Recreate your childhood but better with these homemade PB&J Pop Tarts. They’re perfect as a snack in your lunch box or as dessert with a scoop of ice cream.
Add flour, sugar and salt in a small bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Then transfer to a food processor fitted with the dough blade.
Cube the cold butter and add to the flour mixture. Pulse several times until butter is about pea and bean size, variation in size is okay, but no smaller than a pea.
Turn the food processor to the “on” position and drizzle cold water over the dough mixture through the water hole, as soon as the dough starts to pull together turn the food processor off. You may need to stop the food processor in between and use a spatula to scrape the flour at the bottom of the bowl.
Place a large piece of plastic wrap on the counter and dump the dough on top. Shape into a rectangle, wrap in plastic and rest in the refrigerator for an hour.
Take the pie dough out of the fridge and roll out to between ⅛” - ¼” thick. Use extra flour to keep the dough from sticking to the counter and roller.
Cut into 18 small rectangles about 2.5”x3.5”. You can reroll the scraps and keep cutting until the dough is gone. If the dough gets too soft, refrigerate it for 15-30 minutes before working with it again. Place all the dough rectangles on a parchment lined baking sheet as you cut them out and keep them refrigerated.
Assemble and bake the pop tarts
Once ready to assemble, beat an egg with a tablespoon of milk to make egg wash.
Brush egg wash on the border of the dough rectangles that will be on the bottom of the pop tarts. Drop 2 teaspoons of peanut butter in the middle and 1 teaspoon of jam or jelly on top of the peanut butter. Take another piece of dough, stretch it out with your hands just a little and cover the filling with it, press the edges down and seal with a fork.
Work with just a few pop tarts at a time to keep the dough cold. Once you are finished with all 9 pop tarts, place everything in the freezer for 15 minutes. If you don’t have room in the freezer, refrigerate them for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Remove the pop tarts from the freezer or refrigerator and use a paring knife to pierce the top of each pop tart with 3 steam vents. Brush egg wash all over them and sprinkle turbinado sugar generously.
Bake for 15-17 minutes until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before adding the glaze.
Prepare the glazes
Add powdered sugar, peanut butter, salt and milk in a small bowl and stir until smooth to make the peanut butter glaze.
Add powdered sugar, jam or jelly, salt and milk in another small bowl and stir until smooth to make the jelly glaze.
Transfer each glaze to a pastry bag or a ziploc bag, snip the corner of the bag and drizzle the glazes over the pop tarts making a criss cross pattern with the two glazes.
Add sprinkles on top if desired.
Notes
Store bought refrigerated pie dough can be used to save time.
You can also make homemade pie dough ahead of time and keep it refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for up to 6 months.
Make sure to freeze or refrigerate the pop tarts before baking, this will help the crust to be flakier when baked.
Try different fillings to customize the flavor of your pop tarts to your liking.