# Pop Tarts - my guility childhood pleasure. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082 "2012-06-23T16:31:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/41 "2012-06-24T06:33:14Z")
Never had them as a kid. My mom watched sugar pretty close (missed out on most cereals too) and we were poor. As an adult I became enamored with the frosted cinnamon ones. I ate them every day for breakfast for a while. I was having some depression problems that made me not want to eat much but I could always eat my Pop Tarts. Then one time I was discussing stuff with my doctor and she asked what I ate and I was like “I dunno, Pop Tarts…” and she wrote IN MY CHART that I eat Pop Tarts and it sort of freaked me out that it was on my “permanent record” so I sort of stopped eating them after that. I really like the different chocolate ones too. And never, ever heated up. And never without frosting. I would not mind having a taste test of my grocery store’s entire line of Pop Tarts. Seems like there are hundreds! ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/42 "2012-06-24T08:06:23Z")
I do not eat them…but I miss them terribly ☹ ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/43 "2012-06-24T11:09:28Z")
I remember having them once or twice growing up when visiting someone elses house. I am a morning protein junkie, nothing too sweet for me - I liked bacon and eggs or poached eggs with toast soldiers. I make the pie crust/nutella or jam version for my goddaughters. If you cheat and use premade pie crust it takes almost no time other than rolling out, cutting, filling, crimping and baking =) I prefer a whole egg egg wash and colored sprinkling sugar for the outside =) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/44 "2012-06-24T12:37:54Z")
PopTarts came out when I was in college. I have loved them ever since. > [@aceplace57](#): > > For me Strawberry is the only flavor I buy. I always wished they’d make a grown up pop tart with good quality strawberry preserves. Nice chunks of strawberry inside. But, the kiddie version is all that’s available. I’ve heard they make a Blueberry flavor but I haven’t found one in the stores that was unfrosted. You are so right. I only buy the unfrosted strawberry ones. The frosting is an abomination and makes them waaaay too sweet. I have found the unfrosted blueberry ones, and they are quite good, too. One time in a Mexican (neighborhood, not the country) grocery store I found unfrosted QUINCE ones. Go figure. > [@guizot](#): > > Hmmm. The problem for me with pop tarts is that they \*look \*really delicious, but when I actually eat them they turn out to be bland and disappointing. The key is you must toast them until they are brown and toasted all over and JUST starting to get too brown around the edges. Which means a toaster oven not a pop-up toaster (ironic, eh) so you can keep an eye on them. The cookie part is unpalatable untoasted. Then you break them into small pieces (8 pieces per PT) and let them cool. > [@](#): > > But I never ate them as a kid, so I was never brainwashed. Here, go ahead–you can have my pop tart. Well, I first ate them at the age of 21, so I wasn’t brainwashed as a kid either. And I will gladly take your PopTart. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/45 "2012-06-24T15:29:16Z")
I have this recipe for [Homemade Pop Tarts](http://voknits.com/homemade-pop-tarts/) (strawberry!), frosting included. I LOVE strawberry frosted Pop Tarts. My kids like the chocolate ones. Our tradition is that everyone gets one box per year, during Christmas break. ---
**Author:** ![oreally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ab992/32.png) [@oreally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oreally)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/46 "2012-06-24T20:11:02Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > They will probably find out that Pop Tarts and Instant Breakfast cause cancer of the heart attack, 😕 Does that mean you’ll get a disease which prevents you from having heart attacks? > [@Emily\_Litella](#): > > I voted yes - all the time, but I wish it was no. I lost a lot of weight last year by eating sensibly, and I’d get pretzels from the vending machine in the cafeteria at work when I wanted a snack - until I noticed the Hot fudge chocolate frosted sundae Pop Tarts they started selling. So I tried them, and they were good. Ever since then I’d go to get pretzels and see the Pop Tarts and cave. I think crack is one of the ingredients. I started bringing other snacks to work, like chocolate cheerios, but still I hear them calling to me from across hall. I tried leaving my money at home, but someone will always lend me a dollar. I don’t know what to do next, Pop Tarters Anonymous, obviously. (“Hi I’m Emily…HI EMILY!”) > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I don’t think that I ever ate them as a kid. When I got married and was in charge of grocery shopping, I wanted to buy them frequently, but couldn’t justify their relatively high cost. Not getting these comments. Per amount, pop-tarts are relatively cheap. Compare them to any other “breakfast bar” type of food (usually sold in the same area of the store). Apple were the best. Still are. I could live without all the stupid fakey icing/“crumbs” they have on them now though. Looks like those Pillsbury commercials with their pop-up whatevers got to them. ---
**Author:** ![crazydoglady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@crazydoglady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazydoglady)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/47 "2012-06-24T20:20:07Z")
I was raised in a near-sugar-free household. About once a year when my Dad was off doing fieldwork, my mother would cave to the endless begging and squalling of ehr offspring and buy us some junk food to shut us the hell up. This junk food was always, by our choice, Pop Tarts or Kraft Singles cheese slices. We would reduce the package of Poptarts or cheese slices to crumbs within seconds. Then we would fight each other for the crumbs. I still eat them maybe once a year (strawberry only, frosted or not) now, but they usually make me feel a bit ‘blah’ afterwards. Oh to be 9 years old and able to power eat 3 Poptarts in a row with no ill effects. ---
**Author:** ![oreally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ab992/32.png) [@oreally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oreally)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/48 "2012-06-24T20:35:41Z")
> [@crazydoglady](#): > > I was raised in a near-sugar-free household. Wow that’s sad. 😉 No small part of my childhood was several large bowls of sugar-drenched cereal on Sat mornings with a cartoon-fest. Ah them were the days. Or a summer bike ride to the 7-11 to get these big long sticks of bubble gum (I swear easily 6" long or more) and chomp on em all afternoon. > [@](#): > > Oh to be 9 years old and able to power eat 3 Poptarts in a row with no ill effects. ? I could still do that. 🙂 But it’s always an even number and usually 2. 4 is pushing it… ---
**Author:** ![crazydoglady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@crazydoglady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazydoglady)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/49 "2012-06-24T21:12:28Z")
Yes, it was sad. I could never shake the feeling of missing out on something REALLY good when my friends would open their lunches to cans of Coke and Lunchables (oh Lunchables, how I coveted you) and I would open mine to a thermos of orange juice made from the frozen concentrate stuff, a tomato sandwich and an apple (apples always went straight into the garbage :/). My sisters and I can now put away junkfood with the best of them, believe me. And although we were raised sugar free in day to day life, my parents totally used junk food as a reward. I remember going mute for about 4 months in kindergarten and they bribed me with Cadbury’s Creme Eggs (my favourite) - everytime I spoke, I got a Creme Egg. Ah, 80’s parenting, ha ha. And sugary cereals! My GOD how I wanted those. I used to request cereal for dessert when eating at friend’s houses. Still have a weakness for Frosted Flakes. Re: Poptarts, I have no idea what it is about them, other foods don’t make me feel noticeably ‘ugh’ at all and who knows, maybe it’s something psychological etc., but I swear i feel like crap for a good 2-3 hours after eating them. ---
**Author:** ![boozilu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@boozilu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boozilu)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/50 "2012-06-24T21:17:50Z")
Alton Brown’s recipe: [http://altonbrown.com/2012/06/500/](http://altonbrown.com/2012/06/500/) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/51 "2012-06-24T22:11:09Z")
Why doesn’t the world love Grape Pop-Tarts? So good, so yummy, & so un-loved. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/52 "2012-06-24T22:46:32Z")
> [@crazydoglady](#): > > I was raised in a near-sugar-free household. . \ I always wondered about the hippies in our neck of the woods that foisted carob crap off on people. cocoa bean / carob bean sugar / honey milk / yogurt or soy or rice milk Dudes, not much difference at all. :dubious::rolleyes: a ground bit of vegitude, sugar in some damned form, whitening and texturizing in cow juice or plant juice. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/53 "2012-06-25T00:26:36Z")
Count me in for the “I don’t like the frosted ones” camp. I like strawberry and blueberry unfrosted. The only frosted ones I will eat are chocolate fudge. My sister loved unfrosted Brown Sugar & Cinnamon which were very hard to find. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2012, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/54 "2012-06-25T00:32:11Z")
Forgot to say - I voted “rarely” I buy a package once every couple of years. Toast them, big glass of cold milk. Yum. ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2012, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/55 "2012-06-25T01:33:36Z")
> [@that\_darn\_cat](#): > > Never ate them as a kid, liked them for a while as a twentysomething and then decided they weren’t worth the calories. Would eat one in a blue moon if they were around. Strawberry frosted was my jam. > > As to adult pop tarts: > > Take a refrigerated pie crust, roll out and cut into squares. Apply liberal amount of good quality preserves/jelly. Fold over and crimp. Brush lightly with butter, sprinkle with coarse sugar, Bale at 350 until golden brown and delicious. > > These will get you laid. 😉 Inspired by your post, I went out into my kitchen and made these with my favorite fig jam. They are AMAZING (and I’m not a fan of Poptarts). I don’t know about getting laid, but they’re certainly a qualifier. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/56 "2012-06-25T01:45:23Z")
Other: yes, somewhere between all the time and on rare occasions ---
**Author:** ![Curiosity\_Kills\_Her](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Curiosity\_Kills\_Her](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Curiosity_Kills_Her)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/57 "2012-06-25T03:00:36Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I always wished they’d make a grown up pop tart with good quality strawberry preserves. Nice chunks of strawberry inside. When they came out with Toaster Strudel I considered them the adult version. I always thought Pop Tarts were like cardboard and sugar but the strudels? OMG. Delicious. ---
**Author:** ![FrancisCastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b4bc9f/32.png) [@FrancisCastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrancisCastle)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2012, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082/58 "2012-06-25T03:06:59Z")
My favorite are the S’Mores flavor. The fake graham cracker crust tastes better than the normal dry crust of the fruit flavors. I usually split the pack with my 6yo on the way to daycare in the morning. Totally nutritious for the both of us! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-tarts-my-guility-childhood-pleasure/626082.md?page=2)