Cherry and Cream Cheese Heart Pastry

Cherries and cream cheese are one of my favorite dessert combinations. Combine the two with pie crust and a heart-shaped cookie cutter and you get a sweet little pastry, just perfect for a Valentine’s Day Treat for someone you love.

These were fairly easy to put together, here is how I did it:

Ingredients:
1 to 2 pkgs refrigerated pie crust (depending on how many you want to make, or you could always make your own pie crust)
1 pkg. cream cheese softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla or almond extracts
1 can cherry pie filling
large heart cookie cutter
small heart cookie cutter (optional)
parchment paper
rolling-pin

Glaze
½ cup powdered sugar
2-3 tsp. milk

Instructions:

Cover cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out 2 sheets of pie crust and cut out large hearts with the cookie cutter.

In large bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/4 sugar, egg and vanilla or almond extract ( I used both). Set aside half of the heart cutouts for the top layer. Spread cream cheese mixture over the bottom layers of the pie crust hearts to 1/2 inch of the edge.

Next, top the cream cheese mixture with a tablespoon or two of the pie filling .

(Oops, blurry pic, I had the shakes from too much allergy medicine…)

With rolling-pin, lightly roll out the rest of the pie crust hearts so they are slightly bigger than the bottom ones. (They need to be bigger to fit over the toppings.) If you have a smaller heart cookie cutter, you could cut out the middle so the cherries will show through.

Lay the top piece of pie crust over the bottom so it looks like this:

Using your fingers, press the edges together. Go around the edges again with a fork for an extra strong seal.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or untill the pie crust has turned a pretty golden brown.

Let cool for about 20 minutes. While cooling, mix the glaze. Combine 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of milk until smooth. If the glaze seems to thick, add another tablespoon of milk. Drizzle the glaze over the heart pastries.