Fruit and Cream Cheese Pastries

These pastries are light and have a great combo of chewy and flaky– Like if a danish and a turnover had a baby. These can be simplified even more if you use a store-bought fruit sauce, but I really hate our local grocery store, (my motto- if I can’t buy it at Costco don’t I really need it) and I tend to cook on a whim, so homemade fruit sauce is like a staple in our house. It’s great to turn plain pancakes or waffles into something festive, throw on top of cheesecake or angel food cake, or even just as a quick version of homemade jam, but again, totally optional.

Ingredients

1 package of frozen puff pastry- thawed

1 egg (optional if you want to use an egg wash)

Cheese Filling

2- 8oz packages of cream cheese (room temp)

¼ cup of powdered sugar

Lemon zest from one lemon, and about a Tablespoon of the juice.

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Fruit Sauce (if using homemade, if not, buy pie filling in the can or just use fresh fruit)

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 cup frozen strawberries (I used whole, stemmed garden strawberries I had frozen)

½ cup white sugar

½ cup water

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Then use a sheet of parchment paper if you have it, since they are a bit messy. Actually, I always forget to buy parchment paper, so I used a Crisco- greased, pampered chef stoneware bar pan, but I had to scrape off any sauce that ran over, so the next batch didn’t get a burnt sugar taste. It was a pain.

Follow the recipe below to make the fruit sauce, or just open the can of pie filling and skip to the next step.

Combined the frozen fruit into a pot. In a separate bowl mix the sugar and cornstarch to avoid clumping. Pour over the fruit and toss a bit to coat the fruit.

Then add water. Bring the mixture to a boil. Stir it well, and even constantly, as it gets toward boiling with a rubber scraper. It will thicken as it boils. If your fruit seemed to melt away in the sauce, just add a bit more fruit after it’s boiled. This is where using whole, frozen fruit and not over cooking help. Don’t let it stick to the bottom! It will burn and taste terrible. If you’re using different fruit and don’t have a tart fruit like strawberries, make sure to add a little lemon juice to give it balance. You don’t want it too sweet. After it boils and thickens, set it aside to cool a bit.

Get out your puff pastry. You purchase this in the freezer section, and then just leave it overnight in the fridge to thaw. This stuff is super versatile and makes everything you make with it look like you took hours- it’s the rice crispy treat version of baked goods.(If you’ve seen that commercial, you know what I’m talking about.)

Flour your surface and then take out one of the sheets. Lightly roll it out with a rolling pin, just a bit to compress the layers. Then, take a 4-inch diameter circle cutter, and cut out the shape. Lay it on the cookie sheet and then use a second cutter about ¼ inch smaller to score the shape. Don’t cut all the way through. If you’re like me, you probably don’t have all these nesting cutters, so I ended up using the outside casing to a chopper I had, or the on-the-go blender cup that came with my ninja blender.

I hated having to have so much dough wasted while I cut out the circles, so I started to cut out squares. You can get about nine squares out of each sheet with no waste and no rerolling. For the squares, I just cut them and scored them with a butter knife. Prick the insides shape a few times lightly with a fork. It helps keep the filling in place.

Blend the cream cheese and powdered sugar. It really needs to be room temp, or toss it into the microwave for about 10 seconds to warm it up, but don’t melt it. Mix the cream cheese first, and then add the powdered sugar to avoid lumps. Wash the lemon and add zest to taste. Then, put in the lemon juice and vanilla and blend well.

Drop about a teaspoon of cheese filling on each shape. The squares hold a bit more, another reason to skip the circle cutting. Spread it out a bit. Don’t go past your score lines though, because this is where it raises. You can mix the egg with some water and do an egg wash if you want, but I didn’t because it’s just another step, and although they look a bit pale in the picture, they were fine in real life.

Spoon about a teaspoon of fruit sauce over the cream cheese filling. They might run bit, but perfection isn’t necessary. Place in the oven (again 400 degrees) for 15-18 minutes or until the sides are puffed up and golden brown. Let them sit on the pan for a minute or two before moving to a cooling rack. Then grab the other sheet of puff pastry and continue the process.

When the pastries are cooled, you can take a ½ cup powdered sugar and a few teaspoons of water and whisk it into a glaze. Then drizzle it over the finished pastries. It makes them beautiful and tastier. If you’re a little nervous about your drizzling skills, put it in a Ziplock bag. Cut one end off, and use squeeze it in thin lines over the pastries.

I reposted this picture because I wanted you to see the how the glaze is drizzled. Lots of explanation, but again, not that hard. ENJOY!!