Strawberry Cream Cheese Heart Pastries

I love to bake special treats for Valentine’s Day. These Strawberry Cream Cheese Heart Pastries are the perfect sweets for my sweeties!

These pastry hearts look fancy, but they’re really not that hard to make. The key is frozen puff pastry.

You also need two heart-shaped cookie cutters—one big and one small. Use the big one to cut out large hearts from the sheets of puff pastry, and then use the smaller one to cut little hearts out of the middles of half the big ones. That makes a little bowl in the top of each pastry to hold the filling.

Speaking of the filling, it’s a simple mixture of cream cheese, sugar, strawberry jelly, and vanilla extract. You just put a dollop in the center of each heart-shaped opening and add a few strawberry slices on top.

Then give the hearts a nice coating of egg wash and bake until golden. A drizzle of basic sugar icing (powdered sugar blended with cream) finishes them off. The finished pastries are light, tender, and sweet—everything a heart should be.

Storage Instructions:

These Strawberry cream cheese Hearts are best enjoyed fresh the same day they are made. However, you can store them in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to 3 days. They may lose their fresh taste the longer they are stored in the refrigerator. I do not recommend freezing them, they do not keep their fluffy fresh texture when frozen.

STRAWBERRY CREAM CHEESE HEART PASTRIES

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place puff pastry sheets on a flat surface and use a large heart cookie cutter to cut 6 heart shapes from each sheet.

Using a smaller heart cookie cutter, cut a small heart out of the center of 6 of the larger puff pastry hearts to create a heart outline.

Place the heart outlines over the full hearts and place them in a refrigerator while you make the filling.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, mix the softened cream cheese, granulated sugar, strawberry jelly, and vanilla extract until smooth.

Remove the puff pastry hearts from the refrigerator and place 2-3 tablespoons of the cream cheese mixture into the center of each heart. Do not spread the cream cheese mixture out, it will melt outward once baked.

Slice strawberries and place 1-3 strawberry slices over the cream cheese mixture on each of the puff pastry hearts, do not press them down into the cream cheese.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water to create an egg wash. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash over each puff pastry. Make sure to avoid brushing the egg wash over the cream cheese center, only brush it over the exposed puff pastry.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until the puff pastry has puffed and is golden brown.

Once they are baked, set them aside to cool slightly while you make the frosting.

In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar with the heavy cream until well-mixed. You can add more sugar or cream to achieve the desired consistency. Drizzle the icing over the hearts using a spoon or piping bag.

Serve warm or at room temperature.