Mini Cream Cheese-Jam Flower Tarts
Prep Time: 25 min
Total Time: 60 min
Servings: 16
These mini flower tarts just might be the cutest dessert you'll make all season. Perfect for birthday parties, spring gatherings or Easter brunch, guests are guaranteed to "ooh" and "ahh" over the adorable sugar-dusted petals and the colourful, creamy filling.
Ingredients
- 1 box (400 g) refrigerated Pillsbury™ Pie Crusts (2 count), softened as directed on box
- 1/2 cup plus 1 to 2 teaspoons icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 60 g (one-fourth of 250 g package) cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup jam or preserves (raspberry, strawberry, blackberry, apricot), stirred well
Method
- Heat oven to 450°F (230°C). Remove one crust from pouch. On lightly floured surface, unroll crust, and roll to 12-inch circle. With 3 1/2- to 4-inch flower-shaped cookie cutter, cut 8 flowers from crust; repeat for remaining crust.
- Carefully place 1 cutout inside each of 16 ungreased mini muffin cups, staggering them every other cup among 3 pans, and firmly pressing them down into bottom. Gently fold petals flat around top of pan.
- Prick bottom and sides a few times with fork. Bake two pans 5 to 7 minutes or until light golden brown, then bake remaining pan. For all pans, cool 5 minutes in pan; gently remove shells from pan to cool on cooling rack. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
- Using fine-mesh sieve, lightly sprinkle petals with the 1 to 2 teaspoons icing sugar.
- In small bowl, beat butter and cream cheese with electric mixer on low speed 1 to 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally, until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and the 1/2 cup icing sugar; beat until smooth. Pipe or spoon 2 teaspoons of the cream cheese mixture into each shell, carefully smoothing tops. Spoon 1 teaspoon of the jam on top of cream cheese layer on each, and carefully spread to cover cream cheese filling. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Expert Tips
- If you only have 1 or 2 mini muffin pans, bake in batches and be sure to cool them completely before adding the remaining pie crust cutouts for baking. Spacing the pie cutouts in the pan allows for enough room for petals without having to overlap them.
- Pie crust shells can be made the day ahead. Store them loosely covered at room temperature before filling them the next day.
- We used a Wilton™ flower-shaped cookie cutter with more pronounced petals, which worked well and gave us the best "flower" look. The pronounced petals were easy to fold over the top edges of pan without having to stretch the pie crust too much.
- Use an assortment of jams or preserves for fun colour and flavour variety.