Cream Cheese and Cherries-Oh My!

Sometimes you just want something sweet!

I LOVE fresh cherries.  I would eat my body weight in them every year if I could!  One of the first batches of cherries this year were so tart, I couldn’t eat them.

Rather than toss them, I decided to craft a pretty little tart with on-hand ingredients.  Let me tell you how!

To make my Cherry Cream Cheese Tart, put a sheet of puff pastry into a greased tart pan.  press the pastry into the flutes and trim the top.

Be sure to dock the pastry so it won’t puff up during baking.

Prepare the cream cheese filling by beating with sugar and an egg.

Pour the filling into the prepared pan, then sugar the sour cherries.

Spoon the cherry mixture on top.

Bake the tart at 400 degrees until it is golden brown, goodness!

Enjoy!

Cherry Cream Cheese Tart

1 sheet puff pastry

1 8-ounce package cream cheese

½ cup powdered sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla, divided

2 ½ cups sour cherries, pitted and cut in ½

½ cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a non-stick tart pan.  Unfold puff pastry and place in the tart pan.  Press the pastry into all of the crevasses of the pan, remove the excess pastry and dock with a fork.  In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese with powdered sugar, egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  In a separate bowl, toss the cherries with the granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Pour the cream cheese filling into the prepared tart pan.  Next, gently spoon cherries on top.  Place tart pan on parchment lined baking sheet and into the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the cheese is puffed and browned.  Allow the tart to cool completely before removing from the pan to slice and serve.  Store in the refrigerator.

Tip– This recipe can be made with sweet cherries too.  For sweet cherries, reduce the granulated sugar to ¼ cup and add the zest from 1 lemon and 1 tablespoon lemon juice to the cherries.