It’s officially February! Which means Valentines Day desserts all month long. I feel like people either love or hate Valentines Day. I personally love it. My parents actually got married on Valentines Day 32 years ago! I still give them a hard time for choosing the cheesiest day possible to get married on but hey if it works, it works. If you don’t know by now, I have a major sweet tooth and for me Valentines Day is all about the yummy treats. Enter these Valentines themed Pop Tart Blondies.
Fun fact: I didn’t know Pop Tarts were designed to go in the toaster until well into adulthood. A little backstory, growing up right next to my grandparents, I spent a lot of of my childhood with them. My grandma loved Pop Tarts and one of my very favorite treats to eat at grandmas house was a Pop Tart. But not just any plain ole’ Pop Tart, no grandma had a way of elevating them and making them taste way better than their original form. Grandma would put them on a plate, cover the entire surface with butter and then pop them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds so that all the butter melted and the Pop Tart would literally be swimming in melted butter. I’m drooling just thinking about it….
This is the way I ate Pop Tarts my entire childhood. Just trust me when I tell you, they are 1000 times better this way then plain or just thrown in the toaster. It wasn’t until college when I watched a roommate put her Pop Tart in the toaster that I realized not everyone ate them the way I did. It really is a shame when people put them in the toaster, they are really missing out on the full potential of a Pop Tart.
Long story short, I was laying in bed one day, brainstorming new recipe ideas like I often do, when the idea popped in my head to turn my grandmas classic melted butter Pop Tarts into some sort of dessert. Could I put them in a cookie? A cake? A brownie? It took me a few minutes to decide that they would be perfect in a blondie! But not just any blondie, a brown butter blondie! I really wanted the butter flavor to be at the forefront of this dessert because after all the Pop Tarts I love are always drowning in butter. What better way to showcase that flavor than brown butter?
I had a clear vision in my head of what I wanted this dessert to look and taste like, so I went to the kitchen to try and make that vision come to life. I have to say that they turned out just like I had imagined and then some. They are buttery, chewy, sweet and absolutely delicious, just like the Pop Tarts grandma used to make.
Tips and tricks:
- The brown butter is absolutely necessary so don’t skip it. Browning butter can be intimidating to some but it’s actually super simple. I have a reel video on my Instagram showing you the process of making the brown butter. You can find it here.
- You can use any flavor of Pop Tart you want. My personal favorite Pop Tart flavors are cherry or raspberry but I think it would be killer with the S’mores flavor or Chocolate Fudge flavor with a chocolate glaze instead of the almond glaze. The possibilities are endless with flavors you can use.
- I used red sprinkles in my blondies to make them Valentines themed but you can omit them or use any color you want. Chocolate sprinkles would be great with the S’mores or Chocolate Fudge flavors, or rainbow sprinkles would be delicious with the Birthday Cake flavor too.
- I like to put my blondies in the fridge after they’ve been out of the oven for 10-15 minutes to help cool them down faster (just make sure you put a towel under them so they don’t melt anything in your fridge) and again after I have put the glaze on top to speed up the setting up process.
- For the glaze, I like to add it to a piping bag and drizzle it over the blondies that way. If you don’t have a piping bag, you can do the same thing with a Ziploc bag. Just make sure you only cut a tiny bit of the corner off the bag or else the glaze will all just ooze out.
Pop Tart Blondies
Ingredients:
For the blondies:
- 2 sticks butter
- 1 1/2 cups unpacked brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups flour
- 3 roughly chopped Pop Tarts, crusts cut off (I used cherry)
- 2 roughly chopped Pop Tarts, crusts cut off (for the top)
- 3 tbsp colored sprinkles (Optional. I used red jimmies for Valentines Day)
For the glaze:
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp melted butter
- 1 1/2 tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- Optional: 1 drop of Food Coloring
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Start by browning your butter. In a medium sauce pan melt butter over medium/high heat, cover with a lid. Cook until the mixture starts to foam, stir every few minutes to avoid burning. Butter is done when its a light toasty brown color. Set melted butter aside to cool for 20-30 minutes or put it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to cool it down enough that it won’t cook our eggs when we add them.
- In a medium sized bowl combine flour, salt and baking powder.
- Once brown butter has cooled slightly, stir in brown sugar and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time and mix until fully incorporated.
- Combine the flour mixture and the butter mixture. Mix it together until no flour streaks remain.
- Add your 3 chopped Pop Tarts and sprinkles and fold them in.
- Line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
- Spread blondie batter evenly into the pan and press remaining 2 chopped Pop Tarts into the top of the batter.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until the edges have started to turn light brown.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely while you make the glaze.
- In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, melted butter, milk, food coloring and almond extract. Whisk until powdered sugar is dissolved and the glaze is completely smooth.
- Once blondies have cooled, drizzle the glaze in a zig zag pattern all over the top. Let the glaze set up for 20-30 minutes before cutting into squares.
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