bakingwithtradition.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a way for websites to earn advertising revenues by advertising and linking to recommended products. Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

You’ll love this easy cream cheese pastry for it’s tender flaky layers with a little bit of cream cheese tang.

I’m a long documented hater of pie crust. Every pie I’ve eaten my whole life, I’ve only eaten the filling. My standard line is, “Why would I eat pie when I can have strudel?” The flavor and the texture of pie crust just do not appeal to me at all, that is until I started making puff pastry and this cream cheese pastry.

Cream cheese dough not only has the glorious buttery layers going for it, it has CREAM CHEESE, the Lord’s blessed gift to a bagel. That cheese not only adds that little bit of tang that’s so doggone delicious, it adds a tenderness and a contrast to your filly that’s just plain lovely.

You can make this dough into pies, of course, though I think it really shines as a crust for quiches like these Green Chile Mini Quiches or Bacon Spinach Quiche. I’ve also used it for homemade pop tarts (yum!), and of course, the classic Rugelach, those incredible jam filled croissant shaped Jewish holiday cookies. Believe me, I’ve rolled a lot of rugelach, and I will never stop making them at Christmas!

So grab a brick of Philly, and let’s make some cream cheese dough.

Cream Cheese Pastry

Why you might break up with pie dough forever after making a batch of cream cheese dough

cream cheese pastry dough disk with block of cream cheese and folding dough onto itself with plastic and text overlay

It’s easier to make: pie dough is one of those quixotic “by feel” recipes that can be intimidating for novice bakers. For traditional pie crust after you’ve cut your fat into the flour, you add a bit of cold liquid until it’s just right. How much you add can have you scratching your head. You’ll be asking, “Is it too wet? Is it too dry?” Who knows; you’ll just have to make 20 pies to figure it out. You NEVER have to troubleshoot like that with cream cheese pastry. The cream cheese hydrates the dough enough that it comes together without any additional liquid. No head-scratching.
It’s fun: My students never tire of pulling out the cheese grater blade for the Cuisinart. I swear, there’s a hush over the kitchen every time we use it. It beats using a hand grater for biscuits!
Actually tastes good: Cream cheese and good butter for the win.

Just 3 ingredients for cream pastry

Flour: all-purpose
Cream Cheese
Butter: unsalted

Why the food processor is your friend

Keeping things cold: Frozen butter blended into the dough creates beautiful flaky layers every baker tries to achieve. The food processor is the fastest way to get ultra cold butter–that is barely thawed frozen butter into the flour. Every other way–pastry blenders, grating frozen butter or using your hands produces more mechanical heat that melts the butter. That cold butter then creates steam to lift the dough into distinct layers when it bakes.
Less mess: The food processor largely contains the mess, and the plastic wrap keeps your counter free of gloopy mixes.
Speed: aside from waiting for the butter to warm up just enough to put it through the food processor, you can make this dough in about 5 minutes of active work.

Tips for making cream cheese dough

Cream cheese temp: Take the cream cheese straight from the fridge. Frozen cream cheese won’t blend well enough to stick and room temp won’t be as flaky. Cold from the fridge is perfect.
Set out butter for a short time: butter straight from the freezer will put a lot of strain on your food processor. Also it’ll sound like you’re grating metal. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes, and it’ll be perfect.
Split your flour: Putting the flour in the bottom of the work bowl keeps the butter and cheese from sticking and helps you start to form the dough. Pulse the cold cream cheese with half the flour to make pea sized pieces. Next grate the butter into the other half. Toss the two mixes briefly in a mixing bowl, and then you can pulse everything together for a few seconds until you see the flour just barely disappear and the butter looks very finely chopped.
Plastic wrap kneading: Use plastic wrap to gather the dough, then use it to press and fold the dough together. Doing it this way means less mess and no extra flour added to the dough, plus it’ll be already wrapped for chilling.

folding cream cheese pastry together in plastic

Recipes you can use cream cheese dough for

Cream Cheese Pastry

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

No reviews

Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: 20 minutes +20 minutes chilling
Yield: 1 1/2 pounds 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Tangy cream cheese adds some flavor to this easy to make flaky dough that’s perfect for pies, rugelach and other pastries. You’ll love the no-guesswork method of making pie crust.

Ingredients

Scale

2 cups flour (260 g)
8 oz cream chese (227 g)
2 sticks butter, frozen (227 g)

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Set out the butter on the counter for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile measure the flour in a small bowl. Place half the flour in the bottom of a food processor. Break up the cream cheese into 8 chunks. Pulse it about 10 times with the flour in the food processor until it looks crumbly. Dump the cream cheese mix into a large bowl.
Scoop the rest of the flour into the bottom of the processor, and then fit the machine with the grating disk. Grate the butter into the machine. Break up the leftover pieces of butter at the bottom of the disc into 1/2″ pieces.
Dump the butter mix into the large bowl, and then toss everything together.
Fit the machine with a dough blade. Fill the machine with about half the pastry mix, running the machine for 12-15 seconds just until the flour disappears. You’ll see the butter cut into very fine pieces and the dough at the top of the bowl should look hydrated. It’s okay if there’s a little bit of flour at the bottom of the bowl. Repeat with the rest of the mix.
Set out two large pieces of plastic wrap on the counter. Press the pieces together so that they stick together, forming a large square of plastic.
Dump the pastry mix into the middle of the plastic. Gather the plastic around the mix, then press down to stick the dough together.
Use the plastic to fold the dough in half in one direction. Press down to form the dough into one oblong piece. Rotate the dough 90 degrees, and then repeat the folding process. You’ll notice that the dough is holding together better at this point and is no longer crumbly.
From here, press the dough into a rough disk. Chill the dough at least 20 minutes, or freeze it for up to 2 months before using. Thaw frozen dough in the fridge overnight before using it.