Paleo “Brown Sugar” POPTARTS - Gluten & Grain Free, Seed Oil Free & Refined Sugar Free

I've been on a mission (for a long time) to make alternatives to all of our favorite snacks and treats, meals and dishes but with better-for-you ingredients of course. Plus I always (and only) use organic, high quality ingredients, no seed oils, no refined sugars and never any food coloring. I've made goldfishies, graham crackers, oreos, nutterbutter cookies and more and now we can add poptarts to the never ending delicious list. Did you know that there are over 5 different kinds of sugars in Kellogg’s poptarts? Of course there are also seed oils, enriched flour and some ingredients that I would never consume or feed to my family. My version has less ingredients and is sweetened with coconut sugar and maple syrup (depending on the layer) and are a copycat taste of the conventional counterpart.

I love using coconut sugar for all my baked goods. If you've never tried it you really should. It doesn't taste like coconut in case you were wondering. It really does taste like brown sugar and mimic brown sugar beautifully -- and mixed with the cinnamon it's such a great combination.

Kellogg's POPTARTS Ingredients: Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, vitamin B1 [thiamin mononitrate], vitamin B2 [riboflavin], folic acid), sugar, soybean and palm oil (with TBHQ for freshness), corn syrup, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, bleached wheat flour. Contains 2% or less of molasses, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate), cinnamon, wheat starch, soy lecithin, gelatin, caramel color.

That list is a hard pass for me but here's a great copy-cat version (done in a bar instead of a poptart pastry shape). Happy back-to-school baking with this delicious recipe!

By the way, if you haven’t tried vanilla bean powder you’re missing out. I love adding it to my coffee and baked goods or even using it pancake batter too. It’s not cheap but you don’t need much at all. A pinch will do. You can use vanilla bean powder or vanilla extract for this recipe but keep in mind Here’s the vanilla bean powder I use.

Almond flour isn’t cheap and that's an unfortunate fact. Buying organic almond flour is even more expensive than non-organic almond flour. Organic almond flour will cost you but you don’t want to use non organic almond flour because almonds are heavily sprayed with pesticides. Nuts aren’t sprayed when growing but they are sprayed once picked and then cracked. And because nuts contain a lot of oil they absorb the pesticides in a flash. Here’s the organic almond flour I love.

The cashew butter I love is from Artisana Market and I buy it in a big tub. You can also buy smaller jars, too - it's made with one ingredient: organic raw cashews. It's the creamiest in all the land. Use discount code KRYSTENSKITCHEN at checkout.

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INGREDIENTS

Shortbread

4 cups almond flour

2 Tablespoons coconut flour

2 Tablespoons arrowroot flour

Pinch of salt

2/3 cup maple syrup

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup coconut oil, softened

Filling

1 1/2 cups coconut sugar

3 Tablespoons cinnamon

1/4 cup coconut oil, softened

6 Tablespoons cashew butter

1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)

Pinch of salt

Frosting

6 Tablespoons cashew butter

2 Tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)

2 Tablespoons coconut butter

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix shortbread ingredients until well combined. Split dough in half and press 1/2 the dough into a 9 by 13 pan. (Set other 1/2 of the dough aside). Mix the filling ingredients together in a bowl really well. Spread over the bottom layer of shortbread in the pan evenly. Press the remaining 1/2 of the shortbread cookie dough over the sugar layer as evenly as possible. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Once cooled, make the frosting and spread evenly onto the top layer of shortbread and place in the fridge for 20 minutes (or until frosting hardens). Slice into squares and enjoy. Store leftovers in the fridge.