Feel like a kid again when you enjoy these eat to make homemade chocolate pop tarts for breakfast. The tender chocolate dough is filled with creamy fudge and topped with a sweet chocolate frosting. These chocolate poptarts are a chocolate lover's dream.
On a Quest for Easy Homemade Chocolate Poptarts
Who says you can't have chocolate for breakfast?
If I could, I would scream to the world that chocolate can be included in any meal because I'm a big fan of chocolate for breakfast. Now I'm not talking about a chocolate bar, but a regular breakfast just tweaked to have some chocolate in it.
I'm a heavy-duty traveler, and I find myself eating pop tarts a lot. We all know there is nothing good for you with a store-bought pop tart. So I started looking online to see what the options are out there for how to make pop tarts at home that I could take with me.
I found a few chocolate pop tart recipes, but they all were quite similar: a chocolate puff pastry with a bit of fudge filling and topped with a chocolate royal icing.
The oldest recipe that I saw was from Half Baked Harvest. And it looked like a lot of minor modifications from her base recipe over the years. So we made a couple of our own tweaks and came up with another version.
Ingredients in the Pop Tarts
- Flour
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Sugar
- Salt
- Butter
- Ice cold water
- Brown sugar
- Whole milk
- Milk chocolate chopped
- Vanilla extract
- Powdered sugar
- Meringue powder
- Dark chocolate
These chocolate pop tarts are pretty tasty, but since we've cut out all the preservatives found in store-bought pop tarts, they taste best when eaten within 24 hours.
Both the dough and the fudge filling can be made and refrigerated for three days ahead, so it's easy to make the dough and then bake fresh a few mornings in a row.
How to Make Pop Tarts at Home
- Begin by preparing the fudge filling, so it has time to cool and thicken.
- Make the dough and roll it to ⅛ inch thickness.
- Cut the dough into 4 ½" x 3 ½" rectangles and top with a tablespoon of the fudge filling.
- Fold the rectangle in half and crimp the edges with a fork to seal.
- Refrigerate the filled pop tarts for 10 minutes, then bake for 10 minutes.
- While the chocolate pop tarts cool, make the frosting.
- Spread frosting onto cooled pop tarts and allow it to sit for 10 minutes before decorating with sprinkles or sugar.
A couple of things about this recipe: sealing the dough is super important. We used an egg wash and pressed edges together, so there was a tight seal before baking them. You don't want all your fudge filling oozing out of the pop tarts while you bake them. And, I do want to warn you that you can not put these pop tarts in the toaster to heat up. That royal icing will melt all over your toaster.
More Tasty Breakfast Recipes
Looking for More Recipes?
Subscribe to my free newsletter to get new baking tips in your inbox monthly. Find me sharing new recipes and tips on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook.
And there you have it! Chocolate for breakfast! If you love this easy homemade chocolate poptarts recipe we'd love for you to leave us a comment.
Chocolate Pop Tarts
Ingredients
Dough:
- 3 cups Flour 402 grams
- 3 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder 18 grams
- 1 tablespoon sugar 13 grams
- ½ teaspoon salt 3 grams
- 1 ½ sticks (¾ cup butter) (170 grams) Chopped into small pieces
- ½ cup ice cold water 121 grams
Fudge Filling:
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 29 grams
- ⅓ cup packed brown sugar 81 grams
- ⅔ cup whole milk 174 grams
- ¼ teaspoon salt 2 grams
- 6 oz milk chocolate chopped (170 grams)
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter cut into small cubes (28 grams)
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract 8 grams
Frosting:
- 2 cups powdered sugar 215 grams
- 2 tablespoon meringue powder 25 grams
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 12 grams
- 2 tablespoon cocoa powder 18 grams
- 5 tablespoon water 75 grams
- 2 oz dark chocolate 57 grams
Instructions
- Start with making the fudge filling so it has time to cool and thicken. Stir together the cocoa powder, brown sugar, milk, salt and half of the chopped chocolate. Cook the mixture at a low boil, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and add the remaining ingredients. Stir until smooth. Set aside and let it cool.
- Preheat the oven to 400° F. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl with a paddle attachment, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar and salt. Add the chunks of butter and keep mixing until it is crumbly. Slowly add the water until mixture is moistened and dough forms. Remove from mixer and roll out on a lightly floured surface to ⅛ inch thick.
- Cut the dough into 4 ½" x 3 ½" rectangles. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling onto one half of the rectangle. Fold the other half over the filling and seal the edges. Repeat until all the dough has been used.
- Refrigerate the pop tarts for 10 - 15 minutes to let the dough cool. Then bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely.
- While the pop tarts cool, make the frosting.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the powdered sugar, meringue powder, vanilla, cocoa powder and 3 tablespoons of water for 10 minutes on medium speed until peaks begin to form. Stir in the melted chocolate. If the frosting seems too thick, add the other 2 tablespoons of water to thin it.
- Spoon a layer of the frosting on top of the cooled pop tarts. Let the frosting harden for about 10 minutes. You can then sprinkle sea salt or sugar on top to finish the look.
Notes
Nutrition
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases. What that means is if you click on one of our affiliate links, they may toss a few pennies our way for a commission.
Jen @ JENRON DESIGNS says
YUM these look amazing I have always loved pop tarts now I can not wait to make them.
Tisha says
Easy is always on my must list!
Sharon says
I really like making homemade pop tarts and these ones are going on my list! I love the fudgy center.