Go Back

Cherry Pop Tarts

Saura Kline
Homemade pop tarts with cherry jam

Ingredients
  

Pastry Dough

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup butter, cold
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tbsp milk

Cherry Jam

  • 1 lb. frozen cherries
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp lemon zest

Icing

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 Tbsp milk
  • 1 Tbsp corn syrup
  • sprinkles (opt)

Egg Wash

  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tbsp water

Instructions
 

  • First, make the cherry jam. Combine frozen cherries, sugar, lemon juice, and zest in a medium size sauce pot. Turn heat on medium high heat and cook the cherries down for about 30-35 minutes. There should be some juices – and that’s what you want. Be careful not to over cook because the jam goes from amazing to burnt to hell very quickly! I timed my cherries to exactly 35 minutes.
  • Next, put the cherries in a blender or food processor and pulse a couple of times. You want the jam chunky but not pureed.
  • Scoop the jam into a bowl, and let it cool down for about 1-2 hours.
  • Next, make the pastry dough. All you need to do is dump each ingredient into a food processor and pulse until dough forms a ball. Or you can do it with a pastry cutter.
  • Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
  • Once dough is chilled and jam is cooled, turn oven on to 350 degrees F (175 C).
  • Dust your work surface with some flour and roll the dough out to 1/8” thickness. Try as best as you can to roll into a square or rectangular shape. Next, take a ruler and a pizza cutter to cut 2”x3” rectangles. Discard extra dough.
  • You should get somewhere between 16-20 rectangles. On a cookie tray fitted with a piece of parchment paper, place half of the rectangles 1 inch apart from each other.
  • Make egg wash by mixing 1 egg with 2 T of water. Whisk well.
  • Next, brush egg wash around the perimeter of the pastry. Fill each center with 1 T of cherry jam. Spoon the jam around the pastry ½” from the edge.
  • Place the top half on each pastry, and crimp the sides with a fork. Do this for each pastry.
  • Bake for 12 minutes, rotate, then another 12 minutes.
  • Cool for 1 hour.
  • To make the glaze, combine sifted powdered sugar with the corn syrup and milk. Spoon on the tops of each pastry. If you’d like to make the heart, add red food color to your remaining glaze, and pipe on the heart. Otherwise, you can just top with some sprinkles! Enjoy!