Made with homemade strawberry jam and an easy-to-prep dough, these Strawberry Breakfast Tarts are way more delicious than regular old Pop-Tarts!
Jump to:
Do you remember your first cookbook? Mine was the 12th edition of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book back when I was in college in 2003. My mom always dates and writes notes in books that she gifts me, which I absolutely love because it helps me remember a little bit of the gift's history.
In this one, she wrote, "May you always live with love, eat with love, and cook with love- these are life's greatest pleasures." Considering pasta with butter and parmesan cheese is pretty much the ONLY thing I cooked in college and neither my mom nor I had any idea I would some day start a food blog, the "cooking" part of these words probably didn't mean a ton to me at the time.
But reading them back 15 years later (omg how old am I?!), it brings me so much happiness to know that I'm doing all of these things in a major way.
The brand recently sent me the 17th edition of the cookbook (update: the 18th edition of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook is now out) and while there are tons of recipes I want to make in it, I decided to start with the strawberry breakfast tarts.
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
If you're a fan of Pop Tarts of Breakfast Strudels, you're going to love the fact that you can now make them at home!
This recipe is completely homemade from the jam to the tart dough, but there are some substitutions you can make to make the recipe easier.
Once you learn how to make these breakfast tarts, you can make them in virtually any flavor you desire!
Both kids and adults will be so excited to be handed one of these strawberry tarts in the morning.
🗒 Ingredients
These strawberry breakfast tarts have three components: the homemade jam, the tart dough, and the vanilla icing. If you prefer to use a store-bought jam, you certainly can, but the homemade is so delicious!
Here are all of the ingredients you need for each component (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):
Strawberry Jam:
- Fresh strawberries
- Powdered fruit pectin (regular or classic)
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
Tart Dough:
- All-purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Eggs
- Whole milk
Vanilla Icing:
- Confectioners' sugar
- Whole milk
- Vanilla extract
- Sprinkles: optional for topping
🍓 How to make homemade strawberry jam
First things first, you need to make the strawberry jam. You guys, this stuff is SO good that I've already made it a second time (strawberries were on sale and I couldn't resist) and have been putting it on everything.
I used low-sugar pectin and will share how I adjusted the recipe in my recipe notes below. But all you need for this homemade jam is fruit, pectin, sugar, and butter.
To start, place 1 cup of the strawberries in a large heavy pot. Using a potato masher, crush berries. Keep adding more berries to the pot and crushing them until all berries are crushed and you have 2 ½ cups total crushed.
Stir in pectin and butter.
Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard for 1 minute, continuing to stir constantly. Remove from heat and skim off any foam from the top with a metal spoon.
Ladle the jam into mason jars and place in fridge to chill. You will have some jam leftover. If you're not planning to use it within about 3 weeks, see recipe notes for processing jars.
How gorgeous?! I still can't get over how easy and quick it was to make this. You could really use any fruit you want, making the flavor opportunities endless (hello, I'm gonna need a bigger fridge).
🥧 How to make tart dough
The dough for the breakfast tarts is also pretty simple. If you've ever made pie crust or scones, it will be very familiar to you. You basically just need to cut cold butter into a flour mixture and then add egg and milk.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. Add butter.
Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut in butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
Stir in eggs. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of the milk over part of the flour mixture; toss with a fork. Push moistened pastry to side of bowl. Repeat moistening flour mixture, gradually adding milk until mixture begins to come together. You may not need to use all the milk.
Gather pastry into a ball, kneading gently just until it holds together. Divide dough into fourths and form four balls. Cover with plastic wrap until dough is easy to handle (up to 1 hour).
👩🍳 How to make strawberry tarts
Now you're ready to assemble the breakfast tarts! I am not great at rolling dough out, so I welcome all the practice I can get and this recipe is great for it!
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll each pastry ball into a 9x8-inch rectangle and then cut the rectangle into four 4 ½x4-inch rectangles.
Brush edges of dough with additional milk. Spoon 1 well-rounded Tbsp of strawberry jam onto half of each rectangle.
Fold the other half over the filling. Seal edges with a fork and prick tops. Place on baking sheet and brush with additional milk.
And now they are finally resembling breakfast pastries!
Bake the breakfast pastries for 20-25 minutes, until they're turning golden around the edges.
My strawberry jam got a little oozy (I overfilled them a bit) and the pastry got nice and flaky. They'll need to cool for a bit and then comes the last step!
🥣 How to make vanilla icing
Luckily, this is also the easiest step... the icing! It's simply confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla all whisked together and then drizzled generously over the breakfast tarts.
So simple!
Plenty of sprinkles are necessary, too. Because when you start your day with sprinkles, you are almost guaranteed to have the best day ever.
I love everything about these breakfast pastries, but that strawberry jam? OMG. I may have eaten some right out of the jar with a spoon. I honestly don't know how I'll ever buy store-bought jam again.
Yes, I am totally going to be that person with jars and jars of jam sitting on my basement shelves and am already envisioning about a million different flavors I want to make.
I know they look quite a bit like Pop-Tarts, but it should come to you as no surprise that these are way better. They're delicate and flaky and incredibly jammy (as opposed to being hard and lacking in filling like Pop-Tarts).
🎉 Variations on recipe
These flaky strawberry breakfast pastries are absolutely perfect, ten out of ten, no changes necessary. But now that you know the basic breakfast tart recipe, there are so many things you can do to switch up the flavors and make them your own. Here are some ideas:
- Use the fruit of your choice: Instead of filling these breakfast tarts with strawberry jam, you could use blueberry, raspberry, grape, or any fruity flavor you want. This Blueberry Chia Jam would be delicious in the tarts!
- Fill the tarts with brown sugar and cinnamon instead.
- Use chocolate chips for the filling for an extra decadent breakfast.
- Add herbs: Make the strawberry breakfast tarts with mint or basil blended in.
- Try savory tarts: You can fill this pastry dough with a meat filling or even scrambled eggs and bacon.
While I probably shouldn't start every day with a strawberry breakfast tart, theses are such fun treats for special occasions or for a brunch party. And even though they're technically called "breakfast tarts," you can feel free to save yours for after dinner and make it a dessert pastry.
I opted for both... One pastry in the morning and one in the evening!
⏲️ How to store
Once the breakfast pastries are totally cooled, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. If you need to stack the tarts, place a piece of parchment or wax paper between the layers to prevent them from sticking to each other.
When stored properly, they should keep fresh for about 2-3 days.
I want to keep practicing these breakfast pastries so I can make them more and more perfect each time. OK fine, and so I can always have them sitting in my kitchen waiting for me.
🥞 More fun breakfast ideas
In a world filled with boring breakfasts, make yours more fun! Here are some of my favorite fun recipe ideas:
- Cake Mix Pancakes
- Strawberry Crepes
- Hawaiian Roll French Toast
- Breakfast Nachos
- M&M Pancakes
- Fruity Pebbles Crepes
- Blueberry Funfetti Cinnamon Rolls
- Breakfast Burger
- Piña Colada Bircher Muesli
- Bubble Waffle Banana Split Tacos
- Pancake Mix Donuts
- Cinnamon Toast Crunch Granola
- Cinnamon Roll Pancakes (from Life in the Lofthouse)
Here's to living with love, eating with love, and cooking with love for the next 15 years and beyond!
How often do you cook from cookbooks?
📖 Recipe
Strawberry Breakfast Tarts
Ingredients
Strawberry Jam
- 6 cups hulled strawberries
- ½ 1.75-oz package regular powdered fruit pectin or 3 Tbsp classic powdered fruit pectin (see recipe notes for low-sugar option)
- ¼ tsp unsalted butter
- 3 ½ cups granulated sugar (see recipe notes for low-sugar option)
Hand Pie Dough
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- ½ cup whole milk, plus more for brushing
Icing
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 3 Tbsp whole milk, divided
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Strawberry Jam
- Place 1 cup of the strawberries in a large heavy pot. Using a potato masher, crush berries. Keep adding more berries to the pot and crushing them until all berries are crushed and you have 2 ½ cups total crushed.
- Stir in pectin and butter. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard for 1 minute, continuing to stir constantly. Remove from heat and skim off any foam from the top with a metal spoon.
- Ladle the jam into mason jars and place in fridge to chill. You will have some jam leftover. If you're not planning to use it within about 3 weeks, see recipe notes for processing jars.
Hand Pie Dough
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut in butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in eggs. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of the milk over part of the flour mixture; toss with a fork. Push moistened pastry to side of bowl. Repeat moistening flour mixture, gradually adding milk until mixture begins to come together. You may not need to use all the milk.
- Gather pastry into a ball, kneading gently just until it holds together. Divide dough into fourths and form four balls. Cover with plastic wrap until dough is easy to handle (up to 1 hour)
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll each pastry ball into a 9x8-inch rectangle and then cut the rectangle into four 4 ½x4-inch rectangles.
- Brush edges of dough with additional milk. Spoon 1 well-rounded Tbsp of strawberry jam onto half of each rectangle and then fold the other half over the filling. Seal edges with a fork and prick tops. Place on baking sheet and brush with additional milk.
- Bake 20-25 minutes, until tarts are turning golden. Remove and cool on metal racks.
Icing
- In a small bowl, combine confectioners' sugar, 2 Tbsp milk, and vanilla. Continue to add milk a little bit at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Assembly
- When breakfast tarts are cooled, drizzle generously with icing and top with sprinkles, if desired.
Notes
- Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (17th Edition)
- If you're using low-sugar pectin in the strawberry jam, use 1 ½ Tbsp of the pectin and 1 cup of sugar (you can feel free to use even less sugar, but this is the ratio I liked best).
- Note that you will have some leftover jam with this recipe. If you aren't planning to use it within a few weeks, make sure to process ("can") the jars to give them a longer shelf-life. To do this, use hot, sterilized jars and leave ¼-inch of headspace. Wipe jar rims and adjust lids and screw bands. Process filled jars in water canner for 5 minutes (beginning timer when water returns to boiling). Remove jars from canner and cool on wire racks.
Useful Products
Marjory says
So much better than store bought! Fresh and delicious, especially the yummy fresh strawberry filling! Thanks for recipe!
Taryn says
My kids beg for pop-tarts at the store. This is SO much better for them. Thanks for a great recipe!
Amy says
I love the filling of strawberry in these tarts. Would love one right now with my cup of coffee!!
Courtney says
Great recipe! My daughter would really love these!