If you haven’t tried making pop tarts at home, these Vegan and gluten free cherry pop tarts are your call to action! The have a delicious buttery crust and a sweet cherry filling with a twist.
To be honest, I think I’ve actually never had a pop tart in my life. But I guess the pastries you can often get in the bakeries here (that are puff pastry pockets filled with jam) are pretty much the same.
So, once again my grandmothers handwritten cook book was of great help: I just adapted one of her recipes for short pastry. The only thing I wasn’t quite sure about was if her pastry dough could be turned into a gluten free one, so all of you who cannot eat any gluten can enjoy these too!
I didn’t expect them to work out at my first attempt. But despite my worries, these vegan and gluten free cherry pop tarts did. And I may or may not have made a little happy dance in my kitchen 🙂
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Ingredients you need for these vegan gluten free cherry pop tarts
The ingredients for these vegan and gluten free cherry pop tarts are pretty manageable. However, I didn’t include the ingredients for the jam, as you would need one batch of my 5-ingredient cherry jam. Of course I can only recommend you to make it, but in case you are short on time, opt for a store-bought variety. Everything else you need:
- GLUTEN FREE FLOUR MIX: We need a mix of buckwheat flour, potato flour and rice flour. You can use regular or brown rice flour.
- (VEGAN) BUTTER: As with most shortbread crusts, a bit if butter is a non-negotiable ingredient. Of course I could have tried making the dough with nut or seed butters, but they tend to add their own taste which I wanted to avoid in this recipe. We also need some vegan butter for the frosting, but you can take a look at the substitutions to see what you could use instead therefore.
- SUGAR: Almost any granulated sweetener will work. However, keep in mind that brown or coconut sugar have a stronger caramel-like taste.
- PLANT MILK: Makes sure the pastry dough isn’t too dry. You can use whatever plant milk you have in hand, but I wouldn’t recommend using full fat coconut milk. Something like soy- or oat milk would be perfect!
- VANILLA EXTRACT: This is an optional ingredient, but adds a delicious note to the dough!
- CHERRY JAM: As mentioned, we need one batch of my 5-ingredient cherry jam for the filling. Optionally, use the same amount of a store bought cherry jam!
- CREAMY YOGHURT: We will need just a tiny amount for the frosting. You can use any creamy yoghurt you want, however I would suggest to use a more neutral flavored one.
- SPRINKLES: Optional, but not really 😉
Substitutions
You could make substitutions for the following ingredients:
- VEGAN BUTTER – I would not recommend to substitute the vegan butter in the dough, as it creates the best consistency. But you could use coconut butter or cacao butter for the frosting instead.
- RICE FLOUR – Both, white and brown rice flour, should work fine!
- CHERRY JAM – If you are short on time, use a store bought cherry jam instead of making it yourself.
How to store the vegan gluten free cherry pop tarts
Once you have covered your pop tarts in the frosting and sprinkles, you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. Should it take you longer to eat them, just put them in the freezer. I would recommend you freeze them on a try first before sticking them up in an airtight container with pieces of baking paper between each pop tart layer.
If you like this pop tart recipe, you may also like these cherry recipes:
Let’s get started!
And now I am excited for you to try my vegan and gluten free version of a cherry pop tart. I really hope you will enjoy it and if you do, please leave a comment and rating. I am also more than happy to see your creation, just tag me on instagram or send me a pic via direct message!
ALL THE BEST
Vegan gluten free cherry pop tarts
Ingredients
Dough
- 90 g buckwheat flour
- 90 g rice flour *
- 50 g potato flour
- 60 g (vegan) butter room temperature
- 60 g sugar **
- 6 Tbsp plant milk ***
- 1 Tsp vanilla extract optional
Glaze (optional)
- 2 Tbsp plant milk ***
- 1/2 Tbsp maple syrup ****
Filling
- 1 batch 5 ingredient cherry jam *****
Frosting
- 80g reserved cherry jam
- 1 Tbsp plant milk ***
- 1 Tbsp creamy (plant) yoghurt
- 1/2 Tbsp (vegan) butter ******
Instructions
Pop tart base
- Prepare 2 baking trays by lining them with a piece of baking paper and preheat the oven to 200C. We will only need one tray for baking though.
- Add the flours and sugar to a mixing bowl. Finely cute the butter and crumble the pieces into the bowl.
- Add the plant milk and vanilla extract and mix everything with your hands until it forms a unit dough that you can shape into a ball. The dough might not seem to come together at first, so keep kneading! Only when the butter and plant milk is well incorporated into the dough and it is still too dry and crumbly, add a tablespoon more of the milk.
- Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape, around 0,3 cm thick. It works best if you do this between two pieces of baking paper to make sure the dough doesn't stick onto the pastry roller.
- Cut out 14 squares, in the size of about 4×6 cm. You will have to roll out the dough again inbetween. carefully divide the squares between the lined baking trays. Once you are finished an all of the dough is used up.
- Before continuing with the filling for the pop tarts, set aside 80g of the jam. We will need it later for the frosting.
- Add around 2 good Tsp of the jam onto the middle of 7 of the square. Spread it out, leaving around 0,5 cm space to the edges. Place another rectangle on top of each jam coated square.
- Seal off the edges using a fork. Press the top of the fork around 0,5 cm far into the edges. You can also create a pattern of little holes in the top of the pop tarts by slightly poking tooth picks into the top.
- If using the glaze, mix all the ingredients together and brush on top of each pop tart. Reduce the heat of the oven to 180C. Bake the pop tarts for around 10 minutes until the tops are golden. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
Frosting
- Gently warm the butter (or cacao/ coconut butter) until it has melted completely.
- Combine it with the rest of the ingredients for the frosting. Then divide the mixture between the pop tarts and spread all over the tops. decorate each frosted pop tart with a generous amount of sprinkles. And then, ENJOY!
Storage
- You can store the frosted pop tarts in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. Should it take you longer to eat them, just put them in the freezer. I would recommend you freeze them on a try first before sticking them up in an airtight container with pieces of baking paper between each pop tart layer.
