Raspberry Cream Cheese Heart Tarts are just what you want if you are looking for a perfectly fun and easy recipe to make with your kids for Valentine’s Day (or any time of the year for that matter)!
I’m one of those people who loves everything about Valentine’s Day (you may be saying, “blech” right now, but I do). Well, I’m not particularly fond of how commercial the holiday has become, but I do love all the hugs, kisses, homemade cards and, of course, sweet treats! While you can easily buy your Valentine a bag of sweet tarts with cute sayings printed on them, why not go to the store, buy fresh ingredients and then make something special with your kids instead? This year, Kenya, Chloe and I have decided to make Raspberry Cream Cheese Heart Tarts for daddy (I hope he doesn’t read this post before the 14th- eek!) to show him just how much we love him. After all, isn’t food the fastest way to a daddy’s heart?
PinPutting a spin on Pop Tarts, one of my childhood favorites, I came up with the idea of these homemade Heart Tarts. Filled with fresh raspberries and a pink icing that’s made with the juice from the raspberries instead of food coloring, if Pop Tarts had actually been made this way, my mom would have probably allowed me to eat them more often as a kid.
These are such a fun recipe activity to make with the kids. Forget the sugar-filled pastries from the store and make your own special Valentine’s treats!
PinKenya and I shot a little video of us making this recipe. It is an unbelievably easy and deliciously fun way to share the love. Just wait till you try them — I bet you won’t be saying “blech” anymore!
Raspberry Cream Cheese Heart Tarts
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup raspberries
- 1/4 cup whipped cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 box refrigerated pie dough (2 sheets), thawed if frozen (you can substitute your favorite pie crust recipe for store-bought. Make enough for 2 crusts)
- water
For Raspberry Icing:
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup frozen raspberries, defrosted
- 1 tablespoon milk or water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place the raspberries, cream cheese and honey in a bowl. Using the back of a fork, mash the raspberries with the cream cheese, leaving some pieces of raspberry intact.
- Roll the pie crust 1/4 inch thick and using a 4-inch heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out hearts (or, if you are using packaged pie crust just unroll and cut out hearts).
- Place one heart on a lightly floured work surface and place 2 tsp of the cream cheese mixture in the very center, leaving a 1/4″ border around the cut-out.
- Lightly dip your index finger into a cup of water and “brush” the border with the water (this will allow the two sides of the heart to adhere to one another).
- Top with another heart and take the tines of a fork and gently press down along the edges to adhere (making sure the cream cheese mixture stays inside the heart pocket). With a toothpick, poke some holes in the top of the heart to remove any air pockets.**
- Place on a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until golden.
- While the hearts are baking, take the defrosted raspberries, place in a strainer and press down with the back of a spoon to release raspberry juice into a bowl — should be about 2 tablespoons of juice depending on how juicy the raspberries are.
- Whisk in the milk into the raspberry juice, then slowly pour in the powdered sugar to make icing.
- When cool, take a spoon and spread the raspberry icing over the hearts.
- Serve.
Notes
- * You can use prepared Pie Crusts too such as Pillsbury or your favorite brand
- ** To Freeze: place hearts on a cookie sheet and freeze for one hour. Remove hearts and place in a ziploc bag, label and freeze up to 3 months. When ready follow steps 7-11, adding an extra 3 minutes to the baking time.
These were great! My almost three year old and I made them together and aside from the spillage there isn’t a significant difference between mine and hers. I helped her to press the edges but that was about all I had to do. You also dont need to be very careful about the filling spilling out because it peels off of the dough easily when they are done baking They are equally delicious! We will definitely be making these again. Thanks for the recipie!
Made these as an early Valentine treat & we all LOVED them! So cute, so quick, so easy, so delish! Followed the recipe to a T, BUT they were perfectly done at 15 min. Made 8 as my heart shape cutter is quite large. Tasted like strudel 🙂 Thanks for the great idea!
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It does harden. It is basically royal icing, like what you use to decorate gingerbread men! Enjoy!
does the icing harden? I’m looking for an icing to use on some cookies for my son’s birthday party and this looks perfect.
Just wanted to tell you how much we LOVED these!
Made them by the recipe with my son earlier in the week (cooked only :17 and still over-done). We made them this weekend with our niece visiting. Used blueberries & strawberries in the filling and cooked for :15 and they were PERFECT!!
Thank you! You just relieved my guilt issue around not letting my little one experience one of my fun childhood treats! These ones have such great ingredients I plan to make up a batch asap! Nice work!
Quick question, I noticed the recipe says 1/4 c cream cheese, but on the “program” it says 1/2 c cream cheese. Just wondering which is better to use? Also, the recipe says to add milk or water to the icing, but it wasn’t mentioned in the program..I’m assuming to use it, yes? Thanks! Can’t wait to taste them, they look yummy!
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[…] year, my little ones (Kenya, 3½, and Chloe, 23 months) and I have decided to make Raspberry Cream Cheese Heart Tarts for daddy to show him just how much we love […]
[…] tried making these tarts, but with blueberries, because the raspberries I bought were going bad within a day. Blueberries […]
Thank you so much for this fun and yummy recipe. I’m pregnant with my 2nd baby and I have wanted pop tarts but didn’t want to eat the store bought kind. Hubby really liked them too!
De.Lish.
Loved them! Made just past Valentine’s Day, so between that and my boys not being into hearts, I used a sandwich press to cut circles and also used it to crimp the edges. Made it even more simple!
This hearts not only came out beautiful but delicious too , thanks again Catherine! 🙂