Rainbow Pop Tart Recipe: use store bought pie dough and food coloring for this easy, fun and delicioius recipe.
Rainbow food is so much fun to create and to eat, so I had to make some rainbow pop tarts. These are great to make with kids and would be really fun addition to your St. Patrick's Day celebrations, for a rainbow or unicorn themed party, or celebrate Pride. Rainbow pop tarts are so fun, you could make them anytime to add a little sunshine to your day.
Using Pre-made Dough
We used store bought pie crust for our pop tarts, making this recipe really easy to put together. You could, of course make your own pie dough from scratch, just use your favourite pie dough recipe if you're so inclined.
I was a little worried about using pre-made pastry for this recipe. Typically with pie dough, you don't want to over work it, because it can become tough. I was worried that working in the food coloring was going to make for a very tough and unappealing dough. In fact, I nearly quit on the first color thinking this was going to be a fail. I'm so glad I continued because they turned out to be delicious.
I'm not sure if it's the fact that store-bought pop tarts don't exactly have a pie crust consistency to them anyway, but these one's tasted so good, even with working the dough to add in the food coloring. It just works, so don't worry about the over work problem to create the rainbow effect. You can even use your stand mixer to mix in the dough, which is easier than working it with your hands.
Kid Friendly Recipe
This is a really kid friendly easy recipe. You know how often recipes say that, and then there's lots of steps that kids can't actually do on their own? This is not the case with our homemade pop tarts recipe. They can mix in the food coloring, cut the rectangles, spread the jam, fork the edges, make the icing, add the sprinkles -they can do it all.
Jam Options
You can make your pop tart filling with any sort of jam you like, using homemade jam or a store-bought version for whatever tart flavors you like. The traditional flavor would be a strawberry filling. Use strawberry preserves or sweet homemade strawberry jam. We prefer raspberry so we used raspberry jam for ours because it's a favorite. The best part of making homemade, is that you can change up the ingredients to whatever your favorite is .
This is a simple recipe full of simple ingredients, that's so much fun to make. Making your homemade pop tarts rainbow, just takes it up a notch! Everything really is better when it's rainbow colored. These are a great idea for celebrating, or just for fun.
Recipe
Rainbow Pop Tart Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 deep dish pie crusts
- 3-5 drops food coloring -red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple
- 3 tablespoon jam
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk or heavy cream
- splash vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoon rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- Divide the two pie crusts into 6 equal balls.
- Use food coloring to dye each ball of dough a different color of the rainbow. Start with red, and add 3-5 drops of food coloring to the middle of the ball and then use your hands to work the color though the the dough until it's distributed evenly. You may want to wear gloves to protect your hands from the food coloring, or mix the dough in your stand mixer, or food processor. Mix each color individually until they're all done. Add more or less food coloring to create lighter or more vibrant colors, whichever you prefer. You can use the primary colors to create a new color. To make orange add red and yellow. To make purple, mix red and blue together.
- Prepare a lightly floured surface and break each colored dough ball in half. Arrange the balls of colored dough so that there's a good mix. Flatten them together first with your hands, and then use a rolling pin to roll them out into a large sheet, about ¼ inch thick.
- Traditional pop tarts are 3 x 5 inches. Cut a 3 x 5 inch rectangle template from the pie crust box, or use a ruler and a knife or pizza cutter to cut out 6 rectangles.
- Place 3 rectangles onto a prepared baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, or lined with parchment paper.
- Add about 1 tablespoon of jam to each rectangle, leaving about ½ inch around the edge with no jam. You can use any kind of jam you like for the filling.
- Next, place another rectangle on top. Use a fork to go around and seal the edges so that none of the jam escapes.
Bake the pop tarts at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, until the edges are just turning golden brown. Let the pop tarts cool on a wire rack. - While they're cooling make your simple icing. Place the powdered sugar, milk and a splash of vanilla in a small bowl and stir to fully combine. When the pop tarts are fully cool, spread the icing on top of each one, and while the icing is wet, sprinkle with colorful sprinkles. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Nutrition
With this rainbow pop tart recipe, life really is a party!
More Inspiration
You might also like our Rainbow Rice Krispies Recipe here.
Also check out Rainbow Unicorn Dessert Table here.
You might also like Rainbow Art Party here.
Jackie Murphy says
What a Great Idea!! Can't wait to make these for my Grandkids!