vegan blueberry pop-tarts.

Blueberries are in season!  I’ve always wanted to make homemade pop tarts.. these are DELICIOUS!  I used Earth Balance butter and Ripple Foods dairy-free half & half in this recipe to make it vegan.  YUM!

You can also find this recipe on the Burlington County Agricultural Center blog!  I want to highlight the seasonal fruits and veggies each week from our Farmers’ Market.  Check out the website for Farmers’ Market dates, special events and cooking classes!  

Recipe: (makes 6 pop-tarts)

For the filling: 

• 2 cups fresh, farmers’ market blueberries 🙂
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup chia seeds

Instructions:

1. Place blueberries in a sauce pan and add about 2 Tablespoons of water.
2. Heat to medium-high heat, stirring until blueberries simmer.
3. Once blueberries become mostly liquid and a lot of them have “popped”, remove from burner and add chia seeds.
4. Let sit while chia seeds soak up the liquid, then let mixture cool.
5. In the meantime, make your dough!

For the crust:

(I tried using all oat flour – came out way too crumbly – you couldn’t even pick them up!  So I used half oat flour and half AP flour – way better!) 

• 1 & 1/2 cups oat flour
• 1 & 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar (or regular sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup vegan butter (we used Earth Balance), very cold and cubed or cut into small pieces
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon zest
• 3-4 Tablespoons ice water

Instructions: 

1. In a large bowl, combine oat flour, wheat flour, sugar and salt.
2. Add butter, lemon zest and vanilla, then use a pastry cutter or your hands (we recommend using gloves) and incorporate the cold butter into the flour mixture.
3. Once you have pea-sized crumbs, add cold water, one Tablespoon at a time, until dough comes together into a ball.
4. Flour a large surface, and roll out dough until it’s about 1/4 inch thick.
5. Cut into rectangles – you should have 12 rectangles to make 6 tarts!
6. Place 6 of the rectangles onto a greased baking sheet or one lined with parchment paper.
7. Put about 2 Tablespoons of your cooled blueberry filling in the middle of each rectangle.
8. Place the matching rectangles of dough on top of filling, using a fork to bind each layer together so filling is enclosed.
9. Poke a couple holes or make a slit in the top of each tart.
10. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown, remove from oven and let cool.

For the icing: 

• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 3 Tablespoons vanilla Ripple Foods half & half

Instructions: 

1. Place powdered sugar into a small bowl.
2. Add half & half, 1 Tablespoon at a time, until icing is JUST combined – you don’t want it too runny.
3. Spread icing on top of each cooled pop-tart, add sprinkles and serve!