Indulge in guilt-free delight
I’m not going to lie to you…
When I first wake up in the morning, the first thing I think about is my homemade French vanilla iced coffee…
And the second?
Some sort of a sweet breakfast food.
Pop-Tarts have always been a favorite breakfast item of mine, but I just feel so guilty eating them. So much sugar and honestly, zero nutritional value.
I know they’re terrible for me, and until about a year ago, I was still buying 3-4 boxes at a time.
I really enjoy making homemade, from scratch breakfast items, but I have yet to make my own homemade toaster pastries.
Note to self: find a good recipe. If you have one, please drop me a note in the comments!
My husband, my son, and I absolutely love Pop-Tarts. And we definitely don’t discriminate with flavor.
When I searched for an organic version of a Pop-Tart, I found Nature’s Path Organic Frosted Toaster Pastries (Berry Strawberry flavored) on Thrive Market for $5.65…but it's only a box of 6 pastries (3 packs of 2).
Is this small box worth the hefty price? Good question.
The cheapest way to buy these pastries would be to buy them in bulk.
You can find a pack of 12 boxes for $56 ($4.66 per box) on Amazon.
How many boxes do you think I’ll need?
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Nature’s Path Organic makes toaster pastries (along with cereals, granolas, oatmeals, and lots of other products) that are all certified USDA Organic, made with real fruit, no artificial flavors or synthetic colors, no GMOs, certified Kosher, vegetarian, pesticide free, and there are no antibiotics or synthetic hormones used.
Nature’s Path Organic is a company founded by Arran & Ratana Stephens in 1985, and they take pride in being a fully-organic company.
“Eating organic can help create a more sustainable future–but only if people enjoy eating it. That’s why it also has to be delicious. Making better choices, without compromise.”
Oh, yes! I love the sounds of this company and their products already.
I am totally on board with this.
I still need to know more about these pastries, and you do too.
Since I purchased Berry Strawberry flavored pastries, I will compare them to strawberry Pop-Tarts.
There are tons and tons of ingredients in these organic pastries,
but I did research them. The main ingredients include:
Wheat Flour, Cane Sugar, Palm Oil, Apples, Corn Starch, Strawberries, Rice Starch, Honey, Molasses, whey protein concentrate, Sea Salt and red beet juice concentrate.
6 grams of protein…38g sugars + 34g added sugars, and 78 total carbohydrates in 2 pastries.
Doesn’t that seem like a lot…?
When I was looking over the nutrition facts for these pastries,
I noticed they have a lot more sugar than a Pop-Tart does,
but if you’re really looking into it at a much deeper level…
Pop-Tarts have TERRIBLE ingredients!
Enriched flour, corn syrup, sugar, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, cracker meal, gelatin, artificial flavor, xanthan gum, modified wheat starch and OF COURSE Red Dye 40 and Yellow Dye 6.
Don’t even get me started on my artificial dyes rant… I am absolutely NOT a fan of dyes as they cause a lot of problems for children and adults. Long story short, dyes can cause depression, irritability, and even ADD or ADHD in children.
Yes! Pop-Tarts had less “sugar” in them, but look at all the artificial ingredients!
So in this brutally honest momma’s opinion… the organic pastries have more protein, cleaner, simpler ingredients, and no artificial ingredients are used.
Uhh. Yeahhh… I am extremely invested in these new “Pop-Tarts”.
Gosh, they just seem to outshine any sort of toaster pastry competition…
And I haven’t even tried them yet.
So really overall, Nature’s Path Organic pastries is most definitely the healthier route to take when deciding to buy toaster pastries.
On the box they look like the homemade Pop-Tarts I want to make, but lazy takes over most mornings.
These organic pastries also appear to have a thicker frosting than a Pop-Tart and I’ve always wanted a Pop-Tart with extra extra frosting…
Do you think they could make over-frosted toaster pastries? I’d buy.
I love to eat Pop-Tarts straight from the box, no heating it up.
For fun, I have attempted to try frozen Pop-Tarts as well, but every time I do,
I always forget it’s in the freezer and then it’s too frozen to eat, so I’m either eating something else or skipping breakfast entirely.
For this review of these wondrous looking organic toaster pastries, I chose to eat them straight out of the box…
But then also heat up half of a pastry and try it that way. This should give us a good taste test.
The pastries are wrapped in a silver cellophane just like Pop-Tarts. Many times, when I remove a Pop-Tart from the package, the crust is all broken apart.
It’s quite annoying because it creates a mess in my lap.
In my brutally honest opinion,
The most superb toaster pastry would come wrapped in a silver cellophane package completely unharmed, with the softest, flakiest of crusts, filled with the finest of fruits and frosted evenly with no bumps, chips or scratches.
Haha. Like that’s reality.
I tore apart the cellophane at the top seam, which revealed the top part of the pastries, and breathed in deeply.
These Frosted Berry Strawberry Toaster Pastries smelled like I made the dough myself, they have a fresh, “homemade” dough scent, or as we know it, the smell of bread yeast.
I slid a pastry out of the cellophane upside down so I could surprise myself with a fully frosted toaster pastry when I flipped it over.
I flipped the pastry over excitedly,
and I was met with extreme disappointment.
What a lie that box was living.
The box shows the most beautifully frosted toaster pastry…
But we are nearly completely missing the frosting.
When I say I could hardly even see frosting on this pastry, I really mean it.
The beautiful white frosting the box shows, isn’t anything close to what is actually on the pastry.
I was very sad due to the lack of frosting…
Sigh.
…
The crust was noticeably whole wheat (Pop-Tarts are made with a bleached flour making the crust white).
I bent the pastry in half to reveal a dull pink, almost magenta color in the middle, but I reminded myself that there are no artificial colors in these pastries, unlike Pop-Tarts… which is always a win in my book
(Say NO ARTIFICIAL DYES!)
BUT STILL… I was deeply saddened that the pastry in my hand looked nothing like the pastry on the box.
The pastry itself was thicker and more dense than a Pop-Tart. Okay, I thought, not terrible.
Then I took my first bite of the berry strawberry, hardly frosted toaster pastry at room temperature.
Oh my lord,
*Melting into my seat*
It tastes of fresh whole wheat pastry dough, with a freshly made (from strawberries right off the vine) strawberry jam.
HECK YES!
The crust was soft in the middle, and flaky around the outside.
Oh, so sweet.
I then tried it warmed up (in the microwave).
I did not like it (at all) once it was heated. It’s not really a flavor problem, it’s a texture problem. I bet it would have been a bit better had I warmed it in the toaster.
I had already eaten two pastries to write the majority of this blog.
My son then wanted one and devoured it.
My husband also agreed, these pastries are absolutely delectable.
I am now left with two pastries from my one box I ordered.
In my brutally honest opinion,
I’m on Nature’s Way to Heaven with these pastries,
IMBHOhhhh yes!
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