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Before you grab the frozen uncrustables from the freezer aisle, check out how to make your own at home! Made with your choice of ingredients, these are the much healthier and budget-friendly lunch option.
Watch how easy these homemade frozen uncrustables are to make in the video below:
Related: Top 5 Lunchboxes We’ve Tested
Homemade uncrustables are great for school lunches, especially when your child attends a nut-free school by making it with a nut-free butter alternative. In fact, I share the top five peanut butter alternatives here so your kids can enjoy all their favorite sandwiches and snacks even at a nut-free school.
These sandwiches are always on my kid’s shopping list. I’ve heard ” MOM… can we get these, pleeeeeeaaaase?” too many times to count.
There are a lot of reasons I don’t grab the beloved uncrustables from the freezer isle, they’re expensive, they’re gone too quickly and the ingredients list isn’t as clean as I’d like to to be.
All those good reasons to skip it, but the kids still want them, so I decided to find a way to make them at home.
Homemade Uncrustables Ingredients
One of my favorite reasons for making them at home is that I can control the ingredient list. While we do still use my kid’s favorite jellies, I’m able to pack nut-free butter to make them allergy-friendly as needed or even use gluten-free bread.
Wondering which nut-free butters spread best? I was too, so I did a side-by-side test of my favorite peanut butter alternatives to find the best one!
Depending on where you live, they can be hard to find in stores, so I also included links to grab the best ones online.
How to Make Uncrustables
I’ll be showing you how to make these DIY Frozen Uncrustables with a sandwich sealer, or a large glass with a THICK edge.
A fair warning though, oftentimes, if you make these with a round glass it will lead to leaks in the sandwich. I prefer using this round crimper or this square crimper to virtually eliminate leaks.
- Start by placing your favorite peanut butter and jelly filling in the middle of one piece of bread. Make sure to leave some room on the outer edges, where the sandwich will seal.
- Place the second piece of bread on top, and use sandwich sealer or glass to seal sandwich, by pressing and holding firmly for 30 seconds.
- Make sure to remove crusts while the sandwich is still in the press or glass.
- Flash freeze sandwiches in the freezer for about 2 hours.
- After the 2 hours, you can now place sandwiches in individual sandwich bags or all in one big freezer bag for storage. Homemade Uncrustables can be frozen for up to a month.
When you are ready to use, simply pack in your child’s lunch box frozen, and it will thaw in time for lunch, or microwave for 15-20 seconds if you need to serve them immediately.
Easy enough right? That’s the way we like to do things around here and in our family meal plans. It’s THE #1 tool hundreds of families have used to become pros at packing lunches and preparing real-food meals.
With prep tips, completed shopping lists and awesome recipes, what’s not to love? Sounds like what you’ve been searching for? You’re in the right place, head over here for more details and a free sample week.
Now before we go, let’s not forget about all those extra crusts. Don’t even think about tossing them because they’re going to make these French Toast Sticks EPIC!
DIY Frozen Uncrustables
Do your kids ask for frozen uncrustables when you go to the grocery? This recipe is easy and delicious, plus you can make it with healthier ingredients!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 uncrustables 1x
- Category: Lunch
Scale
Ingredients
8 slices sandwich bread
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup jelly, your choice
Instructions
- Spread the peanut butter onto 4 slices of bread, keeping the peanut butter in the center. Spread the jelly in the center of the remaining 4 slices and assemble the sandwiches.
- Using the cutter, press it into the center of each sandwich and remove the outer crust.
- Place onto a baking sheet and repeat with remaining sandwiches. Freeze for 2 hours or until frozen.
- Remove from freezer and pack each uncrustable into separate sandwich bags. Store in freezer for up to 2 months.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 uncrustable
- Calories: 347
- Sugar: 15.2g
- Sodium: 343/5mg
- Fat: 17.4g
- Saturated Fat: 3.6g
- Carbohydrates: 39.4g
- Fiber: 5.7g
- Protein: 11.7g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
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What is the flash freezing step for? Could you skip that step and slip a sandwich into a bag before freezing?
I’m in Australia so maybe I’m missing something here… What is the purpose of freezing sandwiches? Just make them fresh. Can you actually buy frozen sandwiches in America? This is so weird to me. Does it save that much time?
Yes, frozen sandwiches are actually sold here! Many people like frozen sandwiches because you can have a ton in your freezer without worrying about them going bad. These are much healthier than the packaged ones!
They’re very handy for long bike ride instead of Gu or energy gels. Put a frozen one in your jersey pocket and it’s ready to eat when you need it and the sealed crust keeps it from being messy (I still put in a baggie though).
I do not worry about sealing my sandwiches. They freeze fine and are great when thawed. I’ve done them all: grilled cheese, meats with/without cheese, PB, Tuna with added chopped celery and pickle (pickle patted dry) is great. Tuna takes a little longer to thaw but heck they’re already made! Just hold back the lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle slices for meat and tuna till just before serving.
Two questions……first, could you just freeze the entire sammie?? (without sealing and cutting crusts off) and, second, if you did ham and cheese would mayo freeze okay, or should that be left off too??
Tricia,
you can definitely freeze the whole thing (with crusts). You can also freeze ham and cheese (with mayo) sandwiches. Vegetables do not freeze well in sandwiches.
will this work with nutella?
It sure could!
Cream cheese and jelly might also be an option instead of a nut butter.
great idea!
We just made a couple of these tonight using a cheap Toaster Pastry press that I had bought from Williams-Sonoma.
My husband likes his PB&J toasted so I did one with toasted bread and one without toasting. That didn’t turn out so well since toasted bread doesn’t like to be molded. What did work was making the pockets as directed, checking for leaks or holes and then toasting.
I am so excited to make a full batch for lunches. Thanks for the inspiration!
I love this! I was just wondering how long these would stay good in the freezer?
About 30 days in a freezer bag. Anything longer the bread tends to dry.
What about using this idea for the “grilled cheese” uncrustables? Maybe they could be popped in toaster or toaster oven?
hmmmm might have to test that….
Have you ever tried this with gluten free bread(we use Udi’s)? I’m wondering if it would “stick” together as easily as regular bread would.
I have and it does. you may have to “crimp” the edges a bit more… but it works great. Remember to save the crusts for the frugal french toast sticks! :)
I spread peanutbutter on both sides of the bread to keep the jelly from glooping out the top…and I eat them frozen, too. Mmmmmm….
Hi Corey
I love these, what a simple yet brilliant idea! Unfortunately my son’s not allowed pb at school because of other children’s allergies and I’ve never seen your alternatives in the UK. Does this work with ‘drier’ fillings like cheese and ham?
Hi Vicky!
You can freeze any sandwich containing deli meats and cheese. It is a great time saver! lettuce and tomatoes do not freeze well. Yes, you can use this same technique to seal the bread but make sure the ham and cheese are “tucked” inside the bread. You can also make your own sunflower butter (sunflowers are not nuts). -Laura
Or Tahini ! It’s made from sesame seeds and very popular.
Awesome! My daughter loves sun butter sandwiches since she’s got a peanut allergy. I cannot wait to try these out. You rock, Chef Corey!