Stone Fruit + Cream Cheese Puff Pastry Recipe

Sinkology is proud to present Emily Schuermann, our food-loving guest blogger who runs Food for a Year. Emily is here to share some recipes she has created exclusively for the Sinkology blog that reflect her view of a copper sink: simple, timeless, affordable, and beautifully rustic.

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I love it when a breakfast item is so heavenly it can be easily interchanged as a dessert but if eaten at the beginning of the day it’s still totally acceptable. For instance, eating a slab of triple-layer chocolate cake slathered with the most perfect old-fashioned milk chocolate buttercream at 8:30 in the morning is going to get a few double-takes. But a lemony cream cheese filled pastry topped with the sweetest summer stone fruit? Totally acceptable.

Not only are these pastries delicious, they’re gorgeous too. And the best part?? They’re so simple to make! Believe me, the hardest part of this recipe is cleaning a few dishes when the cooking is complete. That’s my favorite type of recipe – quick, simple and yummy.

To start, select a variety of seasonal stone fruit. I chose white & yellow nectarines as well as two types of cherries. Fresh plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries and apricots are all a great choice. Just pick whatever stone fruit that’s ripe and looks the prettiest.

Give the fruit a rinse, pat dry & set aside.

For this recipe, you’ll need 2 sheets of puff pastry and one 8 ounce block of cream cheese. Follow the package instructions for thawing the puff pastry (allow for 30-45 minutes to thaw, depending on the brand used). While the puff pastry is thawing, set out the cream cheese so that it’s brought up to room temperature. 

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 400° and begin pitting and slicing your fruit. I know ovens don’t usually take 30 minutes to preheat, but puff pastry does best in a hot oven. Preheating the oven a little longer than normal helps it to maintain this higher temperature even when it’s opened and closed to bake these pastries.

Once the pastry and cream cheese are ready & the fruit is sliced, this recipe comes together in a flash.

Combine the cream cheese filling ingredients:

• 2 T cream
• 1½ c powdered sugar
• pinch of kosher salt
• 2 t vanilla
• zest of 1 lemon

I used a stand mixer to combine the filling – which created a fluffy, lump-free filling. But, if you’d prefer to burn a few extra calories before enjoying this yummy treat, mixing by hand will work nicely as well.

Next, roll out the puff pastry, smoothing out the seams. Using a knife, cut the pastry into 6 equal rectangles and score a ½”-border around the edge of each rectangle. This extra step helps create the puffy, crisp crust. Prick the inside of each pastry with a fork and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet 2″ apart. Pricking the center keeps the pastry from puffing up during baking.

If using both sheets of puff pastry, repeat these steps with the second sheet.

Top each pastry with 2-3 tablespoons of filling, taking care not to get any past the scored edge. 

Top each pastry with a mix of seasonal stone fruit and brush the edges with a beaten egg. Finish by sprinkling the edges of the pastry and the fruit with turbinado sugar.

Bake in a 400° preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Serve right away or refrigerate and reheat 3-5 minutes at 300°.

For the record, as much as I LOVE chocolate cake — I would pick one of these for dessert every single time. There’s just something about those warm bites of fresh cherry and nectarine. When combined with the sweetened cream cheese, a hint of lemon and the buttery crunch of puff pastry it satisfies the soul and the tum like no other.