Cream cheese tarts with berry filling

Delicate cream cheese pastry, easy berry filling. Five ingredients.

These cream cheese tarts take me back to the Sixties, when my parents hosted bridge parties and the hostesses vied to outdo each other by making their specialties. I always loved it when it was my parents’ turn to host, as I thought these were the most elegant affairs. I loved to sit quietly and listen to the adult conversation, see the fancy treats and the gleaming coffee service, and sneak one of these cream cheese tarts off the engraved silver tray.

With only five ingredients, they’re also super easy. With Mother’s Day coming up, they remind me of my mom. Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

I recently made them for a benefit for The Sophia Leadership Camp for Girls. For that party I made mini-tartlets in several flavors. If you want to switch up the flavors, the original recipe simply calls for jam or marmalade to be spooned in as filling. I find them to be too sweet with real jam. I made loquat jam (recipe follows) to fill some (dark orange in the photo), used Trader Joe’s Superfruit Spread for some (dark purple). But the best were the mixed berry (bottom), using fresh fruit and just a small amount of that same fruit-only preserves for body. That’s what I describe in the recipe below.

My thanks to Shannon Hope Jones of Live By Hope Photography for allowing me to use her lovely photos for this post.

Suitable for:

low-sodium, migraine, gluten-free, reduced-sugar, vegetarian diets

Not for:

vegan, paleo, grain-free diets (Note: You could try using vegan margarine and vegan cream cheese. I haven’t tested that combination and can’t guarantee the results. Try a half recipe as a test.)

Loquat Jam

1 cup loquat fruit, peeled and seeded
1/2 cup filtered water
1/2 cup brown rice syrup, agave syrup, coconut syrup, or honey
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp dried ginger

1. Pulse all ingredients in a blender. You can blend until smooth or leave a little chunky, to your taste.
2. Bring mixture to a boil in a small heavy saucepan.
3. Turn down just until it’s barely bubbling.
4. Cook up to 2 hours, checking every 15 minutes after one hour.
5. When the mixture is not quite as thick as jam, remove from the stove and spoon into a clean, heat-proof glass jar to store. It will thicken as it cools.

You might also like:

Strawberry-almond cream tart from Cooking Light

Cream cheese tarts with berry filling

4 from 4 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 13 minutes mins

Total Time 23 minutes mins

Course Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine American

Servings 18 tarts

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (gluten-free) (140 g) Bob's Red Mill
• 4 ounces butter (unsalted) grass fed, such as KerryGold
• 3 ounces cream cheese grass-fed and organic if possible
• 1 cup blueberries or mixed berries (135 g) (no raspberries for migraine diet)
• 2 tbsp fruit-only jam fruit-juice sweetened

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 400F/200C/gas mark 6. Lightly grease muffins tins with the butter wrapper.
• Using long pulses, blend flour, butter, and cream cheese in food processor until it comes together in a ball.
• Knead lightly just a few times with your floured hands.
• Roll out on a board dusted with fine white rice flour to 1/8" (3 mm) thick. Use just enough flour on your hands, the board, your rolling pin, and the cutter to keep the dough from sticking.
• Cut with a floured glass that is just slightly larger than the diameter of the muffin tin at the top opening. Use a metal spatula or bench scraper to pick up each circle of dough.
• Gently press each circle into the muffin tins.
• Bake 5 minutes, then remove to add the filling.
• Blend berries with berry spread and 2 tbsp (30 ml) filtered water until very smooth.
• Spoon about 1/2 tbsp into regular-sized tarts, 1 tsp into tartlets, distributing fill evenly among the tarts.
• Bake another 5-8 minutes until golden brown.
• Cool on wire racks.
• Loosen tarts with a butter knife or small offset spatula to remove from pan.

Notes

Per tart (muffin-tin size):

• 91 calories
• 7 g fat
• 4 g saturated fat
• 2 g monounsaturated fat
• 0 g polyunsaturated fat
• 0 g trans fat
• 19 g cholesterol
• 70 mg sodium
• 17 mg potassium
• 7 g carbohydrate
• 1 g fiber
• 1 g sugars
• 1 g protein
• 3 Weight Watchers Points Plus

Calculated using Trader Joe's Superfruit Fruit-Only Spread.

This makes 36 mini-tartlets if you have mini-muffin pans and want to make them for a party.