The best cream cheese pastry is made of silky, rich filling topped with fragrant, sweet summer fruits on a shatteringly crisp buttery shell. This absolutely heavenly treat is surprisingly easy to put together and bakes up in no time at all. When fruits are out of season, you can sub in jam or pie filling or go wild and add Nutella!
Cream Cheese Pastry
The possibilities for topping these brunch superstar pastries are nearly endless. From fresh blueberries to stone fruits to jam, preserves, pie filling, or even Nutella, you can customize these as you wish!
If you opt for strawberries, hull them and cut them into slices. If you use smaller berries like blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, there’s no need to prepare them in any way. Just plunk them whole onto the cream cheese filling in whatever pattern you like.
When you use really fresh seasonal fruit, adding a scattering of fresh thyme leaves really plays beautifully with it. Do use a light hand, though, because we just want a hint of herbal fragrance, not a full-on salad.
When using stone fruit, I recommend leaving the skin on. Cut your stone fruit in half, remove the pit, and then slice thinly. You can overlap the slices on the pastry as shown in the photos.
Cream Cheese Puff Pastry
When I tell you this pastry is easy, I mean it. Oh sure, you can do some fancy pants shaping, but you don’t have to. It can be as easy as scoring a rectangle inside the larger rectangle and then jabbing (docking) the inside rectangle with a fork to allow steam to escape. When you dock the dough, you get that coveted crisp pastry that shatters when you bite it.
But if you want to give your cream cheese puff pastry a little more visual interest, the option is there. To do this, you cut your dough into squares rather than rectangles.
First, fold each square in half -corner to corner- to form a triangle. Next, starting about half an inch down and inside from the top corner, slice a half inch strip. Repeat this on the other side of the triangle as shown in the photos below.
Then open the square and gently brush your egg wash along the inside of the square. Lift one side of the outer square and fold over to match up with the corner of the inside square. Gently press this, then repeat with the other side. Voila! Fancy twisted end pastry!
Don’t worry about being over-precious and precise while making these. There’s a certain amount of rustic charm that your pastries will take on when they’re a little imperfect.
Peach Puff Pastry
My two favourite versions of this cream cheese pastry are blueberry and peach. When peaches are fresh and in season, there simply isn’t anything better.
While I do not recommend making this with canned or frozen peaches when they’re out of season, it is quite nice with peach pie filling or jam. Just dollop a generous tablespoon onto your cream cheese filling.
Puff Pastry Danish
This “out of season” substitution uses the same method you’ll use for Nutella. After you dollop whatever sweet accent you want on the cream cheese, swirl a little with a toothpick, butter knife, or skewer and bake as instructed!
If you’re looking for some more excellent breakfast and brunch offerings, look no further. Flavourful and delicious, simple to make, nutritious, and gentle to your wallet, homemade Turkey Breakfast Sausage makes breakfast easy and tasty!
If you have extra puff pastry, try Breakfast Hot Pockets. It’s hard to beat flaky puff pastry pockets filled with cheesy scrambled eggs, green onions, and breakfast sausage.
Overnight Taco Breakfast Enchiladas are the happy marriage of breakfast egg-bakes, taco flavours, and enchiladas all together in one convenient, delicious package that is assembled the night before it bakes, leaving you to dream of satisfying, hearty breakfasts with no more work than sliding a pan in the oven!
And it’s not a festive breakfast without some memorable drinks. Try Dulce de Leche Chai Latte or Slow Cooker Mulled Apple Cider once the weather starts getting cooler.
Cream Cheese Puff Pastry
Rate RecipeIngredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- fresh berries or stone fruit If using stone fruit, you can peel them or leave the peel on as desired, but you'll need to remove the pit and thinly slice the fruit.
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup turbinado sugar
- 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- fresh thyme leaves optional but tasty
Instructions
- Thaw the puff pastry according to package instructions.
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line 2 half sheet pans with parchment and set aside.
- Beat the cream cheese with the granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk, lemon juice, and vanilla extract or vanilla paste until well combined. The easiest method is to transfer to a piping bag or gallon zipper top bag then snip the corner off of the piping bag or zipper top bag. Otherwise, you'll need to spoon and spread the filling, which is fine, just a little more time consuming.
- Unfold the puff pastry and cut each sheet into 6 rectangles. Arrange the rectangles on the prepared sheet pan, leaving ample room around each rectangle to allow it to expand as it bakes. Use a sharp knife to score a rectangle inside each dough rectangle, leaving a 1/2-inch rim. Take care not to cut all the way through the dough, just score it.
- Pipe or spoon about 2 tablespoons of the cream cheese filling inside the scored rectangle. If you've spooned it, gently spread it to the edges of the inside rectangle. Arrange the berries or thinly sliced stone fruit over the cream cheese filling.
- Whisk together the whole egg with a teaspoon of water. Brush over the rim around the side -but not the edges- of the pastry, and sprinkle with the raw sugar.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is puffed, set, and deeply golden brown. Let the pastries rest on the pan for 5 minutes while you whisk together the confectioner’s sugar and the milk. Drizzle over the finished pastries.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat leftovers at 350ºF for 5 to 10 minutes.
- If you want a pop of colour and a beautiful accent to your seasonal fruit, sprinkle lightly with fresh thyme leaves.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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