Why they’re so good!
These homemade blueberry pop tarts are one of your favourite breakfast pastries made even easier. The jammy blueberry filling is so easy to make and loaded with real blueberries and it’s all wrapped in a buttery pie crust.
Ok, so yes, they will take you longer to make than running down the store to buy a packet but there is such a huge difference. First of all, you know all the ingredients in these and they’re basic things, a lot that you’ll already have at home. All natural ingredients with no weird numbers. But even more than that, they taste so much better than store-bought. The pastry is more buttery and more flaky and they aren’t sickeningly sweet.
These are very similar to my peach hand pies and you could actually use that filling to make yourself some peach pop tarts.
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Ingredients
These frosted blueberry pop tarts use minimal ingredients that are all readily available. All natural, no artificial colours, just flavour!
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Flour: The pie crust / flaky pastry starts with plain flour (all-purpose flour).
- Sugar: You’ll want white granulated sugar for the pop tart pastry and filling and icing sugar (powdered sugar) for the icing.
- Unsalted butter: Stick to unsalted butter for the right balance of flavour, but also because it does act differently in baking, and a straight swap here won’t give you the same results.
- Eggs: I use large eggs.
- Blueberries: I use frozen blueberries as I can get some very good quality ones, and they’re available year-round. These homemade pop tarts work just as well with fresh blueberries as well. And if you want to make wild blueberry pop tarts, grab some frozen wild blueberries.
- Cornflour/cornstarch: Cornflour, where I am, is cornstarch in other places around the world. You’re looking for the very fine, soft flour often used for thickening sauces.
- Lemon: Grab a fresh lemon for the lemon zest and lemon juice. If you want to make the filling more cosy than zingy, leave out the lemon and add a good pinch of cinnamon to the filling instead.
- Milk: A little milk is all you need to turn the icing sugar into icing. You could also use lemon juice, water or even blueberry juice.
How to make them
This blueberry pop tarts recipe is incredibly easy to recreate at home. There is a little time required for chilling the dough but other than that, there is nothing difficult here. Even the pie crust is made in a food processor.
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
1. Make the pastry
Add the flour, sugar, butter, egg and a good pinch of salt to a food processor and process on the low setting until it looks like sand.
Now, with the processor running on low, pour the cold water in slowly, stopping once it’s forming large clumps.
2. Roll the dough
Form the loose dough into a flat disk. Cut that in half and, one at a time, roll the the halves of dough into a large rectangle to about 3-4mm thick (⅛-⅙ inch). Transfer them both to a sheet of baking paper and stack them one on top of the other on a baking sheet. Chill the dough for about 2 hours (the longer it chills, the less the dough will shrink when it bakes so you can even make it up to 3 days ahead).
3. Make the blueberry jam
The easy blueberry jam is just my blueberry compote recipe taken further until it gets very thick and jammy. It’s a simple matter of adding all the ingredients to a saucepan on the stove and cooking it down over medium heat, making sure to stir it regularly, until it’s really thick.
4. Cut the dough
Back to the dough and we need to slice it up into small rectangles. You can eyeball it but I prefer to use a ruler to make sure they’re all even sized. Trim off the rough edges first, then slice it up into 9 rectangles, each 7.5x10cm / 3×4 inches. Place them onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper and set one of the sheets into the fridge.
5. Assemble the pop tarts
Top each of 9 rectangles with about 1- 1½ tablespoons of blueberry filling right in the centre, leaving a wide border.
Top each with a piece of the dough from the fridge and use a fork to seal the edges.
Now brush them with egg wash so they get a gorgeous glossy, golden brown finish when they bake, then pierce the tops with a toothpick in about 6-8 places to allow steam to get out.
It’s a good idea to chill the blueberry pop tarts for 30 minutes (or overnight) as this will help to get really flaky pastry. Then simply bake them for around 30 minutes.
6. Ice the pop tarts
Icing the frosted blueberry pop tarts is so easy. Simply mix icing sugar, milk and a little of the syrup from the blueberry jam until you have a thick icing that will settle on top of the pop tarts but not all run straight off. You can let the icing set for 30 minutes or eat them straight away while still gooey.
Tips and Tricks
- Cold ingredients: For a beautiful flaky pastry it’s so important to keep the butter cold. This way, when the dough bakes, the butter melts and releases steam, creating the flaky layers. To do this, use cold butter, a cold egg and ice cold water. When you handle the pastry, be as brief as you can so your hands don’t melt the butter.
- Don’t overprocess the dough: If you process the dough for too long, the butter will be worked right into the flour as opposed to being small pieces of butter throughout the dough. Process just enough to reach each stage. And don’t be afraid when the clumping dough looks a little crumbly to begin with; so long as it’s forming clumps in the food processor, it will come together.
- Don’t skip chilling: Don’t skip chilling time for the same reasons as above. It gives the dough a chance to relax and for the butter to become solid again.
⏰ Time-saving tips
Maybe you don’t have time to make them and wait for chilling time and bake these blueberry pop tarts all in one day and I absolutely understand so here’s a few ways you can break up the process so you can get on about your busy day.
- Make the dough ahead: The pop tart pie crust takes about 10 minutes to make and roll out. The dough itself can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can chill it as a disk or rolled out but if you want to freeze it rolled out, just make sure you have enough space in the freezer.
- Make the jam ahead: The blueberry jam filling takes about 15-20 minutes on the stove top. It can be made ahead 2-3 days and stored in a jar or airtight container in the fridge.
- Assemble them the day before: Assembly takes about 20 minutes. You can assemble the homemade pop tarts up to 24 hours before you bake them. So make them Saturday for a Sunday breakfast for instance.
Variations
This same pop tart pastry will work with any number of filling ideas. You could use store-bought jam but keep in mind it will be much sweeter. For another type of berry pop tarts, it’s very easy to swap the blueberries for other berries like raspberries, strawberries and blackberries. Lastly, feel free to add some sprinkles to recreate the look of the originals.
Storage
Store your blueberry pop tarts in a cool place, like the pantry for up to 24 hours and in the fridge thereafter. Be aware, the icing may soften in the fridge.
These delicious homemade pop tarts are always great with a glass of ice-cold milk and great for everything from a satisfying snack to breakfast to lunchboxes to a sweet after-dinner dessert. They’re lovely straight out of the oven with it’s still warm crust or let them cool and add that gorgeous blueberry icing.
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Did you try this blueberry pop tarts recipe? Show it some love in the comments below.
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Ingredients
THE POP TART PASTRY
- 360 g plain flour (all purpose flour) (2 ¾ cups /12.7oz)
- ⅓ cup white granulated sugar (66g /~ 2 ½oz)
- 170 g unsalted butter cold and cubed (6oz)
- 1 large egg cold
- up to ½ cup ice cold water
THE BLUEBERRY FILLING
- 500 g fresh or frozen blueberries (~ 1lb)
- ⅓ cup white granulated sugar (66g /~ 2 ½oz)
- 1 teaspoon cornflour (US cornstarch)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (notes 1)
TO FINISH
- 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp cream or milk (the egg wash)
- 1 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 1 -1 ½ tablespoons milk or lemon juice (notes 1)
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- food processor
- large baking sheet
- Saucepan
Instructions
- FOR THE PASTRY: Line a baking sheet with baking paper and make sure you have space in the fridge to slot it in somewhere to chill when required.
- In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, sugar, the cold butter, egg and a good pinch of salt. Process until the pieces of butter are about lentil sized.
- With the processor on low, dribble in the cold water and let it continue blending until it start to form clumps. Depending on your flour, you may need ⅓ cup or up to ½ a cup but try not to add more than you need.
- Turn the pastry dough out onto a clean surface and pull it together with your hands, kneading it just enough to make it mostly smooth. Divide it into two portions, roughly rectangular in shape.
- Dust the surface with flour, place the first piece of dough on top and dust a little flour over the top of the dough. Roll it out to about 3-4mm (⅛ inch) thick large rectangle roughly 25x33cm / 10×13 inches, moving it regularly and adding a little flour only as necessary – try not to add too much though. Try to roll it to as close to a perfect rectangle shape so that any offcuts don’t mean your poptart shapes are too small.
- Place the rolling pin in the middle of the dough and fold one side of the pastry over the top. Lift the rolling pin so the pastry is hanging over it, and carefully lay it onto the paper lined baking sheet. Place another piece of baking paper on top.
- Roll out the second portion of dough the same way and lay it on the paper on top of the other piece of rolled out dough. Place the baking sheet in the fridge and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- FOR THE BLUEBERRY FILLING: In a medium saucepan over medium heat combine the blueberries, sugar, cornflour (cornstarch) lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir to combine.
- Cook stirring regularly so it doesn’t catch on the bottom. The blueberries will release a lot of moisture which will boil and eventually thicken until you can drag a line through it with the spatula that takes a couple of seconds to fill again about 15-20 minutes after starting.
- Remove from heat, and let it cool completely before adding to the pastries.
- ASSEMBLE AND BAKE: Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan forced) / 350F.
- Take just one sheet of the rolled out pastry out of the fridge and trim the edges to square them up and so you have a rectangle that’s 22.5x30cm / 9 x12 inches. Cut two even rows, then cut twice again the other way so you have 9 even rectangles. Use a ruler if you like and you want each pastry to measure 7.5x10cm / 3×4 inches. Transfer them to a baking sheet lined with baking paper and chill until required. You will have some offcuts and you can reroll these and make another pop tart.
- Repeat the last step with the second sheet of dough and once again, transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
- Add roughly 1 ½ tablespoons to the middle of each of the 9 rectangles leaving a fairly thick border clean all the way around the edge. Take care not to overfill them. There will be some leftover.
- Top each one with a piece of dough from the fridge, then crimp the edges all the way round with a fork. If you’re finding the dough is pulling out of shape, just chill for 10 minutes again (see notes).
- Use a toothpick to poke 6-8 holes in the top of each one then brush all over with egg wash.
- If you have time, chill the pop tarts for another 30 minutes or until the dough feels firm again, for the best results.
- Brush the top of each pop tart with the egg wash, then bake for 28-32 minutes until golden brown on top and crisp, turning the baking sheet at the halfway point.
- Let them cool for 5-10 minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- FOR THE GLAZE: Combine the icing sugar, milk and about 1 teaspoon of liquid from the blueberry sauce in a bowl and mix well to combine. You want a glaze that will be easy enough to spread but not so runny that it will run straight of the edges: add more milk to thin or more sugar to thicken. If there is no liquid in the blueberry sauce, just add a little water to the bowl and give it a mix. Voila!
- Spoon the icing over the pop tarts. You can eat them immediately or set them aside to let the glaze set a little.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- When crimping the poptarts, I literally stand by the fridge and take one off the tray at a time, crimp it, then replace and take the next one. They stay cool this way and it’s easier to crimp them on a flat surface.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
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