2021 Baking Challenge Part 5: Pop Tarts with Fresh Strawberry Jam

During the second half of May, I was in VA with my family and I had the special opportunity to go strawberry picking with my sister Rose and niece Brooklyn. It was so much fun to fill a bucket full of fresh strawberries that tasted way better than the ones you pick up from the grocery store. I loved watching Brooklyn walk through the rows in the field and carefully pick the strawberries she wanted with her cute little hands.

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A friend gave me the idea to make homemade pop tarts and I thought it would be fun to make them with a strawberry jam filling from the fresh strawberries we picked. The recipe for the jam is here and the recipe for the pop tarts you can read here. I love baking with my mom and so together we worked on the recipe To start on the pop tarts, I had to make the jam first so it could set in time. I was so happy to find such an easy recipe. It only called for three ingredients (maybe that’s normal for a jam…but it was my first time making one…so let me know if jams are always this easy cause then maybe I’ll stop buying them at the store! lol)

The first step to making the jam was to cut up 4 cups of strawberries. Then in a medium-sized pot, the strawberries, 2 cups of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice were combined and reduced until they started to boil. Once they started to boil, I scraped the layer of foam that formed at the top of the pot. The mixture kept cooking for another ten minutes and began to thicken. To test whether the jam was the correct consistency, we put a few plates in the freezer. When we were ready, we took out a plate and spooned a small amount of jam onto the plate and let it sit for 30 seconds. Then, if it ran down the plate quickly then the jam needed to continue cooking. My jam needed more cooking than the recipe stated so I had to continue stirring it for probably another ten or fifteen minutes. I checked the thickness every couple of minutes until it slowly ran down our cold plates. It’s important to not overcook the jam.

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Once the jam was ready, I poured it into two jars. Four cups of strawberries only made 1.5 small mason jars worth of jam. I let them sit at room temperature for a few hours before placing them into the refrigerator to further set.

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The dough for the pop tarts was actually a pretty basic pie dough crust (I realized that basically a pop tart is just a hand pie…lol. I don’t know why I didn’t think about that prior to making them). The ingredients were flour, sugar, salt, cold butter, shortening (which I just used butter for), and ice cold water.

To start the dough, you combine 2.5 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of salt in a food processor. Once those ingredients were well mixed, the 8 tablespoons of cold butter and 6 tablespoons of shortening (more butter for me) were added to the food processor until the dough became a course texture. Then, spoonfuls of ice cold water were added until the dough started to come together.

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The dough was then poured out and onto a clean surface and divided into two sections. Each half was then formed into a disc and wrapped in plastic wrap. The discs were then placed in the refrigerator. The recipe said they only have to sit for 30 minutes, but it was getting late so my mom and I let them sit overnight.

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The next day, after the jam was set, I made the filling for the pop tarts first because it also needed a little bit of time to set before I could spoon it onto the dough. For the filling, I placed 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of cold water in a pot and mixed it until it was well incorporated. Then, I added 3/4 of a cup of the home made jam and whisked it until it was smooth. Once it was boiling, I stirred it constantly for two minutes. Then, I placed the pot to the side to cool.

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When I started to make the filling, I took the pie crust out of the refrigerator to rest. By the time the filling was cooling, I was able to roll it out. With the rolling pin, I got my dough to be about 1/8″ thick and large enough to cut into a 9″ x 12″ rectangle. The large rectangle was then cut into 9 smaller rectangular pieces of equal size. The 9 squares of dough were placed onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I combined 1 large egg with 2 tablespoons of milk and brushed the egg wash onto the squares.

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While the rectangular pop tarts were resting in the fridge, I set my oven to 350 and then rolled out my extra dough scraps to make little circular hand pies. These little treats were also placed into the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

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Once all the tarts were finished in the refrigerator, they were popped into the preheated oven for 30 minutes until they were a beautiful golden brown. They cooled on a wire rack and then, the moment of baking that is obviously my favorite, we got to taste them.

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The pop tarts turned out really well. The dough was nice and flaky and the filling was sweet and gooey and so delicious when warmed in the toaster oven for a few seconds. These treats are definitely ones that took awhile, so I would make them again, but only when I know I have plenty of time to not rush the process. I don’t know if they are actually healthier than the store bought brand, but it is cool to know they were made with real ingredients and strawberries that I picked during a great outing with my sister and niece.

Let me know if you have any recipes to try! I’ll be posting my June Baking Challenge next week and I’m always looking for new ideas!

**Photos were taken by myself, my Mom, and my cousin Brad!