Ok so we all know by now, it’s obvious that I love making pop tarts. I make them on repeat. They’re easy and a fun breakfast or snack (also cute let’s be honest!) Well this time around I decided to switch it up and made some SWEET & TANGY tarts with some cherries and fresh lime juice.
Since cherries are in season I’ve been playing around them with recipes (in low serving sizes to ensure they are fodmap friendly) andI came up with some AMAZING cherry lime jam on a whim. It literally tastes like Kool Aid! It brings me back those summer days in middle school sipping on the cherry flavor.
This jam is great on its own, or can be frozen and made into frosty treats or sorbet. It’s really refreshing. But of course I made it into some pop tarts / hand pies. I have the perfect pop tart dough as well so these went together like… Bert and Ernie? lol.
What’s in these pop tarts:
Cherries: Sweet cherries make a great chunky jam
Lime: Adds a little tang to the cherries! The perfect combo
Tapioca Flour: This acts as a binder and gels up the jam
Hot water: You melt the tapioca in this so it’s not clumpy
Sweetener: Any you choose — to break the acidity a bit from the fruit
Almond Flour: Gives moisture and flakiness to the dough
Tapioca Flour: This binds and absorbs some of the moisture from the almond flour so these are not greasy
Vegan Butter or Real Butter: Adds a great flavor and crumbly texture
Egg: Binds together the dough. You can substitute for a flax or chia egg
Sea Salt: balances out flavor in all doughs
First, here’s how to make this sweet tart tangy jam!
1 1/2 cups of whole pitted cherries
1 lime
1 tbsp of tapioca flour
1/4 cup hot water
1 tbsp+ of sweetener of choice (I use coconut sugar or honey)
Place cherries in a saucepan and heat up with a bit of water just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Heat and smash berries until it’s a low boil and they’re pureed but still a little chunky. Add in 1/2 squeeze of lime and zest of the whole lime. Add in sweetener and stir. Let simmer for a few minutes to let the flavors combine. Taste it and add more lime for more tang, or more sweetener for more sweet.
Then dissolve the tapioca flour in the 1/4 cup of hot water. Add the dissolved mixture to the pan and mix well. Take off stove and let sit for 5-10 minutes, it’ll thicken up into a jam.
Make the pop tart dough:
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 cup tapioca flour
• 4 tbsp vegan butter or grass fed butter, COLD
• 1/4 cup of coconut sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Mix all into a dough. I use my hands to break up the butter and get messy. You could also use a food processor. Then wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate until cold or it’ll be too sticky to work with. Once chilled, roll out to about 1/8” thick and cut into 2”x4” rectangles until all dough is used.
3. Then spoon about 2 tbsp of jam filling in the centers on half and top them with the other dough halves. Wet edges with finger and press down to seal. Then use a fork to make the little seal marks. Bake 15 minutes until edges are golden brown.
The icing:
To make royal ICING, you’ll need unrefined powdered sugar. Put 1/2 cup of granulated sweetener (monkfruit, coconut sugar...) in a high speed blender for 30 sec to make a fine powder, then add 1 tsp at a time of any milk you prefer and mix until it makes icing. I also added a bit of cherry jam in my icing and grated lime zest over the tops!
Let icing harden and then try not to eat them all at once. I ain’t LIME-in when I say you should definitely make these!