This giant brown sugar cinnamon pop tart elevates nostalgic flavors and invigorates the taste buds! The fool-proof flaky pastry, warm brown sugar filling and silky smooth cinnamon frosting are bound to make this your new favorite gourmet breakfast!
The idea of recreating our childhood favorites and elevating them to our adult (or, trying to adult) tastes is one that I think is going to stick around for me. This brown sugar cinnamon pop tart takes that (rather disappointing if you’ve tried it as an adult) classic american pop tart flavor and makes it into something you want on a slow saturday morning with coffee or tea. It’s a real treat!
Once you make your pastry which you can easily prepare ahead of time, all that’s left to do is make the filling and topping, which both come together in one bowl! So you have a low amount of effort and dishes for a highly rewarding gourmet pop tart! Worth it, if you ask me.
The Brown Sugar Filling is made of:
Brown Sugar–obvi
Cinnamon
Flour
Unsalted Butter–try to get a good quality butter for the flavor to really pop
Maple Syrup–again, get the good stuff if you can!
The filling should resemble slightly wet sand once mixed, that is normal. In the oven it will melt down and reduce into that sweet and balanced flavor we know and love!
The Cinnamon Glaze uses:
Powdered Sugar
Cinnamon
Unsalted Butter
Maple Syrup
Milk
By now you get the spiel about quality ingredients, my only notes on the glaze are to make sure you make it just after the brown sugar cinnamon pop tart is out of the oven and has cooled.
If you make the glaze too early, the powdered sugar will crust over and not spread smoothly onto the pop tart.
KARIS’ TIPS FOR THE BEST Flaky Pastry
This brown sugar cinnamon pop tart recipe features an all butter homemade flaky pastry. While you certainly can skip the homemade pastry and pick up your favorite puff pastry at the store, if you have a few extra moments during the week that you will need your pop tart, I think making it homemade is totally worth it!
- Keep your butter COLD! The beauty of pastry is that perfect layering of butter and flour. In order to maintain those layers, we need to keep our butter cold for about 95% of the process. This is why we use ice water in the dough, to keep the butter from getting too warm. Once you’ve made your flaky pastry, wrap it and stick it in the fridge until you need it again.
- Use 1 Tbsp of vodka in the dough. The alcohol evaporates in the oven making the pastry even more tender and delicious, I highly recommend this step! I’ve been using the same $6 bottle of vodka for my pastry for a few years now
- A sneaky method to achieve flaky layers. In order to create even more flaky layers (can you tell that’s the theme here!?) in this brown sugar cinnamon pop tart, I like to perform a letter or tri-fold method to the dough. Just before rolling out the dough to the full pop tart size, roll the chilled dough into a rough rectangle about 10”x5”. Perform the ⅓ fold technique to the dough by folding one short end ⅓ of the way over itself. Then fold the other short end over the previous fold. This process is similar to folding a piece of paper into thirds. Roll the dough into another 10” x 5” rectangle and perform the folds one more time. Then proceed to roll out the dough as normal!
- A food processor is fine, but hands work better. I’ll admit, I make my pastry in a food processor like 90% of the time. But if you want the very best pastry, making it by hand is the way to ensure your pastry does not get overworked. You can mix in your butter by pressing it into the flour with your fingers, or use a dough cutter if your hands tend to run warm!
Once your giant pop tart is baked you can cut it up into whatever size you prefer and share it with family and friends! They’ll love you for it friend.
Looking for other recipes featuring this delicious flaky pastry? Try my:
- Giant Fruit Pop Tart
- Blueberry Ginger Mini Galettes
- Peach and Thyme Galette
- Apple Pie
- Apple Butter Pie
Happy Nostalgic Baking!
Can baking be therapeutic?
I often talk about baking being a therapeutic hobby but I’d like to share more about why I feel that way as well as how it can become a relaxing hobby for you! When I bake, it’s my creative time. I may put on my favorite nostalgic movie or tv show in the background, or a Spotify playlist titled “French café” and leave my troubles behind.
Sometimes I pour myself a glass of wine and light a candle. Then, with the mood set, the mixing of batter, kneading of dough and smoothing of icing is my only care in the world.
When I say baking is therapeutic, sometimes people respond saying “not for me it isn’t!” I completely understand why someone might feel that way. There have been plenty of times where I spend hours on something only for it to fail or something breaks that shouldn’t or I forget to clean as I go and am left with a disastrous kitchen to clean.
So I should in reality, have a caveat to my “baking as therapy” claims…
Baking is therapy when you curate the experience to be relaxing.
How do you curate that relaxing experience for yourself, you ask?
How to make baking therapeutic…
- Prepare your mind–know that it’s okay if the cake doesn’t rise, or the butter wasn’t chilled enough. Shift your mindset from seeing your failures as mistakes to seeing them as opportunities for learning.
- Prepare your space–I cannot and will not bake on top of a messy kitchen. If I were to do this I would be starting from a place of stress! Take an extra 10 minutes to clean any dishes in the sink and wipe down the counters, this small effort will pay you back greatly in brain space and clarity.
- Clean as you go! I’ll tell you the one way to make baking stressful and tiresome, is to not clean as you go! After I use each ingredient that I no longer need, I put it away.
After each major step in the process, I wipe down the counters and put dishes that are no longer needed in the sink. If there is chill time or baking time I don’t sit, I do the cleaning then. Make this shift and you’ll really notice the difference!
By the way, this last tip really helped me when I was on The Great American Baking Show–and the crew that cleaned up behind us made a point to tell me that my workspace was always so clean they didn’t have much to do!
I would reply by saying “it’s how I stay sane in this tent!”
Additional suggestions:
*Maybe try printing off the recipe instead of looking at it on your phone, tablet or laptop and use this time to unplug from technology for a few hours
**Invite friends or family over to share your creation with you. Time spent with loved ones over food is a universally special experience
And that’s how I discovered baking for my mental health. If you try any of these suggestions, let me know how it went for you! I’m really invested in spreading this message to others in hopes that baking will enhance your lives more than it already does!
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tart
Ingredients
For the Pastry
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, cold, cubed
- 2 Tbsp ice water
- 1 Tbsp vodka*
- 1 large egg for egg wash
For the Brown Sugar Filling
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter melted
- splash of maple syrup
For the Cinnamon Frosting
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter melted
- 1 Tbsp maple syrup
- 2 1/2 Tbsp milk
- sprinkle of flaky salt to top, optional
Instructions
For the Pastry
- In a food processor, pulse together 2 ½ cups of all purpose flour, 1 Tbsp of granulated sugar, and 1 tsp of salt until combined.
- Add 1 cup (2 sticks) of cold unsalted butter cut into cubes directly into the food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
- Add 2 Tbsp of ice water and 1 Tbsp of vodka* and mix until the mixture comes together. Do not overmix.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured clean surface and bring it together with your hands. Form the dough into a round disc and wrap with plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour or overnight.
For the Brown Sugar Filling
- In a medium bowl, mix together 1 cup of brown sugar, 2 tsp of cinnamon, 2 Tbsp of flour, 2 Tbsp of melted butter and a splash of maple syrup. The mixture should resemble slightly wet sand. Set aside until ready to fill the pop tart.
For the Cinnamon Frosting
- Once the giant pop tart has cooled, whisk together 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, 2 tsp of cinnamon, 2 Tbsp of melted unsalted butter, 1 Tbsp of maple syrup and 2 1/2 Tbsp of milk until a smooth icing forms.
For the Assembly
- Preheat the oven to 365℉ (roughly 185℃).
- Once the dough has finished chilling, remove it from the refrigerator and roll it into a rectangle roughly 10” x 5”. The dough will be very hard to work at first. You may allow it to warm up slightly on the counter but not for longer than 10 minutes. It’s important to work with pastry while it is cold.
- Perform the ⅓ fold technique to the dough by folding one short end ⅓ of the way over itself. Then fold the other short end over the previous fold. This process is similar to folding a piece of paper into thirds. Roll the dough into another 10” x 5” rectangle and perform the folds one more time.
- Divide the dough in half and roll into two roughly 12” x 8” rectangles using a knife to cut them to the size.Roll one of the pastry rectangles directly onto a parchment paper sheet. The pastry will be rolled thin to achieve this and there will be very little excess dough in the end.
- Carefully drag the pastry rectangle that was rolled onto the parchment paper onto a baking sheet. Spread the brown sugar filling over that rectangle leaving roughly a 1” border around the edges.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk one egg to create an egg wash.
- Brush the outer 1” border with the egg wash and place the second rectangle of pastry on top by rolling it around a rolling pin and carefully unrolling it over the brown sugar-covered pastry rectangle. Seal all edges by pressing a fork lightly around the outer edges of the pastry and three times down the center to allow air to escape.
- Brush the entire pastry with egg wash and bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven to cool completely.
- Pour the cinnamon frosting over the cooled pop tart immediately and spread an even layer of frosting, making sure to not spill over the edges too much. The frosting will harden and set in place.
- Slice and enjoy!
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