In this new series, Tamara Vos will take on popular packeted treats in an attempt to recreate them at home, for crispier or for soggier. She began with pop tarts.

Has anyone ever thought about making homemade Marmite? This thought struck me as I was standing in a queue at the supermarket, staring wistfully at a jar of the stuff in my shopping basket. After some research it turns out that it is (of course) quite possible, but the process takes ten days – not a feat for the faint hearted, then.

This idea inspired me though to see what other shop-bought treats can be made from scratch, and so this new series was born. Over the next few weeks I will trial and test recipes of well known brands, and see how they compare with the real thing.

The first recipe is one for Pop Tarts, those playful hits of warm sugar and colourful sprinkling. I did some hunting around and settled for a delectably simple recipe from the food blog Smitten Kitchen; all the ingredients should be kicking about your shelves, and the tarts are ready in a matter of minutes.

I found that my pastry was crisp and fresh whilst the shop-bought ones always taste slightly stale, and that the filling smacked of real, homey jam. Enjoy with a big mug of strong tea. 

Homemade Pop Tarts

For the base:

250g white flour
200g butter
Several pinches of salt
Tablespoon of sugar
Splash of milk
1 large egg, and extra for brushing
Cinnamon for sprinkling

For the jam filling:

Five heaped tablespoons of your favourite jam (we used raspberry)
Tablespoon of corn starch

One. Make the jam filling--put the jam, corn starch and a splash of water in a pan, whisk it all together and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for two minutes, then put aside to cool.

Two. Next, the pastry--mix together the dry ingredients, and then knead in the butter until nice and crumbly. Add the egg and milk and knead everything into a dough. Add more flour or milk if it’s too wet or too dry.

Three. Roll out into a thin layer, and then find something roughly pop tart shaped as your guide--we used a large match-box (or be boring and use a ruler). Cut into rectangles.

Four. Put half the rectangles on a greaseproof-papered tray, and brush over with a beaten egg (this will help glue the two layers together). Take your jam concoction from earlier and spread on generously. Be careful to leave a centimetre clear around the edges.

Five. Place the remaining rectangles on top, and then squash down the edges with your fingers so they are sealed. Brush over the tops with egg, then prick air holes with a fork and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Six. Switch on oven to 180 degrees. Whilst the oven is preheating, put the tarts in the fridge. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown.

After the pop-tarts have cooled entirely, you can make up an icing mix of icing sugar, water and food colouring of your choice (pink is the obvious one but we only had yellow in the cupboard). Make sure it’s nice and thick. Spread it over the top of the tarts, and sprinkle over some hundreds and thousands.