Fruit AND CREAM CHEESE PUFF PASTRY TARTS tart.png

Fruit and cream cheese puff pastry tarts

  • Serves 8
  • Prep time: 20 mins | Cooking time: 25 mins + 5 mins cooling

These fruit and cream cheese tarts are light and delicious, and the perfect dessert for entertaining. Made easy with the use of puff pastry and frozen fruit, and served with yoghurt or ice cream, they’re the perfect way to end your next dinner party.

Ingredients

  • 2 sheets puff pastry, thawed
  • 200g cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 Tbsp icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 apples, peeled and cored
  • 1 cup frozen berries (we used blueberries and raspberries)
  • Caster sugar for sprinkling
  • Warmed apricot jam for glazing (optional)
  • Plain yoghurt or ice cream to serve

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C fan bake. Line 2 trays with baking paper.
  2. Cut each pastry sheet into quarters and place on the lined trays. Use a sharp knife to lightly score a 1 cm border around each piece, careful not to cut all the way through. Prick the centre of each piece a few times to stop it puffing up.
  3. To make the filling, whisk together cream cheese, 1 egg, lemon zest, icing sugar, and vanilla essence. Spread a tablespoon of filling in the centre of each pastry, leaving the border.
  4. Cut the apples into thin slices and arrange on top of the filling followed by frozen berries.
  5. Beat the remaining egg and brush the border of each pastry and sprinkle the fruit with sugar.
  6. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until the pastry is golden and the sugar is caramelised. Remove from the oven and glaze the pastry with warmed apricot jam. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving with plain yoghurt or ice cream.

Top tips:

  1. You can swap out fillings with different fruits such as pears and tinned boysenberries—just make sure the pears are a firm variety so they hold their shape (like Bosc or Packham). Drain any tinned fruit to remove excess moisture before adding them into the pastry.
  2. Cream cheese adds a richness to the pastries—the recipe will have leftover cream cheese mixture, which can be frozen and used with leftover pastry for a quick dessert idea.
  3. To make this dairy-free, use dairy-free puff pastry sheets and vegan cream cheese without the egg. Brush with dairy-free milk before baking.
  4. Warmed apricot jam gives a sweet and glossy finish which is used in bakeries too—you can use whatever fruit jam like strained marmalade and strawberry jam, but the finish will be slightly different. Warmed honey also works as a glaze alternative to jam.
  5. These are best eaten just baked as they will go soft the next day. Any leftovers should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge and reheated fully (due to the dairy and egg).
  6. For extra flaky pastry borders, stick two sheets of puff pastry together with egg wash (there will be enough egg wash for brushing as well), or milk, before cutting into squares. The bake time will need to be increased by an extra 3-5 minutes.
  7. The vanilla essence adds to the cream cheese mixture, but you can also substitute this a squeeze of lemon (from the zested lemon) for an extra lemon flavour.
  8. Red apples that hold their shape during baking such as Eve or Braeburn are recommended. For a tarter flavour, try Granny Smith apples as they balance the sugar added on top and also hold their shape in baking.
  9. Brush the sliced apples with leftover lemon juice (from the zested lemon) for extra lemon flavour, and it helps the sugar stick to the fruit too.
  10. Make this a fun activity with the kids, where they can put their own toppings on the pre-prepared pastries before baking.