Americans may love a health trend, but that hasn’t stifled their love for foil-wrapped toaster pastries. Pop-Tart sales have continued to grow steadily since the 1980s, with now over 3 billion Pop-Tarts sold each year. In fact, consumers love these sweet treats so much that there is even a Netflix movie centered around their creation, telling the story of how Kellogg’s beat Post Consumer Brands to launch Pop Tarts in the 1960s.
What are Pop-Tarts?
What mainstream culture refers to as Pop-Tarts is actually a generalized term for toaster pastries. The popularity of these treats was driven by the brand—like Kleenex is to tissues and Ziplok is to plastic storage bags—Pop-Tarts is what most people call a thin, portable hand pie with a sugary glaze.
Pop-Tarts date back to 1964 when Bill Post, who managed a Hekman biscuit plant in Michigan, developed them for Kellogg. The goal was to create a new, shelf-stable, convenient breakfast food that resembled toast and jam. The first advertisements even called out “made with Smucker’s pure fruit preserves” to combine a sense of wholesomeness with the convenience craze of the 1960s. The original Pop-Tarts featured a thin, flour-based pastry filled with fruit preserves, and were marked with a long diagonal indent. Advertisements encouraged customers to pop the pastry into a toaster and then break it in two along the diagonal line.
The original flavors were unfrosted and featured Apple Currant Jelly, Strawberry, Blueberry, and Brown Sugar-Cinnamon fillings. Additional frosted flavors debuted in 1967 with Dutch-Apple, Concord Grape, Raspberry, and a glazed Brown Sugar Cinnamon. The icing was introduced as a way to keep the pastries cool to the touch after popping out of the toaster. Today, Kellogg has more than 30 flavors of Pop-Tarts, with Strawberry and Brown Sugar Cinnamon remaining the most popular.
But major brands and independent bakeries are also whipping up their own version of these retro snacks. Keep reading for our favorite vegan varieties.
Do Pop-Tarts contain animal products?
The vast majority of name-brand Pop-Tarts are not vegan due to one detail: the icing. There are no eggs or dairy in the pastry or the filling (with some exceptions like the Frosted Chocolate Fudge, Frosted Chocolate Chip, and Frosted Cookies & Creme), but the icing contains gelatin, making most Pop-Tarts not suitable for vegetarians.
Gelatin contains animal collagen, a substance that makes up cartilage, skin, and bones, which is usually taken from cows or pigs. According to the Pop-Tart brand, the gelatin in Pop-Tarts is specifically sourced from cows used primarily for beef. When these cows are sent to slaughter, their skin and bones are used to produce gelatin.
However, there are a few Pop-Tarts that omit gelatin, and these are the three surviving unfrosted flavors: Blueberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, and Strawberry. All three of these varieties are animal-free.
Moon Child Vegan Cakes
In regards to storebought non-Kellogg’s toaster pastries, the pickings are slim. Bobo’s unfrosted flavors are plant-based, but Nature’s Path—another popular toaster pastry option—puts honey in its unfrosted flavor and dairy in its glazes.
Toaster pastries get political
There are other ways to get your hands on a vegan toaster pastry that don’t involve ripping open foil packaging or laboriously making your own. A number of bakeries throughout the country are embracing the nostalgic snack and are even improving it with higher-quality ingredients. Some are even using the toaster pastries to make a political statement.
Just What I Kneaded
While many of the pastries at the Los Angeles bakery Just What I Kneaded feature cute Snoopy images and whimsical decorations, other pastries deliver a message alongside the sweet interior. Immediately following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade in 2022, the popular bakeshop created a series of pro-choice toaster pastries featuring text such as “Bans Off Our Bodies” and two others with an anatomically correct vagina and a pair of hands breaking a hanger. The bakery has also created Pop-Tarts art for PRIDE and decriminalizing homelessness.
Moon Child Vegan Cakes in Dallas, TX also uses tender, flaky toaster pastries to send a message. In addition to the staple Pop-Tarts that look exactly like the Frosted Wildberry Pop-Tarts, the bakery regularly whips up Pride pastries. As a cottage business, they’re open to customizations, meaning you can have written whatever you’d like on a Pop-Tart. From sweet Valentine’s sentiments to something more serious, say it with a vegan Pop-Tart.
Vegan Pop-Tart recipes
A Pop-Tart is completely achievable by any moderately confident home baker. Like a pie, the key is getting the crust just right. You want something tender yet sturdy, buttery, and not too sweet. Here are five of our favorite vegan toaster pastry recipes.
Hannah Kaminsky
1 Supersized Fruity Vegan Pop-Tart
The fun of making toaster pastries at home is you have the power of choice. You can choose the filling, frosting, and toppings; and you can also choose how big to make them. This recipe comes from cookbook author Hannah Kaminsky’s Vegan Cheat Sheet. You only need to make one, because this Pop-Tart is the size of a half-sheet pan.
get the recipe
Orchids and Sweet Tea
2 Homemade Vegan Strawberry Pop-Tarts
You won’t find any artificial flavors in these classic pastries, but with a thick glaze and plenty of rainbow sprinkles, they’re just as fun as the Pop-Tarts you grew up with. The recipe provides options for a store-bought preserve filling and a homemade variety, making this customizable to how much time you have. While these won’t taste like Kellogg’s Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts, they’ll taste even better.
get the recipe
Upbeetandkaleingit
3 Healthier Vegan and Gluten-Free Cinnamon Sugar Pop-Tarts
Pop-Tarts technically are a breakfast food. That being said, a healthier, more whole-food rendition is always appreciated. This mega-sized toaster pastry is made with oat and almond flour, almond butter, and coconut sugar for a naturally sweet start to the morning that actually contains a good amount of nutrients.
get the recipe
Minimalist Baker
4 Vegan Strawberry Rhubarb Pop-Tarts
When rhubarb is in season, these pastries are on our must-bake list. The bitter rhubarb balances out sweet strawberries and provides a bit more texture to the filling. Each melt-in-your-mouth pastry gets a pretty pink drizzle of pomegranate-spiked glaze.
get the recipe
Samantha Schwab
5 Boozy Raspberry Peach Vegan Pop Tarts
Pop-Tarts aren’t just for kids. These just-for-adults vegan versions of the popular pastry are filled with champagne, as well as juicy frozen peaches, frozen raspberries, and sticky maple syrup. They’re the ultimate picnic treat, so why not sip a glass of champagne while you munch, too?
Get the recipe
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Tanya Flink is a VegNews writer and runner living in Orange County, CA.
Here at VegNews, we live and breathe the plant-based lifestyle, and only recommend products we feel make our lives amazing. Occasionally, articles may include links where we might earn a small commission, but in no way does this effect the editorial integrity of VegNews.
