This giant caramel apple pop tart is the perfect fall dessert. With flaky, buttery pastry, spiced caramel apples and a homemade caramel cinnamon glaze, it will taste like an explosion of fall flavors!
Why make this Caramel Apple Pop Tart
If you’ve been reading Karis Bakes Blog for a little while now, then you’ll know that your girl is a sucker for a homemade pop tart! Homemade pop tarts are a colorful blend of childhood nostalgia and their more adult counterpart, the hand pie.
An added perk of making the pop tart giant is how much quicker it is than cutting out the smaller pop tarts and crimping all of those sides. So if you’re a fan of the pop tart and want flavor options other than this Caramel Apple Pop Tart, check out my:
Giant Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tart
The reason I believe this Caramel Apple Pop Tart to be so good is the marrying of my crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth pastry with the balanced, spiced apple filling. Each bite is an autumn dream.
The Perfect Pastry Dough
I developed my perfect pastry recipe for pies and pop tarts a few years back and I’ll tell you it really is the best. Both method and ingredients are crucial for making this pie dough just right, so let’s get into the process!
The Ingredients
To achieve this buttery, flaky pastry dough you will need:
- All purpose flour
- Sugar
- Salt
- Butter (85% milk fat content)
- Ice water
- Vodka
The Method
There are two methods you can use to make my homemade pastry recipe, a lazy method and a detailed method. While both are easy, they each have their benefits…
- The lazy method for making my pie dough recipe consists of adding all of the ingredients to a food processor in a sequence and then blitzing the mixture until it JUST starts to come together, then finish bringing it together by hand, wrap with plastic and refrigerate until it’s time to use. Little work, little mess.
- The detailed method for making this pie dough recipe sounds intimidating because of its name but it really isn’t. Instead of using the food processor, you’ll bring everything together in a bowl, by hand. You’ll press the butter into the flour mixture and gently mix in the water, leaving you with more flaky layers in the end. When everything comes together, wrap and refrigerate like normal.
A tiny extra tip: I always fold my pastry in a book fold twice before shaping it for use, this will add even more flaky delicious pastry layers!
The Homemade Caramel
I lovvvve a homemade caramel. It’s one of those treats that seems way more complicated than it is to make. My recipe doesn’t require that you use any thermometers or special tools, just your eyes and your heart…I mean mainly your eyes. Let’s talk best caramel practices…
Step 1: Add the sugar and water and give the two a slight mix to evenly distribute the water. Then remove your spatula and RESIST THE URGE TO STIR! The beauty of homemade caramel is that you don’t really have to do too much work–you just have to know what you’re looking for!
Step 2: The sugar water mixture will begin to bubble fiercely. Remember not to stir, swirling the pan a bit is okay to help evenly distribute the heat. After a few minutes you will start to see some color. It will turn slightly yellow, then light brown and then a deep amber color. Depending on how you prefer your caramel you can pull it off the heat when it is lighter or darker. Just beware that the sugar can burn in an instant! Once it starts to deepen in color you have seconds before it burns!
Step 3: Remove from the heat once you reach your desired color, immediately add room temperature unsalted butter and whisk until well combined. The mixture will bubble violently–this is normal, and kind of fun!
Pro tip: be sure to use the best quality butter you can, it will make a world of a difference in the final flavor of the caramel!
Step 4: Add heavy cream and salt and mix again until combined. Allow to cool and then use as you prefer!
Additional Tips
I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to keep an eye on the homemade caramel as you are making it. This isn’t a confection that you can make while you do other things. I recommend setting out all of the ingredients before starting so that once you start, everything is already measured out!
The Caramel Apple Filling
Once you’ve made your caramel all that’s left to do is cook down the apples with the spices to make the apple filling!
To make the Caramel Apple Filling you will need:
- Apples (your favorite will do, I love Honeycrisp)
- Butter
- Brown Sugar
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Ginger
- Lemon Juice
- Salt
- Vanilla
- Cornstarch
- Water
Making the filling is as easy as combining all of these ingredients into a saucepan and and letting them cook down to soften the apples.
When they have cooked down enough and cooled off slightly, you’ll pulse the apples in a blender or food processor to make them slightly spreadable, then mix in about half of the caramel and you have your caramel apple filling for the pop tart!
If you make and enjoy this recipe, please scroll below to leave a star rating and review and share with me on Instagram/Tiktok @karisscorner
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!
Giant Caramel Apple Pop Tart
Ingredients
For the Pastry
- 2 1/2 cups (315g) all purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup (220g) unsalted butter 2 sticks, cold, cubed
- 2 Tbsp ice water
- 1 Tbsp vodka*
- 1 large egg for egg wash
For the Homemade Caramel
- 3/4 cups (150g) granulated sugar
- 1/8 cup (30ml) water
- 3 Tbsp (40g) unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60ml) heavy cream room temperature
- pinch of salt
For the Spiced Apple Filling
- 3 medium (~390g) apples your choice, I like Honeycrisp
- 1 Tbsp (14g) unsalted butter
- 1 Tbsp (12g) brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp vanilla extract vanilla bean paste if you have it
- 1 Tbsp (10g) cornstarch
- squeeze of lemon juice
- pinch of salt
- 2 Tbsp water
For the Cinnamon Caramel Glaze
- 1 cup (110g) powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp (30g) milk
- 1 Tbsp homemade caramel
- dash of cinnamon
Instructions
For the Pastry
- In a food processor, pulse together 2 ½ cups (315g) of all purpose flour, 1 Tbsp of granulated sugar, and 1 tsp of salt until combined.
- Add 1 cup (2 sticks/220g)) 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 Caramel
- Prepare all of your ingredients before starting the process of making the caramel.
- To a saucepan add 3/4 cup (150g) of granulated sugar and 1/8 cup (30ml) of water. Give the mix a very slight stir just to evenly distribute the water. Then remove the spatula and turn the burner to medium/high heat.
- It is important not to stir the sugar water mixture while it toasts. If you would like to make sure the heat is distributing evenly, swirl the pan slightly from time to time.
- The mixture will bubble fiercely and turn light yellow, then light brown and then a deep amber. Pull the sugar off of the heat at your preferred color keeping in mind that the deeper the color, the bolder the flavor!
- Once you've pulled the sugar off of the heat, add 3 Tbsp (40g) of unsalted butter at room temperature to the saucepan. Whisk vigorously until the butter fully melts.
- Add in 1/4 cup (60ml) of heavy cream at room temperature and whisk again until combined. Add in a pinch of salt and mix! That's it-homemade caramel complete, set aside to cool.
For the Spiced Apple Filling
- To a medium saucepan add 3 medium apples (~390g), 1 Tbsp (14g) unsalted butter, 1 Tbsp (12g) of brown sugar, 1 tsp of ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg, 1 tsp of ground ginger, 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 1 Tbsp (10g) of cornstarch, a squeeze of lemon juice, a pinch of salt and 2 Tbsp of water.
- Stir until everything is evenly distributed and then cover with a lid and allow to simmer for a few minutes.
- When the apples have softened properly, remove them from the heat to cool slightly.
- Once the apples have cooled enough, add them to a blender or food processor and pulse a few times until the apple pieces are small enough/a spreadable consistency.
- Add 1/2 of the homemade caramel to the apple mixture and set aside until it's time to fill the pastry rectangles.
For the Assembly/Bake
- 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 caramel apple 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 caramel apple-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.
For the Cinnamon Caramel Glaze
- Once the Caramel Apple Pop Tart has baked and cooled, mix together 1 cup (110g) of powdered sugar, 2 Tbsp (30g) milk, 1 Tbsp of homemade caramel and a dash of cinnamon until a homogenous glaze forms.
- Drizzle on top of the cooled pop tart, serve and enjoy!
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