These strawberry cheese puff pastry tartlets are a delicious dessert perfect for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day! Puff pastry hearts are topped with a cheese layer and fresh strawberries. They are so easy and quick to make – you’ll love them!
Ingredients
Below you will find information about the ingredients and how to prepare the recipe. For the measurements and detailed instructions scroll down to the printable recipe card.
Here’s what you need to make this easy recipe:
- Puff pastry – all-butter puff pastry tastes best but use what you have on hand.
- Cream cheese layer – it’s made with cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon zest (optional), vanilla extract, and egg yolk (egg yolk is also optional but recommended! It thickens the cheese layer and makes it taste more rich and cheesecake-like). Instead of the cream cheese layer, you could spread your puff pastry with chocolate hazelnut spread (such as Nutella).
- Fresh strawberries – instead of strawberries you could also use cherry pie filling.
- Granulated sugar for crunchy pastry edges – you could omit it and sprinkle your baked pastries with powdered sugar.
- An egg for an egg wash – thanks to that the edges of the pastry are golden brown, if you don’t have any eggs on hand, you could brush the edges with heavy cream or even a very thin layer of milk.
How to make it
First, prepare all the ingredients. Take the puff pastry out of the fridge only when you have everything ready (when it gets too warm it will be too hard to work with).
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the cheese layer: in a medium bowl, whisk together cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, and egg yolk until smooth.
(2 ounces (60g) cream cheese, 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, zest from 1/2 lemon, 1 egg yolk)
Wash strawberries, dry them with paper towels, and cut them into small cubes.
(1 cup (150g) strawberries)
Make egg wash: whisk together the egg with 1 tablespoon of water.
(1 egg + 1 tablespoon water)
Take the puff pastry sheet out of the fridge and cut out hearts. They should be about 5 inches (12 cm) long. You can use heart-shaped cutters or cut them out by hand (this is what I did).
(1 puff pastry sheet)
If at any point the dough becomes too soft and hard to work with, transfer it to a fridge for 5-10 minutes to allow it to harden.
Remove the scraps of the dough (you can use them to make cinnamon cookies, see below). Transfer the pastry hearts to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Score 1/2 inch (1 cm) border (don’t cut all the way through), prick the middle of the tartlets with a fork.
Spoon the cheese filling in the middle of the tartlets, omitting the borders.
Place strawberries on top of the cheese filling.
Brush the borders of the pastries with the egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar.
(1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar)
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Enjoy!
What to do with leftover pastry
There are plenty of small leftover puff pastry pieces when you cut out the hearts. Don’t throw them out and use them to make delicious cinnamon sugar cookies.
How to do it: cut off really thin pieces of dough. Divide the dough into uniformly sized pieces (more or less, see photo below). Brush the pieces on both sides with the remaining egg wash then sprinkle generously with cinnamon and granulated sugar. Bake for 20 minutes at 375°F (190°C) or until golden brown.
Storage
Enjoy these pastries at their best right after baking. Although they may lose their crunch over time, you can reheat them in the oven to restore crispiness. Please note that after a couple of hours, the strawberries may not look as appetizing.
It’s best to bake them right before serving. You can prepare all the ingredients ahead and assemble them before you plan on baking them.
Top tips for working with puff pastry
- Puff pastry dough likes cold temperatures. If you leave it out of the fridge for too long it will become soft and sticky. Make sure you have everything ready before taking the pastry out of the fridge.
- Don’t put too much strawberries on the pastry or it may turn soggy.
- Homemade puff pastry or all-butter puff pastry is more sticky than store-bought puff pastry made with shortening. If at any point the dough becomes too soft and hard to work with, transfer it to a fridge for 5-10 minutes to allow it to harden. I recommend searching for an all-butter puff pastry, as it tastes so much better than shortening puff pastry.
- If you’re using frozen puff pastry, you must first thaw it completely, preferably in the fridge overnight.
More delicious Valentine’s Day desserts
- Valentine’s Day Cookies (Heart Cookies)
- Apples in Puff Pastry (with chocolate nut filling)
- Strawberry Crepes
- Chocolate chip cookie cake with chocolate frosting
- Linzer Cookies
- Chocolate crepes with vanilla cottage cheese and raspberry sauce
- Chocolate omelet
- Chocolate lava cake (oven or Instant Pot)
- Chocolate Covered Strawberries Recipe
Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!
Valentine’s Strawberry Puff Pastry Hearts
Ingredients
- 1 puff pastry sheet
- 2 ounces (60g) cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest from 1/2 lemon optional
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup (150g) strawberries
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
Instructions
- First prepare all the ingredients. Take puff pastry out of the fridge only when you have everything ready (when it gets too warm it will be too hard to work with).
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Make the cheese layer: in a medium bowl, whisk together cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, and egg yolk until smooth.2 ounces (60g) cream cheese, 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, zest from 1/2 lemon, 1 egg yolk
- Wash strawberries, dry with paper towels, and cut into small cubes.1 cup (150g) strawberries
- Make egg wash: whisk together the egg with 1 tablespoon of water.1 egg
- Take the puff pastry sheet out of the fridge and cut out hearts. They should be about 5 inches (12 cm) long. You can use heart-shaped cutters or cut them out by hand (this is what I did). See photos in the body of the post for reference.1 puff pastry sheet
- If at any point the dough becomes too soft and hard to work with, transfer it to a fridge for 5-10 minutes to allow it to harden.
- Remove the scraps of the dough (you can use them to make cinnamon cookies, see notes). Transfer the pastry hearts to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Score 1/2 inch (1 cm) border (don’t cut all the way through), prick the middle of the tartlets with a fork.
- Spoon the cheese filling in the middle of the tartlets, omitting the borders.
- Place strawberries on top of the cheese filling.
- Brush the borders of the pastries with the egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar.1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- How to make cinnamon cookies from leftover puff pastry dough: cut off really thin pieces of dough. Divide the dough into uniformly sized pieces (more or less, see photo below). Brush the pieces on both sides with the remaining egg wash then sprinkle generously with cinnamon and granulated sugar. Bake for 20 minutes at 375°F (190°C) or until golden brown.
- Enjoy these pastries at their best right after baking. Although they may lose their crunch over time, you can reheat them in the oven to restore crispiness. Please note that after a couple of hours, the strawberries may not look as appetizing. It’s best to bake them right before serving. You can prepare all the ingredients ahead and assemble before you plan on baking them.
- Calories = 1 pastry (1/6 of the recipe). This is only an estimate!
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