The Ultimate Snack for the Chocolate Lover
Whether you enjoy them for breakfast, dessert, or a mid-day snack (all three, anyone? 🙋🏼‍♀️), these chocolate pop tarts are guaranteed to satisfy even the strongest chocolate cravings. Surprisingly, all that chocolate flavor comes from just a handful of ingredients, which means making these homemade pop tarts is almost as easy as ripping open a foil package from the store. As with my homemade strawberry pop tarts and so many of my other pastry recipes, I knew I wanted to start with my foolproof pie crust as the base. A few changes were in order to turn it into a chocolate crust, so I added cocoa powder and reduced the flour. Because cocoa powder can be bitter and I didn’t want the crust to be too dark in flavor, I also increased the sugar. The filling is essentially a chocolate truffle filling; it’s rich and gooey with a semi-molten consistency that’s absolutely irresistible. To finish it all off, I add a shiny, firm-set chocolate frosting and some sprinkles for flair. The end result is cute, but dangerously good! Let’s get started!
What You Need
Here are a few of the key ingredients you’ll need to make these chocolate pop tarts:
Flour. All-purpose flour will work just fine for these chocolate pop tarts.Cocoa powder. I use natural cocoa powder for a smooth chocolate flavor. Dutch-process cocoa will also work, but keep in mind the result will be e a more intense flavor. Sugar. You’ll need granulated sugar for the crust and powdered sugar for the filling and frosting.Butter. Use unsalted butter for the crust and salted butter for the filling. Your butter should be very cold before you add it to your crust to achieve a perfectly flaky texture.Sour cream. Since our pastry base is my classic pie dough, we’ll be adding sour cream (my secret ingredient) to the crust of these chocolate pop tarts. It won’t make the crust taste like sour cream, but it will impart a lovely flavor and keep the dough super simple to make. Full-fat Greek yogurt will also work in a pinch. Chocolate chips. I prefer to use semi-sweet chocolate chips for the filling, though milk chocolate or dark chocolate would work fine. A baking bar would also work as an alternative.Heavy cream. We’ll melt our chocolate with a few tablespoons of heavy cream to give the filling its classic, molten-esque consistency. The filling is not a far cry from my chocolate ganache, though tempered with butter to keep it from being too intense or cloying.Vanilla. A splash of vanilla extract in the filling rounds out the rich chocolate flavor. Egg. We’ll brush egg wash on both the interior and exterior of our homemade pop tarts for a crisp (not soggy!) texture.Corn syrup. This is NOT the same as high fructose corn syrup! Corn syrup makes the frosting nice and glossy and helps it harden perfectly. I know some of you are still hesitant about using this ingredient, so if you really want to, you can skip it. Keep in mind if you do skip it, your icing won’t firm up the same or be as shiny, and you may need more milk. Milk. Add just a splash milk to the frosting to make it nice and spreadable. I use whole milk, but you can use whatever you have on hand, just keep in mind you’ll need a bit less if you’re using a thinner (lower fat) milk like 2% or skim. Sprinkles. These are optional, but not really.
SAM’S TIP: Make sure you use light corn syrup, not dark. Dark has a stronger flavor that will likely overpower or compete with the chocolate in the frosting. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Chocolate Pop Tarts
Crust
Filling
Assembly
SAM’S TIP: This icing is nearly impossible to mess up! If it gets too thin, add some more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add some more milk. For those who struggle with this, I talk more about the ideal consistency in the recipe and show you exactly how it should look in the video below. Enjoy!
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Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
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