New! The Best Easy Homemade Toaster Strudel recipe

I’m excited to share with you my easy homemade toaster strudel recipe, and I should send it out into the world with a warning: just watch out, okay? I only say this because if you’re anything like me, you just might find that you’ve accidentally consumed the entire gigantic thing without totally realizing it. It tastes so much like the store-bought version that it’s hard not to keep sampling it, just to be sure. Just to delight in the fact that you made that happen.

If you’re into the looks of my homemade toaster strudel recipe, then you might also want to try my copycat oats and honey granola bars, my homemade cinnamon toast crunch and homemade nutri grain bars. Both are delicious and easy to whip right up. This breakfast casserole also brings the flaky goodness of this strudel but in a deeply savory kind of way. All good things going on here today, folks. Onward …

Why we love this homemade toaster strudel recipe

My high school self is giving me high fives through the decades today. This HUGE Berries and Cream Homemade Toaster Strudel is absolutely delicious and just so, so much better than anything that you will find in your grocer’s freezer section. Buttery, flaky pastry is filled with a fresh two-berry jam and some soft cream cheese – the balance between the two components tasting just right.

What’s more, when you drench the whole pastry in the luscious lemony icing – it’s a total dead ringer for the toaster strudels we all ate in high school. {But it’s homemade so obviously better by leaps and bounds.}

Swaps and Switches for this Homemade Toaster Strudel

• You can play around with the types of berries you use in this toaster strudel dupe here. No worries. Want to do blueberry? That’d be fantastic for sure. The lemon in the jam will ensure that the flavor is top notch. Blackberries would also be great, as would fresh pitted cherries.
• Now, if you were to swap out the store-bought puff pastry for some good store-bought pie crust, you’d have more of the aforementioned Pop Tarts situation on your hands, and I think that’d be just great. It’s more about what you’re in the mood for, you know? So, choose your own pastry adventure there.
• You could also make smaller, individual whole strudels if you prefer that over the giant option. Doing it as one big strudel, though, does keep things very quick and easy. Then then you just cut it into servings once it’s all done. Whichever way you care to do it is great!

How to make this Homemade Toaster Strudel Recipe

I saw that Tieghen Gerard of Half Baked Harvest whipped up a giant homemade Pop Tart like this recently and I was super inspired by that. My husband has a tendency to eat strawberry Pop Tarts on the regular, so I wanted to give it a go. But, in keeping with my mission to make recipes as quick and streamlined as possible, I swapped out the homemade pie dough and opted for some store-bought puff pastry.

So, what you end up with is a dead ringer for a Toaster Strudel, more so than a Pop Tart. But no matter how you shake it, it’s delicious either way. This version is just streamlined as much as possible to make it easy breezy for you guys – it’s efficient and I’ve got a few little tricks going on that make it a true minimalist cook’s dream.

1. For starters, we’re using store-bought puff pastry. So, there’s that. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t have the time nor patience to be laminating dough and whipping up scratch puff pastry these days. But if that’s your preference – go for it! That’s cool. But I think Pepperidge Farm does a great job.
2. Secondly, the ingredients in the jam and the icing are almost totally the same, save for the berries and cream components. We’ll combine lemon juice, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla in each one, and in the jam go the berries and in the icing – just a splash of water.

Jam with confectioner’s sugar? But why?

The inclusion of powdered sugar in a berry jam isn’t traditional, as you typically see granulated sugar, or honey or maple syrup as the sweeteners used. But in the name of minimalism and efficiency for our toaster strudel here, I didn’t want to ask you to reach for two different sugars today, so we’re leaning on the powdered variety twice.

And here’s the real trick – confectioner’s sugar has corn starch in it which, when it bubbles away in the pot with the jam mixture, will actually help to thicken the mixture as it cools. Corn starch has a way of doing that, as we know. We want a nice, thick jam so it stays put in our pastry while it bakes. And the confectioner’s sugar is so perfect for the job.

How to make this Easy homemade toaster strudel recipe

1. Start by making the jam. Put the berries in a medium saucepan set over medium heat and let them gently come up to a slight bubble, mashing them with your spoon to help break them up. After about 8 to 10 minutes, things should be looking pretty jammy, so go ahead and add the juice of half the lemon as well as 2/3 cup of the confectioner’s sugar. Stir and allow it to come back up to a bubble (the sugar will help stabilize/thicken the jam as it cools). 
2. When the berries have mostly burst and the mixture has liquefied, remove it from the heat and add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Let the jam cool completely before using. I speed this up by putting it in my freezer until it’s cool. 
3. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Adjust your rack to the middle position.
4. Put your puff pastry sheets on a flat, clean work surface, preferably dusted with flour, and roll them out to rectangles that are roughly 12-by-15 inches in size (this really doesn’t have to be exact). Place one piece of pastry on a large sheet pan and spread the cream cheese on top, leaving a 1-inch border all around. When it has cooled, spread about 1 cup of the jam on top of the cream cheese being careful to leave that 1-inch border (you’ll have leftover jam). Top with the other puff pastry piece. 
5. Beat the egg and add about 1 tablespoon of water to it. Brush this egg wash all over the top of the strudel and seal the edges all the way around by pressing them down with the tines of a fork. Bake for 25 to 28 minutes or until nice and golden brown. You don’t want any soggy bottoms here, so I say err on the side of extra golden, you know? It’s hard to overcook this. 
6. Meanwhile make the icing: In a medium bowl, combine the remaining 2 cups confectioners sugar, the juice of the other lemon half, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and about 2 tablespoons of water. Whisk until smooth and pourable. 
7. When the strudel is out of the oven and has cooled significantly (for about 25 to 30 minutes), drench in the icing, slice into pieces, and enjoy.

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