Homemade Heart-Shaped Strawberry Pop Tarts
Crisp, buttery crust filled with a sweet strawberry jam and topped with a smooth buttercream icing. These homemade heart-shaped strawberry pop tarts will never disappoint.
What are Heart-Shaped Strawberry Pop Tarts?
Homemade strawberry pop tarts are meant to take us back to elementary school, when we stuffed our faces with those perfect pop tarts with white icing and multicolor sprinkles on top. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget the taste of those pop tarts, but I wanted to create a recipe that can be made at home with simple ingredients and only a few minutes time. An ode to those delicious strawberry pop tarts from my childhood!
These homemade strawberry pop tarts are made out of buttery pie crust that’s been cut into heart shapes (you’ll see that below), stuffed with my favorite strawberry jam (you can use homemade or store-bought), and topped with a vanilla icing that rounds out the entire recipe. You can leave these homemade strawberry pop tarts in rectangle shapes, or cut them into hearts like I’ve done!
Why this recipe works
Pie crust is the perfect canvas for the rest of this recipe. You can make your own at home or use a store-bought crust. If you’ve never made a homemade pie crust, I’ve made a blog post all about how to make the best all-purpose pie crust for any recipe.
The pie crust in this recipe is crisp and buttery, making it ideal for filling with a sweet strawberry jam. To keep ingredients to a minimum, I went with my favorite store-bought strawberry jam, but if it’s strawberry season where you live I would highly recommend looking for some local fresh strawberries to make a homemade jam with. This will bring your homemade strawberry pop tarts to another level!
Lastly, we’re topping these heart-shaped strawberry pop tarts with a delicious vanilla icing. Similar to the glaze I used in this Giant Blueberry Pop Tart recipe, it’s a really simple thing to bring together, and you probably have all the ingredients on hand already.
Equipment for heart-shaped strawberry pop tarts
Here are a few things you may need to make these homemade strawberry pop tarts:
- Rolling pin: you’ll need something to roll out the pie dough with, and I love this dowel-style rolling pin. You’ve seen it linked in other things like No-Chill Cut-Out Sugar Cookies, Easy Homemade Yeast Donuts, and Fried Apple Cider Donuts because I use it all the time!
- Tip: if you don’t have a rolling pin at home, try using a wine bottle turned on it’s side – it works great in a pinch!
- Half sheet pans: baking is almost impossible without a great sheet pan. I love these sheet pans from Nordic Ware – great quality! We’ll use these to bake our heart-shaped strawberry pop tarts on once we’ve cut out the heart shapes.
- Mixing bowls: luckily, this recipe can easily be made in just a mixing bowl if you don’t have a stand mixer. I love this glass set because it has so many different sizes.
- Offset spatula: great for lifting the heart shapes from the counter/surface once you’ve cut them out. I use this thing all the time for things like chocolate french buttercream, and spreading icing on things like this Giant Blueberry Pop Tart.
Ingredients for heart-shaped strawberry pop tarts
I wanted to keep the ingredient list to a minimum for this recipe, because I wanted it to mimic the feel of the simple strawberry pop tarts we’re all used to from our childhood. That being said, there’s only a few ingredients you’ll need here:
- Pie dough – if you’re interested in making a homemade pie crust for your heart-shaped strawberry pop tarts, check out this blog post I did on how to make homemade all-purpose pie dough.
- Strawberry jam – if it’s strawberry season where you live, I highly recommend purchasing some fresh strawberries from your local farm and using these to make a strawberry jam for these heart-shapted strawberry pop tarts. The difference in flavor will be incredible! Otherwise, store-bought will work just fine and the pop tarts will still be delicious.
- Eggs – we’ll only need 1 egg for an egg wash on the pie crust before baking.
- Powdered sugar – we’ll use this in our icing that will go on top of our homemade strawberry pop tarts.
- Pure vanilla extract – for extra vanilla flavor – opt for vanilla bean paste, it’s one of my favorite things to use in baking!
- Milk – you’ll use milk to thin the icing to your desired consistency. Only a couple tablespoons is required, so not anything crazy.
- Sprinkles (optional, but highly encouraged) – who doesn’t love sprinkles on a pop tart? It’s like they belong together! Just grab any rainbow sprinkle mix or plain sprinkles – really whatever you have on hand – and don’t be afraid to sprinkle with a heavy hand 🙂
Possible ingredient substitutions
Flavor variations for homemade strawberry pop tarts
Here are a few other ideas I had for pop tart flavors:
- Raspberry: use raspberry jam to fill the pop tarts, then consider putting some freeze-dried raspberries in a food processor, pulsing until it turns to a fine dust, and stirring about 2 tablespoons or so of it into the icing! This would be a delicious spin on this heart-shaped strawberry pop tart recipe.
- Blueberry: you can take the flavors used in this Giant Blueberry Pop Tart and just cut the pie crust into smaller portions to yield smaller pop tarts.
- Nutella: truly the possibilities are endless here, but you could consider using nutella and bananas in lieu of the strawberry jam, then top them with the chocolate glaze used in this homemade yeasted donut recipe to enhance the chocolate flavor!
Homemade pie crust vs store-bought
As I said above, you can absolutely swap a homemade pie crust for store-bought in this heart-shaped strawberry pop tart recipe, but if you’re looking for ease I would definitely go for store-bought.
How to Make Heart-Shaped Strawberry Pop Tarts
Step 1 – Roll out the pie dough
Whether you’ve decided to go with this homemade all-purpose pie crust or store-bought, you’ll need to roll it out until it’s about 1/4-inch thick. This will ensure we get a really nice crust on the homemade strawberry pop tarts.
Step 2 – Cut out the heart shapes
Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter (also used in these Cut Out Shortbread Cookies) to cut out multiple heart-shaped pieces from the dough. You’ll then want to transfer them to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Step 3 – Fill the pie crust with jam, crimp the edges, and poke holes in the tops
When you add the jam to the homemade strawberry pop tarts, be sure to leave about a 1/4-inch border around the edges of the shapes so you can add the second piece of pie crust with an egg wash.
You’ll then crimp the edges. I like to use just a fork (as pictured above), and I also like to use the fork to poke holes in the tops of the pop tarts. You’ll need to do this so that air can escape from the tops of the heart-shaped strawberry pop tarts.
Step 4 – Egg wash and bake
We want the pie crust to get nice and crispy in the oven, and a simple egg wash will help the outsides to brown just a bit. You’ll then bake these at 375°F for about 15 minutes or until the outsides are golden brown.
Step 5 – Make the vanilla icing and frost the cooled pop tarts
While the heart-shaped strawberry pop tarts are in the oven, quickly bring the vanilla icing together in a small bowl. You can color the icing with a food coloring of your choice if you’d like, and pink is always a good idea in my book 🙂
Don’t forget to add the sprinkles immediately so that the glaze doesn’t set up before the sprinkles have time to settle into it.
Heart-Shaped Strawberry Pop Tarts FAQs
Can they be made in advance?
I personally wouldn’t make these too far in advance – the textures will change as the jam begins to be absorbed into the pie crust, but they will honestly still taste great!
Can I use homemade pie dough?
Yes! I provided a few tips for using a homemade pie crust, and if you’ve never made it before, check out this step-by-step tutorial on making homemade pie crust. I used the same crust for this French Silk Pie and I am obsessed with it!
I hope you all love this recipe, and I hope you get your kids involved in some of the baking too! My toddlers love to help with rolling out the dough, drizzling the icing, and adding the sprinkles. I know your kids would love it too!
If you make this recipe please be sure to leave a comment below, and tag me on socials @sarahsdayoff so I can see your yummy pop tarts 🙂 Also, if you have any questions about this recipe or any others on my site, drop me a line at sarah@sarahsdayoff.com.
Love,
Sarah
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” – Proverbs 3:5-6-
Homemade Heart-Shaped Strawberry Pop Tarts
Ingredients
For the Pop Tarts
- 1 (2-count) box refrigerated pie crust* (use both pie crusts, or halve the remaining ingredients if you only want to use 1 pie crust)
- 1/2 cup strawberry jam/preserves
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tbsp water
For the Vanilla Icing
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- Food coloring (optional)
- Multicolor sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
For the Pop Tarts
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out pie crusts on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4-inch thickness.
- Use heart-shaped cookie cutters (or any other shape) to cut out heart shapes from the pie crust, and place them on your prepared baking sheet. Feel free to re-roll any scraps. More than 2 times of re-rolling scraps is probably not worth it - the texture will be much different than the first roll!
- Use an offset spatula or a knife to spread the strawberry jam onto half of the heart shapes (the remaining halves will be the tops). You'll want to leave about a 1/4-inch border around the shapes, that way we can egg wash the sides before adding the tops.
- Beat the egg and water in a small bowl until no streaks remain. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg onto the borders of each pie crust with jam. Top with the remaining pie crusts.
- Use a fork to lightly crimp the edges of each pop tart, then use the fork to also poke a few holes in the top of each one. Brush more egg wash over each pop tart.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the outsides of the pop tarts are golden brown. Cool completely.
For the Vanilla Icing
- Meanwhile, whisk the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and food coloring (if using) until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add more milk, 1 Tbsp at a time, until you reach your desired consistency. If the icing is too thin, add more powdered sugar, 1 Tbsp at a time, until you reach your desired consistency.
- Spread your desired amount of icing onto each pop tart and immediately sprinkle with your sprinkles (if you wait too long the icing may set up and the sprinkles will not stick to the icing!).
Notes
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OMG! these are so so good!! Thanks for the recipe!
So glad you loved them! Thank you!