According to my husband there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who eat Pop Tarts and those who eat Toaster Strudel. To the rest of us, that strong a conviction about breakfast pastries might seem a little bit nuts, but he’s held fast to his beliefs that the choice between Pop Tarts and Toaster Strudel is an important one.
I grew-up a Pop Tart person. My parents were Pop Tart people, so that’s what we had around the house when I was little and to be honest, I’d never given my toaster pastry options too much thought. Sure I’d seen adds for Toaster Strudel and wondered what they tasted like, but I was happy with my Pop Tarts so I never really pushed the issue with my folks. As I got older and began purchasing my own groceries, I continued to buy and eat Pop Tarts. Over the years Pop Tarts had even branched out from their roots as basic un-frosted pastries to the frosted, sprinkled morning treats we know today. With all the available options — frosted, un-frosted, strawberry, chocolate, s’mores, raspberry and french toast flavors — Pop Tarts covered all the bases leaving little room in my pantry for any other sort of breakfast pastry.
Eventually, my husband and I started doing the grocery shopping together and he pretty much insisted that we buy Toaster Strudel. “Just try them,” he said “you’ll never want a crappy old Pop Tart again. I promise.” At first I had my doubts, but he’d never lied to me before so I thought I would at least give them a shot, and agreed to buy one box.
The next morning at breakfast, we tried the Toaster Strudel. One bite, and I was a convert. Between the fluffy, flaky crust, the sweet smooth frosting (which, by the way you apply yourself — great for making cool shapes, designs or writing your name) and the delicious filling, I really didn’t miss my “crappy old Pop Tarts”. It was amazing.
My next order of business was to enlighten the rest of my family about the wonderful discovery I’d made. Not being the sort of folks who are easily swayed, I knew my family would need to see some hard evidence of the superiority of Toaster Strudel. Since there are many similarities between the two (both come in a wide variety of flavors, are easy to prepare in a toaster or toaster-oven and are nutritionally similar,) I decided to compile pro/con lists of the differences.
Pop Tarts
-pros-
-Do not need to be stored in the freezer
-Come pre-frosted
-Some have sprinkles on the frosting
-Generally less expensive than Toaster Strudel
-Less messy than Toaster Strudel
-cons-
-Dry crust
-Less filling than Toaster Strudel
-Dry frosting
Toaster Strudel
-pros-
-Delicious flaky crust
-Sweet moist frosting
-You add your own frosting (like I mentioned earlier, this is great for making cool shapes, designs or writing your name)
-More filling than Pop Tarts
-Generally tastier filling than Pop Tarts
-cons-
-Slightly more expensive than Pop Tarts
-Must be stored in the freezer
-Can be messy (due to sweet drippy frosting and plentiful filling)
While on paper Pop Tarts and Toaster Strudel seemed comparable — I knew that Toaster Strudel was better. I had to find a way to convince my family that did not include lists, graphs or charts. In my mind there was only one way. They were just going to have to take my word for it and try a Toaster Strudel for themselves. Which was exactly what I convinced them to do, making Toaster Strudel converts out of them too.
I recommend that any other Pop Tart people out there go ahead and give Toaster Strudel a try. Trust me — You won’t be sorry!
