cranberry cream cheese puff pastry bites
On New Year’s Eve, I love to spend the day snacking on appetizers and small bites. Many are savory but, of course, I need to satisfy my sweet tooth, too.
Puff pastry is the perfect vehicle for bite-sized morsels, sweet or savory. For my holiday celebration, I fill the pastry with a combination of sweetened cream cheese and barely-sweetened homemade jam. The tart and sweet flavors play well against each other. They are also pretty tasty when followed with a sip of champagne or bubbly mocktail.
Until next time, Happy New Year and happy baking!
Cranberry Cream Cheese Puff Pastry Bites
On New Year’s Eve, I love to spend the day snacking on appetizers and small bites. Many are savory but, of course, I need to satisfy my sweet tooth, too. Puff pastry is the perfect vehicle for bite-sized morsels, sweet or savory.
Servings: 18 bites
Equipment
- 2 12-cup muffin tins
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup blueberry-pomegranate juice or other berry juice
- 1 ½ cup fresh cranberries
- ¼ teaspoon lemon peel
- 1 tablespoon agave syrup
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
- 6 ounces vegan cream cheese at room temperature
- ⅓ cup vegan vanilla yogurt
- 1 pear
- 2 sheets puff pastry thawed (a 17.3 oz box)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Grease 18 cups of muffin tins very well with cooking spray.
- Place the juice, cranberries, and lemon peel in a small pot over medium-low heat. When you hear the cranberries popping, remove the pot from the stove. Mash the berries with a potato masher or the back of a spoon. Add the agave and vanilla and stir to combine.
- Put the cream cheese and yogurt in a medium bowl and stir with a spoon to combine.
- Slice the pear into thin, bite-sized shapes. (You won’t use an entire pear.)
- Unfold thawed puff pastry sheets onto a lightly floured board. Gently roll each sheet with a rolling pin to remove the creases. Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut each sheet into 9 even squares. (You should have a total of 18 squares cut out).
- Place one square of pastry into each muffin cup, pushing down slightly to form a cupped shape. Place a heaping teaspoon of cream cheese mixture onto each pastry, then follow with a heaping teaspoon of cranberry mixture and a piece of pear.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until the edges of the pastry are golden brown. Let the muffin tins cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then gently remove each pastry bite to a wire rack to cool further.
- These are best when freshly baked baked, but you can store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Notes
You can use store-bought jam if you don’t want to make the cranberry mixture. I used seedless blackberry jam for some of mine.