Valentine’s Day Pop-Tart Poppers + Pops {Free Printables + Recipe}

I don’t know about you, but pop tarts SO take me back!  I used to LOVE pop tarts when I was a kid … although they were a rare treat in our household.  Maybe that’s why I loved them so much – the forbidden fruit!  My mom was very conscientious about having us eat healthy.  I’m not so conscientious, as you can see from this butter pic …

Yep, there are two sticks of butter in the crust or outer layer if you will … for all 18 though.  That’s probably like a teaspoon of butter in each!  That’s what you put on your English muffin in the morning. You are fine!!

How delicious do these look with the strawberry jam oozing out??!!  I use strawberry because it makes me think of my grandma’s strawberry jam.  Anyone who is a part of my family and reads this knows what I’m talking about.  I have never tasted anything like her jam.  I dream about it before I go back to visit.  I love that jam is a morning thing because I can’t wait to eat it when I get to my grandparent’s house! Disclaimer – this is store bought jam … not nearly as good.  I suggest you make your own jam for these.  I can’t even imagine what these suckers would taste like with Grandma’s jam.  But you don’t have to use strawberry.  Use whatever is your thing … grape, apricot, chocolate … whoa chocolate … now we’re talking.

That actually brings me to something.  I went through a phase where I liked those fudge pop tarts.  It was strawberry, then fudge, then I went back to strawberry.  

Since Valentine’s Day is coming up, I wanted to give you a few things to show how much I LOVE and appreciate you for sharing in my joy of cooking!  First, I wanted to show you three different ways these pop-tart poppers/pops can be served.

You can serve these pop tarts as poppers in these little baggies I got at Michaels.  These are so fun.  I painted them with a little chalkboard paint.  That makes it so you can reuse them, plus I think they look cuter with the chalkboard paint than just writing on the bags with a marker.

Or you can stick a stick in the pop tarts before you bake them to make pop tart pops.  The pops are always fun and very easy to eat.  They make it easy to scoop up some more jam, which I suggest you serve them with.  Some of the jam filler tends to ooze out in the baking process.

Finally, you can serve the pop tart poppers in these serving cones.  Stick the cones in a little jar.  I also got these at Michael’s (in the wedding section).  Or you can stand the cones straight up by sticking a popsicle stick (like the ones I used for the pops) in a hard foam base and sticking the bottom of the cone over the stick.  

Below are the printables for this Valentine’s Day design!

Valentine Tags Printable
Serving Cone Printabe Side 1
Serving Cone Printable Side 2

Happy Valentines SaucyPants!

Print Pop Tart Pops/Poppers Recipe!
Strawberry Pop-Tart Pops and Poppers
Inspired by Bon Appetit Magazine April 2010
Makes: 18                                        Oven Temp: 375 degrees F                  Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:
2 cups + 2 Tablespoons flour (I used whole wheat)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup chilled unsalted butter
5 Tablespoons ice water
12 Tablespoons strawberry (or your choice) preserves

Directions:
Cut butter into Tablespoon cubes (follow along butter packaging). In a large bowl, whisk flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter. Using fingers, blend butter into flour mix as best you can (see pic). Add ice water by Tablespoonfuls. Mix in water and form dough into a ball using your hands. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough out onto a flat floured surface to about 13×11 inches. Make sure the dough is pretty thin. Otherwise, the outer layer of your pop tarts will become too thick. Cut dough using a knife and ruler to your desired sized squares. For pops or poppers, I suggest about 2-2.5 inch squares. Any smaller, it will be hard to keep enough jam inside the pop tarts. The bigger you make them, the more jam can fit inside. Arrange half of the squares on baking sheet. Spoon a bit of preserves onto each square. Add a popsicle stick for pops. Place second half of the squares on top of the preserves. Press edges with fingers to seal. Then press edges with a fork. Poke a few holes in each tart with a toothpick. Cover and freeze for at least 2 hours and up to one week. When ready to cook preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake until golden (about 15 minutes). Very lightly dampen top of pop tarts, and sprinkle with salt. Serve with jam as some of the jam tends to bake out of the tarts.