Homemade Strawberry Cream Tarts

I just sort of came up with these because I had some cream cheese I wanted to use up, and some homemade strawberry jam and they were sooooooo good! I will definitely be making these before my next tea party!  The pastry is crisp and flaky, filled with a sweet cream cheese filling and topped with a bit of homemade strawberry jam.  Heaven in a bite.

These are beautiful too, and would be a great dessert for a bridal shower, baby shower, or party.  If you’re feeling Sandra Lee-ish, you could buy store bought refrigerated pie crust and store bought jam.  The pie crust shouldn’t make much difference, but the jam will.  My super simple jam recipe above could be used with almost any berry, and really only takes about 10 minutes of your time and will make a huge difference in taste.

Ingredients:
Pie crust for one 9 inch pie
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup of confectioners sugar
1egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
strawberry jam (I used homemade strawberry, you could use whatever you like)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°.  Cut pie crust into 12 circles with a cookie cutter.  Butter 12 mini tart pans (39 cents a piece at Bed, Bath and Beyond) and place each dough circle inside the tart pan.  Alternatively, you could use a mini muffin tin, if you don’t have tart pans.

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla.  Cream until there are no lumps.

Fill each tart with a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture.  Do not overfill.  You want your tart filled less than halfway TOTAL with cream cheese and jam. Top with a very small amount of jam.  If you overfill, the mixture will bubble over and you will have a real mess on your hands.

Bake each tart for about 10 minutes, until pie crust edges are lightly browned.  Enjoy!