Forget the classic store bought pop tarts- these unbelievably vegan frosted brown sugar pop tarts is like a portal back to childhood! With a flaky and buttery pastry dough and a warm brown sugar cinnamon filling, these homemade vegan pop tarts taste even better than you remember!

Crisp Homemade Vegan Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts on a cooling rack

I don’t know about you, but don’t you remember pop tarts tasting way better as a kid? Before I went vegan about 6ish years ago, I remember having a pop tart (so this is in my early 20s) and thinking, I really used to like these??

I know. So why make a recipe for something you don’t like? Well, I think they definitely did taste better as a kid, and this homemade version is an ode to that. Only, I actually think this version tastes even better than how I truly remember.

stack of Crisp Homemade Vegan Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts

Plus, the classic pop-tarts from Kellogg’s are not even vegan. Many flavors contain not only gelatin (a non-vegan ingredient), but also whey or milk, and other questionable ingredients (such as riboflavin, which may or may not be derived from animal ingredients). 

These crisp homemade brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts are everything that a pop tart aspires to be. Short and slightly crumbly, buttery pastry crust (not to be mistaken with the toaster strudel!), filled to the brim with a sweet yet rich brown sugar cinnamon filling that caramelizes in the heat of the toaster.

Now unlike my blueberry danishes, these are more time intensive than reaching into the pantry and popping one into a toaster. But like my homemade vegan croissants, they’re absolutely worth the extra effort.

Table of contents

Vegan Pop Tart Ingredients & Substitutions:

  • All purpose flour: You can also swap in gluten-free flour blend, such as King Arthur measure for measure or Bob’s Red Mill 1:1. Please see the following sections for more on gluten-free pop-tarts.
  • Sugar: I recommend using an organic granulated sugar to ensure that it’s vegan-friendly. You can also use a monk fruit or stevia based granulated sugar.
  • Vegan butter: You can also swap in coconut oil.
  • Dairy free yogurt: This replaces the eggs in regular pie dough.
  • Water
  • Brown sugar cinnamon filling: This is just a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, vegan butter, and vanilla extract. You can also use coconut sugar for refined sugar free.
  • Cinnamon glaze: This is similar to a confectioner’s glaze, except we’re adding ground cinnamon to our vegan powdered sugar and dairy free milk mixture (you can use almond milk, soy milk, oat milk, etc!).
stacked Crisp Homemade Vegan Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts broken apart

Overview: How to make vegan pop tarts

​The full recipe is found down below in the recipe card. However, we’re going to go over the basic steps here.

First we’ll make the dough. You can use a food processor to make the pie dough. Next, you’ll chill the dough for 30 minutes to 1 hour. 

homemade pop tart pie dough

Next, we’ll shape the pop tarts. Roll the dough out to be 8″ x 18″. You can slice and rearrange extra dough pieces to make sure that you have very sharp right angles at the corners. Then we’ll slice the dough into 3″x4″ rectangles (you’ll yield 12 rectangles, two per pop tart). If it’s easier, you can also cut a 4.75×3.5″ rectangle of parchment paper, and measure out the rectangles that way, individually slicing. Either way works!

rolled out pie dough
sliced pie dough into pop tarts

Fill the pop tarts and mold them. Spread the cinnamon sugar filling into the middle, like below. Then place an un-filled rectangle over the filling, and seal the edges with a fork. Repeat for the remaining pop tarts.

pop tarts being filled with brown sugar cinnamon illing
sealed homemade pop tarts

Finally, we’ll bake the pop tarts! Brush the tops of the pop tarts with the vegan egg wash, then you can chill the pop tarts for 10 minutes in the freezer before baking. This ensures that if you’ve handled the dough too much and it’s come to room temperature, the dough won’t spread too much in the oven by chilling once more. 

vegan pop tarts before baking
unfrosted cinnamon pop tarts

Top with your favorite pop tarts toppings and enjoy! I love adding a drizzle of the cinnamon sugar glaze. You can also top with rainbow sprinkles and classic vanilla glaze instead of using a cinnamon one!

brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts on a cooling rack with a knife

Different pop tart filling ideas:

If you’d like to make different pop-tart flavors for your homemade pop-tarts recipe, here are some more vegan pop-tarts flavors you can use:

  • strawberry jam for strawberry pop tarts (use freeze dried strawberries blitzed into a powder for the strawberry glaze!)
  • raspberry jam for raspberry pop-tarts
  • blueberry jam for blueberry pop-tarts
  • vegan ganache and mini vegan marshmallows for vegan s’mores pop-tarts
sliced vegan brown sugar cinnamon pop tart on parchment paper

Gluten free option:

If you’d like to make these vegan pop tarts gluten free as well, you can swap in a gluten-free 1:1 baking flour blend (such as Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur). I would NOT recommend using the Namaste flour blend. It tends not to work for my recipes.

You can also check out these vegan gluten free raspberry pop tarts for a naturally gluten free pop tart recipe and Paleo pop tarts for a vegan Paleo pop tart recipe!

Pro tip: use the cup measurements and then convert into gram measurements for the gluten free flour blend you’re using. This is because 1 cup of gluten free flour is typically not equivalent to 1 cup of all purpose flour (usually weighing more). For example: 1 cup of Bob’s Red Mill flour is 140 g. So you would need 315 grams of flour for this recipe. 

Storage & Reheating Instructions:

Storage: You can refrigerate or freeze these vegan pop tarts in an airtight sealed container or bag for up to 5 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.

Reheating: To reheat these cinnamon sugar pop tarts, simply place one on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet and warm the pop tart 7-10 minutes at 300 F.

brown open brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts

Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!

If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

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sliced vegan brown sugar cinnamon pop tart on parchment paper

Crisp Homemade Vegan Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.8 from 5 reviews
  • Author: Britt Berlin
  • Prep Time: 30
  • Chilling time: 30
  • Cook Time: 20
  • Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
  • Yield: 6 1x
  • Category: Breakfast
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegan
Print Recipe

Description

Forget the classic store bought pop tarts- these unbelievably vegan frosted brown sugar pop tarts is like a portal back to childhood! With a flaky and buttery pastry dough and a warm brown sugar cinnamon filling, these homemade vegan pop tarts taste even better than you remember!

Ingredients

Scale

Pop tart crust:

  • 2 1/2 cups (318 g) all-purpose flour*
  • 3 tbsp organic granulated sugar
  • 1/8 tsp sea salt
  • 1 cup (226 g) unsalted vegan butter, cubed and chilled
  • 1/3 cup (65 g) unsweetened dairy free yogurt
  • 3–4 tbsp cold water

Brown Sugar Filling:

  • 1 cup (200 g) organic brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup (57 g) vegan butter, melted
  • 1 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Vegan Egg Wash:

  • 2 tbsp soy milk or dairy free milk
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup

Cinnamon Glaze:

  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 2–3 tbsp dairy free milk
  • 1 tspvanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Prep: Measure out all pop tart crust ingredients. Make sure you have a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, ruler or silicone mat with ruler marked on it, rolling pin, and large kitchen knife or pizza cutter.
  2. Make the dough: In a food processor, blitz together the flour, sugar, and salt. Then add in the cubed vegan butter and dairy free yogurt, and pulse again until a crumbly texture has formed, about 30-40 seconds. Then while the food processor is pulsing, add in the water, 1 tbsp at a time until a thick and consistent dough forms, about 3-4 tbsp (start with 3 and mix for 30 seconds. Then add another tbsp if needed).
  3. Chill the dough: Press the dough into a flat disk and wrap the dough in parchment paper or plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour, or overnight. Here, I also like to cut out a 3.5×4.75″ rectangle of parchment paper for when we measure the pop tarts.
  4. Mix the cinnamon sugar filling: While the dough is chilling, you can mix all of the cinnamon sugar filling ingredients together in one bowl. Set aside. Mix the vegan egg wash ingredients as well in a separate bowl, and set aside.
  5. Roll out the dough: Preheat the oven to 400F. Lightly flour a clean surface or silicone baking mat that has a ruler (like this one) or a piece of parchment paper. Place the dough onto the floured surface, and flour the rolling pin as well. Roll the dough out to be roughly 14×14″ and 1/8″ thick (or slightly thicker if it’s easier for you to handle). 
  6. Slice and fill the pop tarts: Using the cut out rectangle, slice as many rectangles as you can with a pizza cutter or knife. You’ll need 2 rectangles per pop tarts. Move the sliced rectangles to the prepared baking sheet. Reroll the scraps to yield more pop tart rectangles. I was able to roll about 12 rectangles for 6 total pop tarts. On 6 of the rectangles, poke holes into them with a skewer much like the pattern of traditional pop tarts.
  7. Fill and form the pop tarts. Spoon about 1.5-2 tbsp of filling into the middle of 6 un-poked rectangles, spreading the filling just in the middle and saving room along the edges to seal the pop tart. Brush the edges with the vegan egg wash, and place one of the poked rectangles over the top of one of the rectangles with the filling. Press the edges of the dough into the bottom, and then seal them off by pressing the tongs of the fork along the edges to create a crimp. Repeat for the remaining rectangles. You’ll yield 6 pop tarts total.
  8. Chill: If you haven’t done so already, using a spatula, transfer the pop tarts carefully to the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the tops of each pop tart with the vegan egg wash. Place the baking sheet into the freezer to chill the dough for 10 minutes.
  9. Bake: Once chilled, place the baking sheet into the oven to bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops of the pop tarts are lightly golden brown. Remove the pop tarts from the oven.
  10. Glaze the pop tarts: While the pop tarts are cooling, make the glaze by mixing together all of the cinnamon glaze ingredients. Spoon about 2-3 tbsp of glaze onto the tops of each pop tarts. Allow the glaze to set for 10 minutes. Then serve and enjoy!

Notes

Gluten free: Swap in a gluten free 1:1 flour blend, such as King Arthur measure for measure or Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 using the cup measurements rather than the gram measurements. See blog post for more notes.