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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.
Course: Snack
Cuisine: Vegan
Keyword: Baking, cream cheese, New Year's Eve, puff pastry, Recipe
Servings: 18 bites
Author: The Decadent Vegan Baker

Equipment

  • 2 12-cup muffin tins
  • Rolling Pin

Ingredients

  • 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
  • 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.