Pop Tarts, a convenient and popular pastry, are a beloved treat for many. However, their high carbohydrate content makes them unsuitable for those following a ketogenic diet. This article provides a detailed recipe for creating homemade Keto Pop Tarts, offering a guilt-free way to enjoy this classic pastry. These homemade Keto Pop Tarts have a flaky dough filled with different fillings.
Introduction to Keto Pop Tarts
The recipe is designed to replicate the experience of eating a Pop Tart while adhering to the principles of a low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet. To make keto-friendly Pop Tarts, a low-carb pastry is created, filled with sugar-free jam, and topped with sugar-free icing. This recipe allows you to enjoy desserts on the keto diet, by using low-carb ingredients.
What You'll Need
Before embarking on this culinary adventure, gather the necessary ingredients. The key is using cold butter.
Ingredients for the Dough
To make these little hand pies, you will need a reliable recipe for Fathead dough.Almond flour is the best kind of flour for the Pop Tarts.
- Almond flour
- Cream cheese
- Mozzarella cheese
- Vanilla
- Baking powder
- Swerve or other keto-friendly sweetener
- Egg
- Xanthan gum
Filling Options
One thing that was important was developing different flavor options.
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- Strawberry Filling: Fresh or frozen strawberries, raspberries (optional), chia seeds, lemon juice, keto-friendly sweetener (erythritol, allulose, or xylitol), water (optional).
- Blueberry Filling: Blueberries, lemon extract, keto-friendly sweetener.
- Brown Sugar Cinnamon Filling: Brown sugar sweetener, butter.
- Other Filling Ideas: Lemon curd, cream cheese, raspberries, blackberries. If you have keto recipes for jam that you already love you can sub those in.
Icing
- Powdered keto-friendly sweetener
- Butter
- Almond milk (or other low-carb milk)
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
Making the Keto Pop Tarts: Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Preparing the Dough
- Place the cream cheese and mozzarella cheese into a bowl that is microwave safe.
- Heat for 30 seconds at a time until the cheeses are melted and combined.
- Add the cheese mixture to a mixing bowl with the almond flour, vanilla, baking powder, Swerve, egg and xanthan gum.
- Blend until a well form dough occurs.
- Chill the dough for one hour.
Alternatively, combine the crust ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the dough forms a ball. This may take 2-3 minutes. Chill the dough while you make the fillings.
Step 2: Crafting the Fillings
For the berry fillings, you’ll need to heat each one in a saucepan over medium heat with the sweetener. Once the sweetener has dissolved, pour into a food processor or blender and mix until smooth. Add the xanthan gum.
Strawberry Chia Jam (Keto, Paleo, Low Carb)
This recipe also makes a little extra than what you need for the pop tarts themselves. But trust me, you’ll want to have it around.
- Cook your strawberries and raspberries in a saucepan over medium heat until they begin to break down, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the lemon juice and sweetener of choice (to taste).
- Mash it down or leave it chunky.
- Cook for 5 more minutes, remove from heat and stir in the chia seeds.
- Let stand until it begins to thicken, adding water if needed to thin out until desired consistency is reached.
- Allow to cool to room temperature and store in an airtight container in the fridge for a week or two and in the freezer for up to three months.
To make the brown sugar cinnamon filling simply stir together the ingredients.
Step 3: Assembling the Pop Tarts
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Remove the chilled dough, and roll it out to about ¼ of an inch thick between two sheets of parchment paper.
- Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut the dough into 12 rectangles. You may need to do this in batches, rerolling the dough out at you do.
- Place 6 of the rectangles on a parchment lined baking sheet, and top with 1 Tbsp of the strawberry jam each.
- Top each jam covered rectangle of dough with another piece of dough, and pinch the edges closed together with the tines of a fork.
Step 4: Baking
Bake for 20 minutes, or until browned and cooked through. Baking time can vary a lot form oven to oven, so be sure to check in on them.
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Step 5: Icing and Finishing Touches
- Allow the pastries to cool to room temperature.
- Once cooled, mix together the glaze ingredients until a thick icing has formed.
- Drizzle the icing over the pastries.
- Top with sprinkles if desired.
Alternative Assembly Method
- Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C. Line a baking tray with a mat or parchment paper.
- Roll out pastry dough in between two sheets of parchment paper, lightly dusting with coconut flour as needed.
- Cut into desired size (I suggest making 8 pop tarts, as they're very filling!).
- Brush edges with egg wash and spoon a couple tablespoons of the chilled chia jam.
- Press edges together and press down with a fork. If there are any cracks, simply pinch the dough together.
- As with regular pie crust, try to work quickly or put your dough back in the fridge for 15 minutes if it begins to warm up too much.
- Place pop tarts in prepared tray, cut a few slits on the top with a sharp knife, freeze for 15 minutes, brush with egg wash and bake for 20-30 minutes, until golden all over.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.
- Make the glaze while the pop tarts are cooking by creaming together with your mixer the cream cheese, butter and powdered sweetener until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract, salt, and adjust texture to taste with a teaspoon of milk at a time. Keep in mind that unless you add a lot of sweetener, your glaze won't set completely.
- Store them unglazed, in an airtight container, at room temperature for 2-3 days.
Tips and Tricks for Perfect Keto Pop Tarts
- Cool Place: The one trick is to work quickly and in a cool place.
- Dough Consistency: As with regular pie crust, try to work quickly or put your dough back in the fridge for 15 minutes if it begins to warm up too much.
- Sweetness: One of the beautiful things about these keto pop tarts is that very little sweetener is needed (if at all!).
- Berries: If your berries are a little tart, you’ve got options here.
- Cracking: And do keep in mind that as the filling expands while baked, it will crack your pastry slightly. Honestly don’t sweat it, as the only way around this would be to increase the xanthan gum to make up for the lack of gluten.
- Egg Wash: No, you don’t have to add an egg wash to the keto pop tarts. However, if you want to, you certainly can. Just mix some egg white and a tablespoon of water together.
Serving and Storing Your Keto Pop Tarts
These are always best when eaten the day you made them, but you can save the leftovers. Since there is strawberry jam inside the Pop Tarts, I suggest keeping them in the refrigerator. These homemade gluten free pop tarts will last up to 2 days.
Freezing Instructions
You can also freeze them, too. Store them in the freezer for up to six months. Another option is to freeze them for up to 2 months. I recommend wrapping them separately, and you can grab one here and there as needed. Or you can flash freeze them on a baking sheet, so they don’t stick together.
Reheating Instructions
To Reheat: you can eat them at room temperature or warm them for 10-15 seconds in the microwave.
Flavor Variations
There are a few other flavor combinations you may also enjoy when making homemade sugar free pop tarts.
- Lemon Curd - Yep, you can even add some lemon curd to these pop tarts.
- Cream Cheese - A little bit of cream cheese is going to take them to the next level. While traditional pop tarts don’t have cream cheese, this is a fun way to play up the creamy flavor.
- Berries - If you are in the mood for raspberries or blackberries, they are also great filling options. Just swap the strawberries or blueberries for the raspberries or blackberries.
Nutritional Information
The nutritional information for this recipe is calculated as a courtesy and is an approximate only. The nutrition facts are for one pastry with strawberry filling. They will vary slightly based on the filling used.
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