Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts

In the past couple of years, appreciation for the humble pumpkin has really exploded. One indication is the number of pumpkin soup recipes that spread like a disease across food blogs every autumn. Another is the way pumpkin has started to appear in the most unlikely places - marshmallows, and beer, and soft drinks, and even Pop Tarts!

I picked up a box of Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts back in late October, and I would have posted this review long ago if my damn headaches hadn't kept me offline through much of November. Better late than never though, I suppose, and there are still a few boxes in stores here and there (and leftover stock should be showing up any time now in places like Big Lots and Ocean State Job Lot, so you'll still have a chance to grab 'em.) On with the review:

I've liked Pop Tarts ever since I was a kid, when my mom would buy them occasionally and dole them out as breakfast treats. That's still my favorite way to enjoy them, too - warmed up in the toaster with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee as a fast and carby breakfast on rushed weekdays.

As much as I like them, though, I have to admit that they've always tasted like somewhat fruit-flavored sugar pastries. I guess that's why my favorite variety has long been the Brown Sugar and Cinnamon flavor. It just seemed refreshingly honest to have a Pop Tart that came right out and said the filling was nothing but seasoned brown sugar. It was like the epitome of nutritionally-devoid calories.

Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts are not like that, though.  Oh, they're still carby sugary nutritionally embarrassing squares of empty calories, but they are SO DELICIOUS.  They really do taste like pumpkin pie (although the sprinkle-cast frosting is completely over-the-top.) Two of these with a cup of coffee in the morning can really make the day more bearable when you have no access to actual pie, because they totally deliver on the pumpkin pie promise.

I'm really hoping that Kellogg's brings these back again next year.