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Cheese Cake & Apricot Pastries

Top view of pastries on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Ever wonder how professional bakeries use Custards and Cheesecake fillings for their Danishes and other pastries, without the filling spreading all over? I have finally figured it out and am here to share the little secret with you!

Since fresh cheese & puff pastry is something I always have on my hand, I make these very often, but it always bothered me that my filling ran all over the edges of the pastries, making them tasty, but not very beautiful.
I theorized that if I froze the filling on top of the pastries and baked them straight out of the freezer it might fix the problem.
I tried it, and it worked! Now I keep a couple of these in my freezer, which makes for a great treat later.

Try our other Pastry recipes:

Cheese Cake & Apricot Pastries

5 from 1 vote

Puff pastry squares topped with cheesecake and apricot jam. The best pastry recipe!

Author: Marina | Let the Baking Begin
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: apricot pastries
Calories: 1048 kcal
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 20 servings

Ingredients

  • 15 x12 inches sheet of Puff Pastry
  • 1/2 packet Cream Cheese
  • 3/4 cup well drained fresh cheese Can be replaced with cream cheese or ricotta cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3-1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Apricot Jam or any thick jam

Egg Wash

To sprinkle the pastry

  • 1/4 – 1/3 cup sugar

Instructions

  1. Mix 1/2 pack cream cheese with 1/3-1/2 cup sugar, until smooth. Add 3/4 cup fresh cheese, 1 egg & 1 tsp vanilla extract. Stir everything until well combined.

  2. Cut frozen puff pastry into 3 in x 3 in squares.
  3. Put 1 full tablespoon of cheese filling right in the middle.
  4. Top with 1 teaspoon of jam.
  5. Place in the freezer until the filling is well frozen. About 1-2 hours.
  6. When ready to serve, heat oven to 400°F.

  7. To make the egg wash - whisk 1 egg & 1 tbsp water.

  8. Brush the sides of the pastry with the egg wash. Sprinkle sides of each pastry with about 1 teaspoon of sugar. Work quickly so the pastries do not thaw.
  9. Transfer squares to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, placing them 1 inch apart.
  10. Bake for 15+ minutes, until tops and bottoms are golden in color. If the tops are browned but the bottoms have not baked through, put on lower rack and cover the top with foil, until the bottoms bake through.
  11. Allow to slightly cool and serve right away.
Nutrition Facts
Cheese Cake & Apricot Pastries
Amount Per Serving
Calories 1048 Calories from Fat 648
% Daily Value*
Fat 72g111%
Saturated Fat 19g119%
Cholesterol 21mg7%
Sodium 472mg21%
Potassium 128mg4%
Carbohydrates 87g29%
Fiber 3g13%
Sugar 5g6%
Protein 15g30%
Vitamin A 65IU1%
Calcium 40mg4%
Iron 5mg28%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Marina | Let the Baking Begin

Welcome to Let the Baking Begin! I'm Marina and my love and passion for eating only the most delicious foods drive me to share that love here on Let the Baking Begin (since 2009). With over 20 years of experience in the kitchen, you know the recipes are tested and retested until perfect. I'm so happy to have you here. Enjoy! Read more...

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Comments

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  • kandy

    What is fresh cheese and what did u use

    · Reply
    • Fresh cheese is farmers cheese (they’re available at Russian stores).

      As it says in the recipe, you can use ricotta cheese instead of the farmers/fresh cheese.

      You can also use cottage cheese, but put it in a collander first and rinse out everything leaving only the curds, then press it with a fork to make it more smooth.

      · Reply
  • Maryann

    These look & sound wonderful. Can I put the pastry on parchment, cut it, separate the squares, then fill them & freeze? This way they are separated and ready to bake. Thanks

    · Reply
  • Оксана

    what exactly cheese would it be, or is it творог?

    · Reply
    • Yes it is tvorog, or drained cottage cheese, or you could use cream cheese 🙂

      · Reply
  • Nic

    How long can you keep these in the freezer? Just wondering if you can make a batch, freeze then bake several days later?

    · Reply
    • Just until the whole thing is frozen, probably about 1 hour.
      Yes, you can freeze them and bake them (without thawing) any time within the next month probably.

      · Reply
  • shirley

    I must give this a try. I love cheese, and fruit. What a great quick recipe. Thank you.

    · Reply
    • Yes, it literally comes together in a flash! Thanks for commenting Shirley!

      · Reply
  • Elaine

    Hi Marina, Does everyone but me know what “fresh” cheese is??? 🙂 Is it ricotta, marscapone, or cottage??? Sorry but I’m super anxious to try these so I can make them for a group next week. Looks quick, easy and very delicious. Thank you so much

    · Reply
    • Hi Elaine,
      When I say fresh I mean the cheese that looks like ricotta but tastes like cottage (with the distinctive tang that cottage has), but you could totally use either ricotta or if you have cottage cheese (storebought) just rinse it and then pat with paper towel to absorb the extra moisture.
      Here’s a recipe to how I make ‘fresh farmers cheese from scratch , but you can definitely make ricotta by heating milk, adding lemon juice and once it separates, putting it through a paper towel lined sieve to collect curds. Hope this helps 🙂
      By the way, fresh farmers cheese is usually sold at Russian stores if you have one around 🙂

      · Reply
      • ann

        Thanks kindly for your sharing. 🙂

        · Reply
        • No problem, thanks for stopping by!

          · Reply
  • Rachel

    Hi Marina,
    Love that you’ve come up with a way to stop the filling going everywhere! But could you please specify the amount of cream cheese? 1/2 packet of what size? I live in Australia and you can buy cream cheese in a variety of different packages and sizes.
    Thanks!
    Rach

    · Reply
  • marina

    Super! That’s what I did. Just took them out of the oven and they are beautiful!!! I don’t care that I burned my mouth biting into one while still hot, cause they are soooo good! I just love anything puff pastry and anything cheese cakey:-) Thank you! (and thanks for the quick response.)
    Btw, do you think you might ever put pictures by your recipes in the future? I just don’t have the patience clicking on each recipe to see what it is. But I do love your blog and come here often. It would be so nice ;);)
    God bless you!

    · Reply
  • marina

    Marina, could you please clarify if you are using frozen or refrigerated dough please? Yours doesn’t look frozen.
    I know the recipe says frozen, but I just took mine out of the freezer to cut into squares and it is not manageable because it is frozen. I stuck it in the fridge to let it thaw out some so I can work with it. Thank you! I’m really excited to try this.

    · Reply
    • Hi Marina,
      Let your dough thaw only as much as you need to be able to cut it, or you can thaw it completely, it doesn’t really matter, as long as you put it back in the freezer and allow both the dough and the filling to freeze entirely, before putting it in the oven.
      Oh and to thaw, you can leave it on the counter for about 10-20 minutes if it’s a flat (open) sheet or if it’s a tri-fold, then leave it out for at least 30 minutes, so that you’re able to unfold it.
      Do let me know how it all goes 🙂

      · Reply
  • Yelena

    These look so yummy! Thanks for the great tip, gotta try them out. 🙂

    · Reply
    • Thank you for your comment! Try them, you will love them!

      · Reply

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