Strawberry Sweetheart Pastries

Courtesy of Prince Edward Island Preserve Company  🍓♥️

Serves 6 

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet puff pastry
• ½ cup cream cheese, softened
• 3 tbsp strawberry jam*
• 2/3 cup finely diced strawberries
• 1 large egg, whisked with 1 tbsp water

Directions:

1. Thaw puff pastry according to package directions. 
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. While puff pastry is thawing, use a rubber spatula to mix cream cheese and 2 tablespoons strawberry jam in a small bowl. Then, mix the other 1 tablespoon of jam with the diced strawberries.
4. Roll out and smooth puff pastry. Using a 3-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut pastry into heart shapes. Transfer hearts to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart.
5. Using a sharp paring knife, lightly score a heart inside each cut-out heart coming about 1/3-inch from the edge, without cutting entirely through the bottom of the dough.
6. Add 1 tsp of the cream cheese mixture to the center of each heart and spread outward without covering the 1/3-inch edge.
7. Add strawberries over the cream cheese layer, again without covering the edge. 
8. Brush the 1/3-inch edge with egg/water mixture.
9. Bake in a preheated oven for 14 to 15 minutes until the edges are golden brown. 

Let cool on a wire rack. Best served the day they are prepared.