This recipe for Homemade Strawberry Pop Tarts is a fun tradition I started our first year of marriage. Calling it spoiling my husband, but I call it providing an option for his favorite treat.

When we came home from our honeymoon, I thought it would be a fun idea to take our first grocery store trip together. I knew any time he had cooked for me while we were dating, it involved frozen chicken or burgers. So, I wasn’t sure what he typically would purchase on a weekly grocery store trip and I wanted to learn more about his food preferences.

Boy, did I learn!

I tried to make a list of a few things I knew we would need for the week and then said: “why don’t we walk around and you show me what you would typically buy for breakfast or your lunch at work.” WOW. This was such a learning experience. We spent a lot of time on those aisles in the middle of the grocery store. I asked him what he would typically get for breakfast and we immediately when to the pop tart aisle like I’m sure he did with his mom as a little boy.

We picked out a few other packaged items, grabbed a gallon of milk and I honestly can’t remember if a banana or apple were purchased.

4 Ingredient Homemade Strawberry Pop Tarts | These homemade Pop Tarts need 2 ingredients and a little homemade icing to add the perfect treat to a brunch, shower, or valentine's party menu. #poptarts #valentinetreat #homemadepoptarts #strawberrydessert #toddlersnacks #toddlervalentine

I volunteered on our way home to take care of the grocery shopping and concluded that we would be spending a lot more time on the grocery items found around the perimeter and have basically done all our meal planning and grocery shopping ever since. I didn’t completely forbid pop tarts because I’m a fan of them too, but I don’t put them on the grocery list or pick them up myself. They often sneak into his Easter basket or the bottom of his Christmas stocking. Sometime when we are staying at an Airbnb or planning vacation meals, I’ll add a box into the grocery pickup, just for a special treat.

So, as I began preparing for our first Valentine’s as a married couple, I researched all over Pinterest for all kinds of treats, and I found a few:

But, I ran across the idea that you could make homemade pop tarts and it totally stuck! What if I made pop tarts and surprised him! So, I did and it has stuck as one of the fun treats I have around here during Valentine’s week. And, it helps that it really only takes 2 ingredients to make the pop tarts plus a little icing!

Print Recipe

Homemade Strawberry Pop Tarts

These homemade Pop Tarts need 2 ingredients and a little homemade icing to add the perfect treat to a brunch, shower, or valentine's party menu.

Ingredients

2 rolled premade pie crusts
strawberry jelly or jam
egg wash
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons water or milk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375.
Flour your surface, and slightly roll out the pie crust, just to remove ripples and flatten crust to the same width.
Using a pizza cutter, cut curved edges off of crust to make a big square.
Cut the square into four sections.
At this point, you should have the outline for 6 pockets when folded over.
Add no more than 1 tablespoon of jam to the middle of one half of the cutout.
Poke a few holes in what will be the "top" of the tart using a fork.
Fold over the other half of the cut out.
Using a fork, seal the three open edges of the shapes by pressing down on the crust edge to join them.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or spray with non-cooking spray.
Brush tops of tarts lightly with an egg wash.
Place pop tarts on cooking tray.
Bake at 375 for 15 minutes and check for coloring.
Add an additional 2-3 minutes for desired doneness.
Remove tarts from the oven and let cool on cooking sheet.
Mix together the powdered sugar and milk or water.
Once the tarts have cooled completely, spoon the icing over the tops and spread out across the shape.
Allow icing to harden for a couple hours before placing in any type of airtight container.

Notes

So, these things can be a little tricky. I would recommend only doing rectangle or circle shapes. I found out on my second attempt that hearts are a hard shape to seal and keep all the jam inside. You will want to press down and make sure there are no breaks in your seal along the edges, especially at corners.

You can add sprinkles to the tops of the icing before it hardens.

For us, strawberry pop tarts have become a symbol of love and a fun reminder of where we started. We have this gallery wall in our dining room that are all watercolor paintings of other symbols of love for us. I think it might be time to add a pop tart to the mix!