If you love all things red velvet, you're going to want to make these Red Velvet Pop Tarts immediately! They're made with a delicious and vibrantly colored pastry dough, stuffed with a sweet cream cheese filling, and topped with vanilla icing and plenty of sprinkles. They're a lovely Valentine's Day treat, but can be made whenever the red velvet craving hits!
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Isn't there something so special and fun about red velvet desserts? I always think of them as being perfect for Valentine's Day, but really, red velvet is a flavor that can be (and should be) enjoyed any time of the year.
I recently spotted red velvet Pop Tarts at the grocery store and decided that instead of buying them, I'd make my own!
These red velvet Pop Tarts are filled with a delicious cream cheese filling and topped with vanilla icing. I made them heart-shaped especially for Valentine's Day, but you can make them in whatever shape you want, including the traditional rectangle Pop Tart shape.
😍 What is red velvet?
There's often a lot of confusion about what red velvet flavor actually is. Is it chocolate? It it vanilla dyed red? Why is there often vinegar involved?? All are valid questions.
Red velvet is a cake flavor (though these days, it's a flavor for many desserts) made with the addition of cocoa powder, buttermilk, and vinegar. Yes, vinegar!
Traditionally, red velvet cake didn't have any food coloring in it. When buttermilk and vinegar were added to the flour and cocoa mixture, a chemical reaction occurred that turned the color of the cake to be a reddish rust color. These days, cocoa powder is often processed differently and the same reaction will not occur, so food coloring is necessary to get that look.
Red velvet is certainly not chocolate cake and generally red velvet batters only have a little bit of cocoa powder in them. Though the buttermilk and vinegar may not turn the batter red anymore, it's still generally used for the flavor and tender texture.
I guess all you really need to know is that it's delicious and goes so well with cream cheese frosting, or in the case of these red velvet Pop Tarts, cream cheese filling.
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
These Pop Tarts are made with all the elements of red velvet and are deliciously flavorful and fun. They make a fun Valentine's Day gift and a special February 14 breakfast. Or just a treat for any of the red velvet lovers in your life any time of the year.
They're fairly easy to make and can be turned into any shape you want. Since they're homemade, they're free of the preservatives and chemicals you find in store-bought and they're less sickeningly sweet than the typical Pop Tart.
If you love these, I think you'll also enjoy these red velvet muffins, another fabulous Valentine's Day breakfast recipe!
🗒 Ingredients
There are three different elements to this recipe: the Pop Tart, the filling, and the icing. But the ingredients are all pretty standard and should be easy to find. Here's what you need:
For the Pop Tarts:
- All-purpose flour
- Cocoa powder
- Granulated sugar
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Large egg
- Buttermilk
- White vinegar or apple cider vinegar (don't worry; you can't taste it in the finished Pop Tarts!)
- Red food coloring
For the cream cheese filling:
- Cream cheese
- Confectioners' sugar
- Vanilla
- Salt
For the vanilla icing:
- Confectioners' sugar
- Buttermilk (or regular milk)
- Vanilla extract
🔪 Equipment
You don't need too much special equipment to make these Valentine's Day pop tarts aside from what you'd need with typical cookies, like mixing bowls, a wooden spoon or spatula, a baking pan, and parchment paper.
However, you will need some cookie cutters... I recommend heart shaped cookie cutters.
I also highly recommend a pastry cutter. If you don't have one, you can use your fingers to cut the butter into the dough, but I use my pastry cutter all the time!
You'll also need some red food coloring. I use Wilton's Color Right for pretty much all my food coloring needs.
And to fancy the heart pop tarts up, you should get some fun Valentine's Day sprinkles.
🍫 How to make red velvet pop tart dough
Aside from the few additional ingredients, this is a pretty standard pastry dough recipe.
To start, just whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
Add cubed butter to the bowl.
Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut the butter in until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
Now, in a separate medium bowl, stir together the lightly beaten egg, buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring.
Ooh it looks SO bright!
But once you add it to the flour mixture, it will tone down a bit.
Add those wet ingredients to bowl with dry ingredients and use a wooden spoon, spatula, or your hands to combine. I like to use my hands, but they do turn a little red from the dye. Knead it gently in the bowl until it all comes together.
If you really don't want to touch it due to the red dye, you can put it in a stand mixer and use the dough hook to knead it together.
Divide dough into two equal-sized balls. Wrap each with plastic wrap, press gently into discs, and refrigerate for about an hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll one of your pastry portions out until it's about ⅛" thick.
Use a cookie cutter to cut out hearts (or desired shapes). I used a heart cookie cutter that's about 2 ¾" in diameter. This set of heart cookie cutters has a lot of size options!
Set cut-outs on prepared baking sheet. Re-roll dough and continue to cut. Repeat with second disc of dough.
I got about 24 small hearts out of each dough ball, but the amount you get will depend on the cookie cutter shape and size you use.
🥣 How to make cream cheese filling
Now that your dough is all cut out, you'll want to make the cream cheese filling. It's super easy!
All you need to do is beat together the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer.
You'll want to beat it until it's smooth, about 3-4 minutes.
👩🍳 How to assemble pop tarts
And you're ready to assemble and bake the Pop Tarts.
Brush edges of each dough heart with a little bit of buttermilk and add a small scoop of cream cheese filling onto half of the hearts, being sure to leave a little bit of space around the edges.
Place a second dough heart on top of the cream cheese topped ones and, using your fingers, press down around the seams to seal them tight.
Press the tines of a fork around the edges of each of the hearts.
And be sure to prick the tops multiple times to allow steam to escape.
Brush with more buttermilk.
Bake for about 20-24 minutes, until tarts are cooked through and getting crispy. Remove and cool on metal racks.
Some cream cheese filling could ooze out of the baked Pop Tarts (this is one of the reasons it's so important to prick the tops). You can simple remove it.
We're almost done! We just need to make a quick vanilla icing because what's a Pop Tart without icing??
🧁 How to make vanilla icing
This is a super standard icing and very easy to make!
Just add all the confectioners' sugar, 1 ½ tablespoon buttermilk, and vanilla to a medium bowl and whisk until smooth.
If icing is still pretty thick, you can add the remaining ½ tablespoon buttermilk to thin out.
Now, top each baked and cooled Pop Tart with icing. You can either just drizzle it on or try to keep it in a heart-shape. Whatever works for you!
I also recommend topping with sprinkles. I've been loving these Valentine's Day sprinkles.
Aren't they so cute?? In my opinion, they're better than any Pop Tarts you could. buy in the store!
And they taste better, too! They're almost like little hand pies... They're not too sweet and have just a touch of cocoa flavor. The pastry is so delightfully flaky.
Of course the cream cheese filling is the perfect slightly sweet and slightly tangy touch!
I think I'm in love.
Dear red velvet Pop Tarts... Will you be my Valentines??
⏲️ How to store
Because of the cream cheese filling in these Pop Tarts, I do recommend you keep them stored in an airtight container in the fridge if you're going to be storing them overnight or longer. The sugar does help act as a preservative, but not if you're keeping these for more than a day.
Luckily, these still taste pretty fabulous right out of the fridge. Trust me, I tested quite a few!
💘 More Valentine's Day recipes
Red velvet can and should be enjoyed all year round! But It's especially fun during Valentine's Day. I have a few more ideas for red velvet recipes, plus lots of other February 14 appropriate desserts. Here are some of my favorites:
- Red Velvet Ice Cream with Cookie Dough
- Red Velvet Cookie Dough Bars
- Chocolate Covered Strawberry Frappuccino
- Conversation Heart Cookies with Marshmallow Fluff
- Strawberry Cupcakes
- Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Heart Cookies
- Rose Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
- Rose White Hot Chocolate
- Grapefruit Crinkle Cookies with Campari Icing
- Valentine's Day Cake (from Kitchen Fun with my Three Sons)
However you're celebrating the day of love, I think you need to incorporate red velvet Pop Tarts into it. And if you don't have a special Valentine to bake them for, make them for yourself. You deserve it!
What's your favorite red velvet treat?
📖 Recipe
Red Velvet Pop Tarts
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- ¼ cup buttermilk, plus more for brushing tarts
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon red food coloring
- Cream Cheese Filling (recipe below)
- Vanilla Icing (recipe below
Cream Cheese Filling
- 1 block (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Vanilla Icing
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 ½-2 tablespoon buttermilk (or regular milk)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt.
- Add cubed butter to flour mixture and, using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut the butter in until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
- In a separate medium bowl, stir together egg, buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring.
- Add wet ingredients to bowl with dry ingredients and use a wooden spoon, a spatula, or your hands to combine. I like to use my hands, but they do turn a little red from the dye. Knead it gently in the bowl until the dough comes together (If you really don't want to touch it due to the red dye, you can put it in a stand mixer and use the dough hook to knead it together).
- Divide dough into two equal-sized balls Wrap each with plastic wrap, press gently into discs, and refrigerate for about an hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll one of your pastry discs out until it's about ⅛" thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out hearts (or desired shapes) and set cut-outs on prepared baking sheet. Re-roll dough and continue to cut. Repeat with second portion of dough.
- Brush edges of dough with a little bit of buttermilk and add a small scoop of cream cheese filling onto half of the hearts, being sure to leave a little bit of space around the edges.
- Place a second dough heart on top of the cream cheese topped ones and, using your fingers, press down around the seams to seal them tight. Press the tines of a fork around the edges of each of the hearts and prick the tops multiple times to allow steam to escape. Brush the tops of the Pop Tarts with more buttermilk.
- Bake for about 20-24 minutes, until tarts are cooked through and getting crispy. Remove and cool on metal racks.
- Top each of the cooled Pop Tart with icing. You can either just drizzle it on or try to keep it in a heart-shape. Add sprinkles.
Cream Cheese Filling
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat together cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and salt until smooth, 3-4 minutes.
Vanilla Icing
- In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, 1 ½ tablespoon buttermilk, and vanilla, until smooth. If icing is too thick, add remaining ½ tablespoon buttermilk.
Notes
- You can make dough in advance and store in fridge for 2-3 days. When ready to roll out and bake, allow the dough to sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes before rolling and cutting.
- If cream cheese filling oozes out of Pop Tarts a bit upon baking, you can simple take a knife and trim it away.
- To Store: Because of the cream cheese filling in these Pop Tarts, it is recommended that you store these in an airtight container in the fridge if keeping them more than a day.
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