Homemade Heart Pop Tarts for Valentine’s Day

These homemade heart shaped Pop Tarts are the perfect mix of adorable and delicious. Made with flaky pie crust and filled with classic flavors like cherry almond and brown sugar, they are easy to customize for any holiday or occasion. This recipe is great for gifting, baking with kids, and creating bakery style pastries right at home. Whether you decorate them with icing and sprinkles or keep them simple, these Pop Tarts are a fun and festive treat that everyone will love.

I love Valentine’s Day. This year, I will be a little busy with a newborn, so I have been getting a head start on Valentine’s Day decorating and baking. Back when I used to do markets, I always made delicious pop tarts. They were always a hit, and today I am sharing an easy heart shaped pop tart recipe with you that is super cute for Valentine’s Day.

I made my favorite flavors, cherry almond and brown sugar. I will also include more flavor variations in this blog that I have made in the past. My son and I had a blast making these, and I hope you get the chance to make them this Valentine’s Day too.

I’m really hoping I can work up the energy and attention span to make strawberry sourdough bagels next week.

I have never gotten so many messages on an Instagram story the way I did with these heart pop tarts. So many people requested the recipe, so I thought, why not make a big batch to bring to the Valentine’s Day card making on Saturday? That way we could enjoy them there, and I could also blog the recipe.

Plus, as I have mentioned many times, my son loves helping me in the kitchen, especially when it comes to baking.

I was only going to make the cherry almond flavor, but when I mentioned it to my mom, she said, “Please, oh please, make me some of your brown sugar pop tarts!” I decided to make both.

They are seriously the cutest for gifting and packing into pastry boxes. I really want to try making St. Patrick’s Day ones filled with chocolate mint.

Back when I made these at the markets, I used to make them with homemade pie crust. The problem was that it took me so long to make the pop tarts. For this version, I went the semi homemade route and bought premade pie crust. Not only was it easier, but honestly, it tasted more like a real pop tart than my original ones. It also cut my time in half. As a mom, I’ll take all the extra time I can get.

They seriously are so good. I am usually pretty decent at letting sweets sit in my house without eating them, but every time I go down to the extra container of pop tarts, I find myself taking a few bites. Luckily, I am sending my husband to work tomorrow with whatever is left.

Pop Tart Ingredients

For the Base:
Pie crust homemade or store bought the roll out kind
Flour (for dusting the surface)
Your filling of choice
Egg for an egg wash (totally optional)
For Icing:
Powdered sugar
Water
Meringue powder (hardens so you can stack them)
Vanilla

If you’re looking for meringue powder locally, you can usually find it at Walmart in their party/Wilton section, Hobby Lobby and Michaels.

Cherry Almond Pop Tart Filling:

Cherry Preserves (Bonne Maman brand is my favorite)
Almond extract
Flour

Brown Sugar Pop Tart Filling:

Brown sugar
Cinnamon
Flour
Butter
Sea Salt

How to Make Homemade Pop Tarts

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Flour a clean surface.

Roll out the room temperature pie crust as thin as you can. It is a little tougher to work with than cookie dough, but it is worth it.

Cut out heart shapes until you have 24 hearts. One box makes about 14 mini pop tarts since it comes with two pie crusts.

Add a small amount of filling to the center of one heart. Place another heart on top and use your fingers to gently pinch around the edges to make sure the filling does not ooze out.

Next, take a fork and press along the edges to create the classic pop tart ridge. This also helps seal the filling inside.

Place the pop tarts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Brush a light layer of egg wash over the tops of the pop tarts.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until lightly golden.

How to Make Pop Tart Icing:

Let the pop tarts cool completely before adding icing and sprinkles.

I made one large base batch of icing using powdered sugar, meringue powder, water, and vanilla. The measurements are in the recipe card. Then I divided the icing in half. I added cinnamon to the brown sugar icing, and for the cherry icing, I added natural dye along with a small pinch of almond extract.

We iced the pop tarts, added sprinkles, and let them harden for about three hours. If you do not use meringue powder, allow the icing to harden overnight.

Adding sprinkles was my son’s favorite part.

As you can see, I am a lover of all things Valentine’s Day. My mom and I always celebrated together when I was little, and she made it so special. I love the pinks, purples, reds, and all the hearts and love filled decor.

Adding labels to desserts and pastries makes them extra cute. I do this for every holiday, especially Christmas. If you plan to make these, you can save the files and print them to add to your dessert boxes.

If you are wondering, I do miss the market days, but I love being a mom at full capacity more than the hustle life. It was so rewarding, but it took away so much time with my son. Now we get to bake together, blog about it, and create memories in the kitchen. And if I ever want to do something similar again when they are both in school one day, maybe I will.

Right now, I am truly enjoying this very involved mom life. It’s better for everyone in this household.

The next day, we boxed them up, added cute labels, and headed to church for a few hours of Valentine’s Day card making for the nursing homes.

It also made me realize that I need to make a card with my son soon to send to my grandma who is in a nursing home. We have so much glitter and so many stickers to use up, so she will be getting a big card coming her way. Plus, we will be making one for Kyle’s grandma too. A fun activity to do when it is freezing this week.

Once the Pop Tarts have hardened, you can transfer them to a bakery pastry box and stack them. The icing is similar to royal icing, so it will not smudge as long as they have had enough time to fully harden. You can also package them in clear bags and tie them with a cute ribbon. We may do this for my son’s teachers if I have not gone into labor by Valentine’s Day lol

I have had so much fun adding different flavors to these pop tarts.

I have made the same cherry version using raspberry preserves, peach preserves, lemon curd, and even apple pie filling (mostly the Bonne Maman brand)

I have also made blueberry, chocolate hazelnut, and strawberry.

I hope you all loved this idea for Valentine’s Day! I’m hoping to push out a few more favorites! 🙂