taste
Dash of vanilla
(Note: I’m going to be very real with you guys, I didn’t measure super accurately here. I probably ended up with close to a cup of powdered sugar by the time I was done and 3-4 tbsp milk. I kind of mixed it and added sugar or milk until I had the texture I wanted, which was a thick but spreadable glaze. You don’t want it running off of your pop tart, but you want to be able to spread it at the same time)
Method:
Create your dough by pulsing all of your dough ingredients except the cold water in your food processor. Add in your cold water 1 tablespoon at a time until large dough balls form. Turn your dough out onto a floured surface, divide into two equal pieces, and form each piece into a ball, then flatten them out. Cover in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, I did 4ish hours.
Once your dough has chilled, remove one disc from the refrigerator and allow to sit for 3-4 minutes. Roll your dough out into a large rectangle that is 1/8” thick. Cut the edges so your dough creates a perfect rectangle. Using a knife, cut your dough into thirds vertically, then cut those thirds into thirds horizontally so you are left with 9 small rectangles. Transfer these to a parchment paper lined baking sheet and refrigerate the baking sheet.
Repeat the same process as step 2 with your other dough disc.
While both of these baking sheets are in the refrigerator (You are aiming for around 10-20 minutes in the refrigerator), make your filling and egg wash.
Remove one set of dough rectangles from the refrigerator, these will be the bottom part of your tarts. Brush with an egg wash along the entire surface of the dough rectangle, add 1 heaping tablespoon of your filling to the center, spreading it out just enough so there is a 1/4” border along each bottom of the pop tart.
Remove your second set of rectangles from the refrigerator, brush them with egg wash, and then place the rectangles on top of the bottoms, egg wash side down. Press the edges with your fingers to seal your tarts.
Place your assembled tarts in the refrigerator for 20 minutes and preheat your oven to 350F.
Once your 20 minutes is up, remove your tarts from the refrigerator, poke holes in the top (7-8 each), and use a fork to “crimp” the edges.
Once you have done this, brush an egg wash along the whole top of your tarts and place in your preheated oven
Bake for 25 minutes, turning your baking sheet halfway. You may need to bake them a little longer, but I found that 25 minutes was the sweet spot. You are looking for the edges of your tarts to just begin to get crisp
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring your tarts to a cooling rack to finish cooling all the way
While your tarts are cooling, combine all the ingredients to create your glaze. See note in the ingredients section.
Once tarts are cooled, add icing to the center of each one and enjoy.
I am choosing to store mine in the refrigerator. I would think that these keep for around 3-4 days.
These are labor intensive, but the result is well worth it. If you end up trying this recipe, let me know what you think! :)