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A simple and fluffy cream cheese pastry that whips up in no time at all. Rich in flavor and with a perfect texture, this pastry is perfect for tarts, pies, or small hors d’oeuvres.
Why not use this Cream Cheese Pastry to make Butter Tarts, Strawberry Tarts, Lemon Tarts or Treacle Tarts instead?
Cream Cheese Pastry
Simple shortcrust pastry typically used to make pies and tarts are all well and good, but what do you use when you are finally bored of them?
No one has time for proper puff pastry, plus it doesn’t hold up well to heavy fillings.
What you need is a tasty, rich, and decadent crust that can be used for pies or tarts that not only holds up well to fillings but tastes amazing on its own.
Use this cream cheese pastry in place of any pie or tart pastry to make for an even better, more deliciously flavored bite every time.
Cream Cheese Pastry Ingredients
Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.
• Cream cheese
• Butter
• Granulated sugar
• All-purpose flour
How To Make Cream Cheese Pastry
• Mix together the cream cheese, sugar, and the butter until well blended
• Mix the flour in a bit at a time, until it is well incorporated
• Shape the dough into a ball, put it into a closed container or plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use
Baking The Tart Shells
• Preheat your own to 325 Fahrenheit
• Remove the Cream Cheese Pastry from the fridge and divide into 12 balls
• Press each dough ball into a deep muffin tin, pressing it into the bottom and the sides
• Bake at 325 Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes, or until the pastry is visibly golden brown
Could You Use Low Fat Ingredients?
Whenever there is a baking recipe involving lots of fatty and delicious ingredients, there is always the question of whether or not you could use low-fat substitutions instead.
While you most certainly could use low-fat cream cheese or try and sub the butter for something like margarine, you would probably regret your choice pretty quickly.
The fat in this recipe isn’t just vital for flavor; it is incredibly important for the pastry’s texture, as well as its structural integrity.
If you tried to use margarine, your pastry would probably leak and start to fall apart a bit once baked, leading to a subpar pastry shell that doesn’t hold up properly to pie fillings.
Low fat cream cheese shouldn’t really be considered at all because the fatty richness that the cream cheese contributes is vital for the pastry’s texture. Plus, low-fat cream cheese tastes pretty bad no matter what you try and do with it.
If you are worried about the calories or fat content of this recipe, the best thing to do would be to carefully monitor how much you eat and try only to cut very small slices of your pie!
How To Mix The Ingredients Together Properly
Lots of baking recipes involve mixing together a lot of butter, sugar, and other ingredients, but trying actually to do it properly can be a real challenge.
With this recipe, the easiest way to quickly mix all of your ingredients together is to use an electric mixer with the paddle attachment. The speed and intensity of the paddles will be your best bet in ensuring that everything gets mixed thoroughly.
If you don’t have a mixer, or you were unlucky enough to blow your mixer’s motor out making too much bread, then you can also do it by hand.
To make it easiest, make sure to take your butter out of the fridge at least an hour ahead of when you want to make it so as to give it enough time to come up to room temperature. If the butter is soft, then it will be much easier to mix everything together, as well as being a lot less strain on your hands.
Looking for more delicious sweet treats? Why not try these Pie recipes:
Happy Cooking
Love,
Karlynn.
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Cream Cheese Pastry
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 20 minutes
- Course
- Dessert
- Cuisine
- American
- Servings
- 12 tarts
- Calories
- 131
- Author
- Karlynn Johnston
Ingredients
- 3 oz cream cheese
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 teaspoon granulated Sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Mix together the cream cheese, sugar and butter until well blended
- Mix the four in a bit at a time until it is incorporated.
- Shape the dough into a ball, put it into a closed container or wrap it in plastic wrap and put it into the refrigerator until ready to use.
Baking Tart Shells
- Preheat your oven to 325 °F. Get out a 12 well muffin tin
- Remove the Cream Cheese Pastry from the fridge and divide it into 12 balls
- Press the dough into each one, into the bottom and up the sides
- Bake in the oven for 15-25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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Mel says
I am an American hosting my first tea and am trying out recipes for lemon tarts. (Find her recipe for the lemon curd, my first time making a filling and it was too easy, any one who had to add cornstarch didn’t cook it long enough). This was absolutely amazing! Soooo flaky and melt in your mouth-y. I softened the butter first only just barely and then used Philadelphia cream cheese spread, bc I guess that’s what I bought. (Note on butter: I’m not sure what they are adding to butter these days but it doesn’t blend the way it should any more. I threw out a whole bowl of scone batter last weekend because it was absolute garbage. I’ve switched completely to grass fed Irish butter and will never go back.) I added the flour a bit at a time like the recipe says and then formed it into 3 balls and chilled for 1/2 hr. I tried using a tartlet pan, and learned quite a few lessons. 1. Roll out the dough very thin on a floured surface and cut with a 3”circle cutter dipped in flour. 2. Prick with a fork, bc they puff up. These may seem like no brainers to the seasoned baker or even the experienced amateur, but some times the difference really lies in the technique. This recipe is definitely going right into my recipe box, laminated!!
Jeanne says
Just plain WONDERFUL!!!
Annie says
Absolute garbage recipe. The dough stays overly soft no matter how much you chill it. Pressing them into the muffin tin is more like spreading them in. Because the dough is so soft, they sink as soon as the heat hits them, so instead of little tart shells, you get pucks at the bottom of the tin with a teeny lip. The bottoms aren’t done, but the sides are almost too brown. There’s no space to put any filling in them. Total nonsense.