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Very close up photo of homemade vegan pop tarts showing a red jam inside

Homemade Vegan Pop Tarts (No Added Sugar and Gluten Free option)

These Homemade Vegan Pop Tarts have everything you love about the originals – a flaky, buttery crust around the outside, a sweet and jammy berry filling on the inside, and a thick vanilla icing over the top!  All fully vegan, with no added sugar, and easily made gluten free!
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Chill Time 2 hours
Total Time 3 hours 10 minutes
Course Birthday Party, Breakfast, Lunch Box, Snack
Servings 8 pop tarts

Ingredients
  

Crust Ingredients

  • cups gluten free flour can sub all-purpose if desired. This links to my favorite store bought gluten free flour blend that works best with all of my recipes, or see "Ingredients Needed" section for further info.
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup + 2 tbsp vegan butter cold, straight from the fridge
  • 5-6 tbsp ice water

Filling Ingredients

  • ¾ cup berry jam of your choice
  • or if you don't have jam and want to use frozen berries:
  • 1 cup frozen berries of your choice
  • 1 tbsp granulated sugar *if you want a sugar free option, this links to my favorite sweetener, you can substitute it 1:1 in place of regular granulated sugar

Icing Ingredients

  • cups powdered sugar *if you want a sugar free option, this links to my favorite powdered sweetener, you can substitute it 1:1 in place of regular powdered sugar
  • 3-4 tbsp non-dairy milk or more if you want a thinner icing
  • sprinkles or mini-chocolate chips optional

Instructions
 

  • Start by making the dough for the crust, as this needs a lot of chill time.  Add the gluten free flour and salt to a food processor, and then add the cold cubed vegan butter and pulse until it’s mixed throughout and has a coarse crumbly consistency.  If you do not have a food processor, you can do this in a large bowl using a pastry cutter or two forks.
  • Move the mixture to a large bowl if it’s not already there, and then slowly add the ice water – important that it is truly ice water and not just cold water! – a little bit at a time, mixing with a spoon as you go, until a dough forms.  Once you can form the dough into a large solid ball, wrap it tightly in plastic cling wrap, and move to the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours, or up to overnight.
  • Berry filling: I recommend using jarred jam for the filling, but if you are going to cook down frozen berries, do that now while the dough is chilling, as they will need some cool time as well.  For this step, simply add the berries and sugar into a small pot or saucepan and cook on medium heat for 10-15 minutes.  During this time, break up the berries as much as possible using a spoon or spatula or even a fork, and simmer until there are no big chunks left.  Then transfer to a heat proof bowl and let cool fully before using as your filling.
  • Once your dough is chilled and you are ready to start building your pop tarts, preheat your oven to 375°F and line a large pan with parchment paper.  Now to make the dough into pop tart shapes, you have two options.  I go into a LOT of detail on this above in the How To Make Them section, which I recommend taking a few minutes to read fully before starting.  But if you are in a time crunch, I will outline both options here.  One option is to use a rolling pin to roll the dough out and then cut the rectangles from there and transfer them onto a pan.  The other option is to cut the dough into 16 equally sized balls and simply use your fingers to shape each one into a rectangle directly on parchment paper.  This second method is the one I prefer.  Skip down to Step 6 if you want to use that one.
  • Rolling pin method: if you want to roll out the dough with a rolling pin, start by cutting your dough into two equal sized balls, one will make the 8 bottom pieces and one will make the 8 top pieces.  Keep the second half in the fridge while you begin work on the first half.  Roll out the dough on a clean and floured surface, it should be around 1/8th of an inch thick or a little thicker, and then use a knife to cut 3”x4” rectangles.  These will make the bottoms of each pop tart.  Move them onto your parchment lined pan, fit as many as you can leaving just a little space between, they won’t grow too much during baking.  You may need to make these in 2 batches if you can only fit 4 at a time. 
    Once the rectangles are successfully transferred onto the parchment paper, move the paper into the fridge to let them chill and firm up again.  During this time, repeat the process with the other half of the dough and again move onto parchment paper, then move that paper into the fridge.  Each time you are moving handled dough back into the fridge to re-chill, it should be in there for 10-15 minutes before handling again.  Once you’ve made all your rectangles and they are all chilled, skip down to step 7 where we will pick this back up.
  • Finger shaping method: my method of choice.  Start by cutting your dough into 16 equal sized balls.  I’d recommend using a kitchen scale here to make sure they’re all actually the same size.  Keep them all in the fridge, only removing one at a time as you are ready to work on your next rectangle.  Line a pan with parchment paper, then one at a time you will press each ball out into the rectangle shape directly onto the parchment paper.  With each individual ball of dough, let it warm up for a minute or so in your hands just so it’s moldable, sort of like clay, and then use the heel of your hand to flatten it and your fingertips to shape it.  I recommend making each one 3”x4”. 
    Once you’ve fit as many dough rectangles as you can onto the parchment paper, move that parchment paper carefully back into your fridge so the dough can get cold again, since by now it’s definitely room temperature.  Any time you handle the dough, you want to chill it again for 10-15 minutes to firm up before handling again.  Now, measure out another piece of parchment paper, the same size, and repeat this process, and when you have this paper filled up as well, move this one into the fridge and take the first one back out.  Now we begin to assemble! 
  • Whichever method you used to create your rectangles, start with one sheet of parchment paper with as many chilled rectangles as you were able to fit.  These will be the bottoms of the pop tarts.  Add your filling by scooping 1½ tbsp of jam – or cooked down frozen berries – onto the center of each rectangle.  Spread it around but be sure to leave about ½ inch around the edges to seal them up.  Once the jam is added to each bottom layer, remove your other piece of parchment paper from the fridge with the other set of rectangles – the tops of each pop tart.  Slowly and carefully remove them from the parchment paper one at a time and gently place on top of each jam filled bottom layer.  Seal the edges either using the tines of a fork to press down around the edges, or use your fingertips to firmly but carefully press all the way around. 
  • Optionally you can brush a little bit of melted vegan butter on the tops of each pop tart.  Whether you do that or not, the last step before baking is make sure to poke holes in the tops of each using a toothpick or the tines of a fork.  It’s likely that a little jam will leak out of each pop tart no matter what, but the air holes help to prevent the jam from fully exploding out of the sides.
  • Bake for 23-25 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and let the pop tarts remain on the pan for 15 or so minutes until they have firmed up.  Move to a cooling rack and let them cool entirely before icing them.  If you are making the pop tarts in two batches, make the second batch now.
  • Once all the pop tarts are made and fully cooled, make the icing by mixing the powdered sugar and non-dairy milk.  The amount I outlined here will make a very thick icing, if you want it to be thinner use less sugar or more non-dairy milk.  Spoon it over the top of each pop tart, and optionally add sprinkles or mini chocolate chips while the icing is still wet.  It will harden fully over 5-10 minutes.
  • Eat and enjoy!
Keyword berry pop tarts, homemade pop tarts, pop tarts
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