Homemade Purple Sweet Potato Pop Tarts
Make these easy homemade pop tarts with store bought pie crust and fresh Okinawan sweet potatoes. There’s no artificial flavoring or dyes used to get the vibrant purple color!
Welcome back to another Mochi Mommy Okinawan sweet potato recipe! You all know that I’m kind of obsessed with these purple sweet potatoes, even more than I love ube. If you can get your hands on some, it’s totally worth making these super easy homemade pop tarts. I used store bought pie crust, but you can also use a homemade recipe if you’d like. I’m currently in the process of perfecting my pie dough technique, so stay tuned for that in a future post!
The filling for these pop tarts is my homemade purple sweet potato jam. It is SO GOOD, and it’s pretty easy to make. I also mix it with powdered sugar to form the purple glaze on top. All of these purple foods and none of it with artificial coloring! Isn’t that amazing?
The purple jam can also be made ahead of time! But I know that some of you will not want to have to make something from scratch in order to bake these pop tarts. If that’s the case, read through the rest of this post to see what substitutions you can make. Don’t worry, I’m not leaving you out!
What is Okinawan Sweet Potato?
Okinawan sweet potato is a variety of sweet potato with a light brown skin and a light purple flesh. When cooked, the flesh becomes a very deep violet color. To me, it also has a slight floral flavor. This is different from ube in that ube is a variety of yam, not sweet potato.
Okinawan sweet potatoes are famous for being a healthy food that contributes to the long Okinawan life span. They’ve got tons of antioxidants, high in vitamin A, vitamin C, dietary fiber, vitamin B6, potassium, and iron.
Where to buy Okinawan sweet potato?
Okinawan sweet potato in particular is common in Japan, obviously. But it’s also very popular in Korea and Hawai’i. On the mainland, I’ve found Okinawan sweet potatoes in both Japanese and Korean grocery stores. I’ve also been able to find them through Say Weee, which is an online Asian grocery delivery service. If you’re interested, I do have an affiliate link that gives us both $10 off our orders.
Substitutions for Okinawan Sweet Potato
In general, in the mainland US, Okinawan sweet potatoes can get pretty pricey. I’ve seen them sometimes at over $5 a pound.
If you can’t find Okinawan sweet potatoes or they’re just too expensive, you can also try other varieties of purple sweet potato. One that I can find pretty easily is the Stokes purple sweet potato, which comes from South Carolina but looks like it’s a variety of the Molokai purple sweet potato.
How to Cook Purple Sweet Potato
For almost all my purple sweet potato recipes, I steam my potatoes in the microwave! I know other recipes tell you to boil the potatoes, but microwaving is super fast and easy. Wash your purple potatoes, poke some holes in them with a fork, and stick them in a microwave safe dish with a couple tablespoons of water. Cover and microwave for 5-6 minutes for one large sweet potato. They are done when you can easily pierce them with a fork.
By that point they are also very easy to peel. Then, most of my recipes, like the purple sweet potato jam, call for mashing the insides. If you don’t want to make the jam, you could actually just use the mashed cooked sweet potato for the filling of these pop tarts. I think they taste great on its own. But if you have the time, I really recommend trying the jam, as it’s super versatile and can be used with a variety of other desserts as well!
Homemade Ube Pop Tarts
Another option if you don’t want to use purple sweet potatoes is to substitute ube halaya for the purple sweet potato jam and use ube extract for the glaze. You won’t be able to avoid artificial food dyes and flavorings this way, but it’s still yummy and very purple!
More Purple Sweet Potato Recipes
Are you as obsessed with Okinawan sweet potatoes as me? Check out these other purple desserts:
- Okinawan sweet potato haupia pie bars
- Okinawan sweet potato haupia pie
- Purple sweet potato jam
- Purple sweet potato latte
- Purple sweet potato butter mochi
Purple Sweet Potato Pop Tarts
Ingredients
For Pop Tarts
- 1 pie crust, store bought or homemade
- 3 tbsp Okinawan sweet potato jam, see notes
- 1 egg
For Purple Sweet Potato Glaze
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp Okinawan sweet potato jam
- sprinkles, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll out pie crust to a 8×9" rectangle. Cut pie crust into 12 2×3" rectangles.
- Spread about 1 1/2 tsp of sweet potato jam in the center of 6 of the pie crust rectangles. Cover with the remaining 6 rectangles.
- Using a fork, crimp the edges of each pop tart so they don't come apart during baking. Poke the center of each pop tart with the fork to allow steam to escape.
- Beat an egg and brush onto the tops of the pop tarts. Bake for 20 minutes or until tarts are fully cooked and browned on top.
- Allow pop tarts to cool before assembling the glaze.
- To make the glaze, mix 1 tbsp of sweet potato jam with 1/4 cup powdered sugar. If your jam is very thick and dry, you can microwave it for about 8 seconds until it is loose enough to mix with the powdered sugar. If your glaze is too wet, add more powdered sugar. If too dry, add more jam.
- Use a spoon to spread a small amount of glaze on top of each pop tart. Top with optional sprinkles or other topping if you wish. Enjoy!
Notes
- My homemade Okinawan sweet potato jam tastes like the filling for Okinawan sweet potato and haupia pie. It’s easy, can be made days ahead of time, and so so good. If you really don’t want to make the jam, you could always use just mashed, cooked Okinawan sweet potato, although it will be less sweet.
- If you want to turn this into an ube pop tart, you can use ube halaya (store bought or homemade) instead of the sweet potato jam. Substitute a tbsp of water and drop of ube extract for the jam in the glaze.
- You can easily double this recipe if you’re using store bought pie crusts that come two to a box!
