If you enjoy trying homemade versions of store-bought favorites, you will love these fudge chocolate pastry tarts because they’re just like chocolate pop tarts but with a homemade touch! Like my homemade brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts recipe, this is a fun baking project for a snowy or rainy day or when you’re looking for a special baking recipe to try out.
Pastry tart can refer to a handful of different baked goods like actual tarts made in a full size or mini tart pan, tarts made from puff pastry, or something like hand pies—which is what I consider today’s chocolate dessert recipe. They’re like store-bought pop tarts, but I don’t suggest putting them in the toaster to reheat.
Whatever you call them, they’re perfect for anyone who LOVES chocolate.
These Fudge Chocolate Pastry Tarts Are:
- Draped in chocolatey cocoa icing
- A homemade version of store-bought pop tarts
- Like these chocolate hand pies, but with a slightly different filling & topping
- Best after they have completely cooled
- An intermediate baking recipe and doable for most home bakers
- Definitely a dessert, but feel free to indulge for breakfast!
After completely cooling, the crust is deliciously crumbly, the filling has thickened, and the icing has set. If you have the self control, WAIT to eat one!
3 Parts to Homemade Chocolate Pop Tarts
There are 3 components to these homemade chocolate pop tarts and even though the ingredient list below looks long, the ingredients are mostly repeated in each part of the recipe. (For example, you use butter in all 3 components.) Here’s each part of the recipe:
- Chocolate Pastry/Pie Dough
- Fudge Filling (tastes like brownies!)
- Cocoa Icing
You need 11 ingredients total. Let me walk you through the steps so you have a better idea of the process. There is also a video tutorial in the recipe card below.
Chocolate Pie Dough
The envelope sealing in all of the fudge filling is chocolate pie crust and I recommend you make this first because the dough needs to refrigerate for at least 2 hours. This is an all butter chocolate pie dough, so you don’t need shortening which is a fat I like to combine with butter in my favorite pie crust recipe. I do have an all butter pie crust that I love as well and today’s recipe is basically a chocolate version of that. We’ll swap some flour for cocoa powder, reduce the salt, and use milk as the liquid. Since there’s no leavening, you can use either dutch-process or natural cocoa powder. (If you’re ever curious, here is the difference between dutch-process vs. natural cocoa powder.)
- Tools for Pie Dough (affiliate links to products I use and love): A food processor makes the pie dough process easier and if you don’t have one, use a pastry cutter. A blender could work, but be VERY careful not to over-work this dough. You also need a rolling pin, sharp knife or pizza cutter for shaping the dough, and a pastry brush.
- Pie Dough Success Tip: For the most successful chocolate pie dough, make sure your butter and milk are VERY cold otherwise both will incorporate into the dough too quickly and you’ll be left with unworkable dough/paste.
Instead of chocolate dough, feel free to use my favorite regular pie crust or all butter pie crust.
Where Else Can I Use This Chocolate Pie Dough?
The dough recipe yields enough for 2 pie crusts and you can use 1 for any of the following recipes—simply switch out the dough in each recipe for the chocolate version.
- Brownie Pie (blind bake as directed in that recipe)
- French Silk Pie (blind bake as directed)
- Nutella Tart (bake crust as directed in that recipe)
- Snickers Caramel Tart (bake crust as directed)
- Pecan Pie
Pie Dough Step Photos
The full detailed recipe is below, but let me walk you through the step photos as they will be helpful especially when it comes to the dough. Using either a food processor or pastry cutter, pulse/cut your cold butter into a mixture of flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt. Just like regular pie dough, you want coarse butter crumbles coated with the dry ingredients:
Slowly add the cold milk just until the dough clumps and comes together. Divide dough in half, flatten into discs, and then refrigerate both for at least 2 hours:
Roll out each chilled disc into a 9×12-inch rectangle and use cocoa powder instead of flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Take your time with this because the dough is quite stiff.
Then cut each rectangle into 9 3×4-inch rectangles. You’ll have 18 rectangles, which makes 9 pop tarts. Here is just 1 so you have an idea what it looks like:
The shaped dough is ready to be filled and assembled. As instructed in the recipe below, have an egg wash handy because that’s the “glue” that adheres the top and bottom doughs together.
Fudge Filling
In my regular chocolate hands pies, we use chocolate ganache as the filling. In today’s recipe, we’re making a fudge filling that when baked and cooled—tastes like homemade brownies. My goal for the filling was to make a thicker, yet less rich chocolate ganache. It worked very well!
- Make the fudge filling immediately after you prepare the pie dough because it needs to cool and thicken before you assemble the pop tarts. You need chocolate, milk, sugar, butter, and vanilla extract. Most of the ingredients come together on the stove.
You end up with about 3/4 cup (180ml) fudge filling so each pop tart gets a heaping Tablespoon. Don’t forget the egg wash border around the bottoms.
After spooning the fudge filling on the rectangles, lay the other set of pie dough rectangles on top of each and press your finger around the edges to slightly seal. Poke holes in the top pie crust with a fork or toothpick, which allows steam to escape.
To finish assembling, crimp the edges with a fork (just like when we crimp pie crust) to ensure no filling spills out (if it does, it’s not a big deal). Brush with egg wash which gives the baked tarts their glistening sheen.
As the chocolate pastry pop tarts bake, make the icing. You’re almost done!
Cocoa Icing That Sets
After the chocolate pastry tarts bake and slightly cool, spoon chocolate icing on top. When testing this recipe, I often went back and forth about the icing. Did I want a chocolate version of royal icing or a simple drizzle of melted chocolate? I ultimately decided on a sweet cocoa icing that—thanks to the butter—eventually thickens and sets. You need melted butter, hot water, confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla extract. You can use milk instead of water, but I find that version doesn’t set as nicely. Feel free to skip the icing if desired.
- This would be a lovely icing to use on chocolate sugar cookies, but I don’t recommend using a piping tip because it’s quite drippy. You could use it for glazed doughnuts, too!
Sprinkles are the finishing touch, but you can skip them if desired. These pastry tarts are a homemade version of a fun childhood favorite and I hope you enjoy the process. (And end result!!!)
For more takes on classic childhood treats, try my rice krispie treats, cream-filled chocolate cupcakes, mini animal cracker cookies, and oatmeal creme pies.
See Your Chocolate Pop Tarts!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂
PrintHomemade Fudge Chocolate Pop Tarts
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes (includes dough chilling)
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours, 10 minutes
- Yield: 9 pastry tarts
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Follow these thorough instructions to make a homemade version of store-bought chocolate pop tarts. These fudge chocolate pastry pies hold shape if they chill before baking (step 6) and taste best if they cool before you dig in!
Ingredients
Dough & Assembly
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 cup (21g) unsweetened natural or dutch-process cocoa powder, plus more as needed for rolling
- 2 Tablespoons (24g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, very cold and cubed
- 1/2 cup (120ml) cold whole milk*
- egg wash: 1 egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk
Fudge Filling
- 4 ounce (113g) semi-sweet chocolate bar, coarsely chopped*
- 1/4 cup (60ml) whole milk*
- 2 Tablespoons (25g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Cocoa Icing
- 1 Tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) water
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (10g) unsweetened natural or dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional: sprinkles for garnish
Instructions
- Make the dough first: Place the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt into a large 8-cup capacity or higher food processor or, if you don’t have a food processor, in a large bowl. Pulse or whisk until combined. Add butter and pulse or use a pastry cutter to manually cut in until coarse pea-sized crumbs form. See photo above for a visual. In 3 additions, pour in the milk and pulse or stir after each addition. After all the milk is added, pulse or stir more until the dough clumps up and comes together. If it’s too dry, add 1 Tablespoon (15ml) of cold milk. Try not to overwork the dough. Pour onto a work surface lightly dusted with cocoa powder or all-purpose flour. Use your hands to form dough into a ball. Divide the dough in half and flatten each into 1-inch thick discs. Wrap each disc tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours and up to 5 days.
- Make the fudge filling soon after you prepare the dough: The fudge filling needs to cool and thicken, so that is why I recommend making it soon after you put the pastry dough in the refrigerator. Place chocolate, milk, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently as chocolate melts and mixture combines. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract. Pour into a heatproof bowl, cover, and set aside at room temperature to cool and thicken. You want the consistency slightly thinner than peanut butter. Note: You can refrigerate the filling to thicken it, but it may become too thick and cold. If it’s too thick, reheat in the microwave for a few seconds.
- Line 1 large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Make sure there is enough room in your refrigerator for the baking sheet because the shaped pastry pop tarts must chill for 15 minutes before baking.
- Roll out the chilled pie dough: Remove 1 of the dough discs from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes to slightly warm up because it will be quite solid. (Keep the other in the refrigerator until step 5.) Lightly dust a work surface, rolling pin, and your hands with cocoa powder or all-purpose flour. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 9×12-inch rectangle. Use gentle force with your rolling pin and use your hands to help keep the edges straight. You can watch me roll out the dough in the video below if you need a visual (2:23 mark). Visible specks of butter and fat in the dough are perfectly normal and expected. Trim the edges of the rectangle to straighten if needed. Cut rectangle into 3 equal strips and cut those into thirds for a total of 9 3×4-inch rectangles. Use a ruler to help make this process easier and more accurate. Arrange the dough rectangles 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator as you roll out 2nd half of dough in the next step.
- Roll out the 2nd half of dough and cut into 9 3×4-inch rectangles like you did with the 1st half of dough in step 4.
- Assemble the pastry tarts: Remove 1st set of dough rectangles from the refrigerator. Using a pastry brush, brush edges of each of these 9 rectangles with egg wash. Spoon a heaping Tablespoon of filling into center of each. Lay the other set of pie dough rectangles on top of each and press your finger around the edges to slightly seal. Poke holes in the top pie crust with a fork or toothpick and then crimp with a fork to ensure no filling spills out (if it does, it’s not a big deal). Refrigerate the shaped pastries uncovered for at least 15 minutes and up to 3 hours. This firms up the pastry and helps set its shape. (After chilling, feel free to carefully transfer the pastries to a new lined baking sheet if you don’t want to bake them on the cold baking sheet.)
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375°F (191°C). And look ahead to step 9—you can make the icing as the pastries bake in step 8.
- Brush pastry tarts with egg wash and bake for 25-26 minutes or until edges appear set. Remove from the oven and allow pastries to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Pastries taste best after completely cooling—they are very soft and rich when warm.
- Make the icing: In a medium saucepan over low heat or in a medium heatproof bowl using the microwave, warm butter and water together until butter has melted. Whisk mixture with the remaining icing ingredients. Cool icing for 15 minutes before spooning onto pastries. You can add the icing when the pastries are still warm, but again, they taste best after completely cooling. Immediately top with sprinkles, if using. Note: The longer the icing cools, the thicker it gets. If you let it cool too long before spooning on the pastries, the surface will stiffen up—whisking will bring it back together though. You can also reheat on the stove or in the microwave to thin out if needed.
- Cover and store pastries at room temperature for up to 1 day or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the pie dough up to 5 days in advance, see step 1. You can also make the fudge filling up to 1 day in advance. Cover and refrigerate and when ready to use, heat in the microwave for just a few seconds to slightly thin out. You can assemble and refrigerate the pastries for up to 3 hours, see step 6. Baked and cooled pastries (with or without glaze) freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw and heat in the microwave if desired. Do not heat in a toaster.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Food Processor (8 cup capacity or higher; in the video I use a super large 14-cup KitchenAid food processor) or Pastry Cutter | Glass Mixing Bowl | Rolling Pin | Sharp Knife or Pizza Cutter | Pastry Brush | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper
- Chocolate: For the best results, use a 4 ounce “baking chocolate” bar found in the baking aisle. I prefer Bakers or Ghirardelli brands. You can use semi-sweet or even milk chocolate. Bittersweet makes a VERY dark and rich filling, so keep that in mind if you use a very dark chocolate. We have not tested it with white chocolate, so we can’t guarantee results. You can also use chocolate chips and 2/3 cup (about 120g) would be the best amount to use.
- Milk: For best taste and texture, whole milk is ideal in the filling and pie crust. You can use lower fat or non dairy milk if needed, but avoid any milk that is fat free.
My family loved them! I was worried that they might be too sweet; but they were perfect! Can’t wait to eat with my coffee tomorrow morning! Also, it was fun to make with my kids.
My fudgy pastry tarts aren’t as pretty as yours, but I give them an A++ for deliciousness. The pastry is flaky and the fudge center and chocolate frosting make them extra rich.
I liked these but i had a hard time with my dough. As I tried to roll it out it started to become thin and I couldn’t get it to roll out to the 9 x 12. The texture changed and it became very hard to work with. I had to keep putting it back in the fridge to harden up. Even the second disk did the same thing but after keeping it in the fridge I eventually got them together. Maybe if I made them smaller? I have never made pastry before so maybe that’s why. They still tasted good!
These are great! I made them gluten free by using cup for cup GF flour and GF cocoa powder and they were delicious. No other modifications needed.
I made this recipe today using a food processor. It was time consuming, but not difficult. Delicious! Rich and decadent!
Delicious! I enjoyed all of the steps
This recipe was delicious! At first glance I thought it would be too chocolatey but they are just right! It’s a favorite with my family. Thanks for the challenge!
I made this recipe as an afterschool snack for my niece and nephew. It was the first time I mixed a pastry crust in a food processor and I loved how easy it was. However, I had a lot of trouble trying to crimp the edges of the pies while they were on the tray. I guess they were too close together because the fork was mashing the pies next to the one I was working on. I found it easier to move them off the tray to crimp the edges then put them back. In the end the kids loved them (though my niece thought I should have used more spinkles), and took the rest home with them to have for breakfast the next day. No word yet whether they were willing to share with their parents.
Made this recipe, and thought the dough was a bit bitter…. Could I add a teaspoon espresso powder to the milk (to dissolve) and help combat that bitterness?
Hi Hanah, espresso powder may not be the solution because that will deepen the chocolate flavor– it’s quite bitter. I recommend a little more sugar instead.
Made these for my coworkers as a thank you and they absolutely loved them. Reheated for a few seconds and it made them nice and gooey. They take a bit of time to make but it’s worth it. Used 2% milk instead of whole but otherwise followed recipe to a T. Delicious and would love to try different flavors.
My mom and I made heart shaped tarts using this recipe. We had so much fun making (and eating) these tastey pastries!
This is definitely a recipe I’ll be making again! My husband and kids devoured these. They were delicious and I can’t wait to try them with raspberry jam or peanut butter in the future. They are worth the wait and the effort!
These were flaky and delicious! I added some peanut butter to the fudge filling and it was the perfect combo! So good!
This was my first time attempting anything other than cookies and it worked out great! Instructions were easy to follow and they tasted sooo good! I have a fussy 4 month old so doing it in steps was also really convenient. I made the dough one day, assembled 2 days later and baked a few hours after that. I saw one woman on Instagram use a raspberry jam, and I will definitely try that next!
Worth the effort! And I love the chocolate pie crust — I can’t wait to try it with other things!!
This was def out of my comfort zone. I never would have thought of making this. This was a challenge for me. I thought I sealed the edges really well, but there was leaking galore (and smoke!). When I took them out of the oven, I dropped 2 on the floor. Despite my challenges, thanks for expanding my horizon.
We had the best time making these! It is labor/time intensive, but it was perfect for a Midwest snow day 😉 They are super delicious but very rich! Great with a glass of milk!
These make the most delicious treat! Pie crusts intimidate me but Sally’s detailed step-by-step instructions were perfect. Ours turned out picture perfect and were oh so yummy. Another winner!
This was my first challenge and so much fun. My 3 year old keeps blowing on them so we can eat them sooner. Looking forward to future challenges!
I didn’t have a food processor, but used a pastry cutter. I had to add a second tablespoon of milk because my dough was still very dry. They turned out so well though! I didn’t find them to be “not sweet enough” as others did-but I tend to like things that aren’t overly sweetened. They didn’t last long in my house! Going to try again without the chocolate and with fruit filling. YUM!
These tasted really great! They have a super rich fudge filling, and the pastry was very flaky. I am 12 years old, and I thought the recipe was medium difficulty! Love these baking challenges.
Recipe was simple and super tasty! Perfect amount of chocolate and pastry was really flaky! Definitely making again!
This is a great recipe! I just recently got into baking as a hobby. I became a stay at home mom and needed something to bring me seratonin! I have made so many recipes from this blog and they never disappoint. This recipe tastes very similar to chocolate pop tarts but has that classic pastry texture which you don’t get from a normal pop tart. Chocolatey and oh so delicious!
This baking challenge was so fun! But boy was it messy for my 3-year-old! Ha! It was super chocolaty and the crust was so flaky. My favorite part, though, was definitely the glaze. Delicious! It was all a bit too chocolaty for my kids, but my husband and I loved it. Another great recipe!
Hi! I was wondering if it would be possible to incorporate some jam into the filling – I love raspberry and chocolate together, and have some raspberry jam available to use 🙂 would this get too weird while baking?
Thanks!
Hi Kate, we tested this exact dough with a heaping Tbsp of raspberry jam as the filling and it was wonderful!
The fudge filling is incredible!! I had some trouble with the pastry dough and had to add extra milk, but after chilling in the fridge it came together just fine. Baked up very flaky and delicious.
This recipe was delicious! The making of the dough, filling, and icing was easy. I only had some trouble with the assembly, perhaps because I went too quickly and led my filling to pop out of the sides when closing up the tarts. The flavor was delicious but also very rich!
This recipe was a success! I also made these for valentine’s day and my boyfriend and roommate loved them. They turned out quite flaky, even if I used a 3.5L food processor and processed the dough in 2 even batch. Thanks Sally for another great one
I didn’t have a pastry cutter, so I used a large serving and a regular fork that worked well. I only had skim milk so used that. Otherwise followed these all-inclusive directions. They came out looking so pretty and were fun to assemble. DH said “It tastes just like a poptart!”
Yesterday I made this recipe. It came out really well. My children loved it. My husband who is a fitness freak could not stop himself from eating. Just loved making and eating it.