While packaged Pop-Tarts from the supermarket are tasty, they are made with artificial ingredients and are packed with sugar.

Homemade apple cinnamon pop-tarts do not require large amounts of sugar except the natural sweet taste from the apples and a little brown sugar. We also added caramel icing, but drizzling it on the Pop- Tarts is optional.

With simple ingredients you can find at your local grocery store, these Pop-Tarts are extremely easy to make.

We decided to use red apples as our filling because they are naturally sweet and add a nice crunch to the Pop-Tart. Apples contain no saturated fats or cholesterol and they are rich in dietary fiber, which helps prevent absorption of low-density lipoprotein – bad cholesterol – in the gut.

These Apple Cinnamon Pop-Tarts will not only surprise your taste buds, but will impress your family and friends as well. Homemade Pop-Tarts are great for breakfast, dessert or as a snack.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Apple Cinnamon Pop-tarts

Makes 7-8 servings

2 boxes of refrigerated pie dough

3 red apples peeled and sliced

1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon brown sugar unpacked

1⁄4 cup water

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1⁄4 teaspoon caramel extract

Sprinkles

Line your 14-by-15-inch pan with parchment paper or wax paper. Peel the apples and cut them into chunks.

Add the chunks, brown sugar, cinnamon and water into a 6-by-5-inch pot and set on the stove to boil. Turn to medium heat after the mixture comes to a boil and stir. Let sit until the apples are soft.

While the apples are boiling, lay out the first sheet of dough on a cutting board. Make sure not to touch the dough too much or it will tear. Cut the dough into rectangles. The size of the rectangles does not matter; it just depends on how big you want your Pop-Tarts to be. Move rectangle pieces to pan and set 1 inch apart.

Lay out the second sheet of dough on your pan and cut into the same amount of rectangles of the same size. One set of rectangles will be the bottom of the pop tart and the other set of rectangles will be the top.

When the apples are soft, remove from heat. Using a potato masher, smash the apples down to the size of M&Ms. Add two tablespoons of apples to each rectangular piece from the first set of dough. Then take each piece of dough from the second set and place on top of the apple-topped set of rectangles. Press down the edges of each Pop-Tart with a fork to enclose the apple filling. With a fork, flatten out the edges.

Place the tray of Pop-Tarts in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. While the Pop-Tarts are in the oven, start making the icing.

Add powdered sugar, milk and caramel extract in a bowl and mix well- It’s that easy.

When the Pop-Tarts are done, drizzle the icing on top and add sprinkles immediately. We used leaf-shaped sprinkles in the spirit of fall and to add color.

This delicious and healthy Pop-Tart is sure to be a winner at the breakfast table this fall.

Jacquelin Everhart can be reached at [email protected] and Leticia Lopez can be reached at [email protected]