These cranberry brie puff pastry tarts are altogether sweet, savory, salty, buttery, and flaky. You can use store-bought puff pastry, but if you can spare a few hours for the dough to chill in the refrigerator, I urge you to try this surprisingly simple homemade puff pastry instead. Finished with a sparkle of coarse sugar and flaky sea salt, these cheesy handheld tartlets will steal the show at any holiday gathering.
Today we’re taking a pie hiatus (pie-atus?!) from dessert with these cranberry brie puff pastry tarts. Pies and tarts shouldn’t be limited to dessert—that’s why we can enjoy recipes like quiche, cheesy vegetable tart, and chicken pot pie. Today’s personal-sized tartlets are perfect as an appetizer before the main meal, or offered on a tray at a cocktail party. They’d be right at home among your favorite Thanksgiving side dishes, or also be a fun sweet-savory addition to your dessert table full of Thanksgiving pies.
Why You’ll Love These Cranberry Brie Puff Pastry Tarts
- Texture: You can actually hear the crispy texture of baked puff pastry. When you bite into it, the delicately light layers crackle as they separate, a full-on sensory experience! That crispy flaky texture holds a soft interior—melty brie cheese and jammy cranberries.
- Flavor: Buttery, creamy brie cheese pairs beautifully with sweet, fruity cranberry sauce with hints of orange. A sprinkling of coarse sugar, flaky sea salt, and fresh thyme take all these flavors to new heights. You can also add pecans for a little nuttiness. (You may already have enough nuttiness at your holiday gatherings, but a little more couldn’t hurt, right? 😉 )
- Ease: Making the cranberry sauce is very easy, and you can do it ahead of time. If you use store-bought puff pastry dough, the entire recipe is quick and convenient for beginner bakers. With the homemade puff pastry dough, I’d categorize this tart as intermediate-level baking. It’s not complicated at all; it just requires shaping and precise folding.
Look how flaky! This is my homemade puff pastry dough.
You Can Make the Puff Pastry From Scratch
You can use store-bought puff pastry for these tarts, but homemade puff pastry is next-level good.. Hundreds of readers have tried the homemade dough and are pleasantly surprised with its ease. (It was a community baking challenge recipe one year!) If you can find a few hours, which can easily be broken up over a couple days, try the homemade dough..
Here’s Everything You Need for Today:
Make Your Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Have you made this cranberry sauce before? It’s a family favorite, and it’s really quick and easy. For these tarts, I halved the recipe because you don’t need as much (this version yields a heaping 1/2 cup, or 180g), but feel free to make the full recipe from that post if you are also going to be serving cranberry sauce with your meal. You can make this ahead of time because it keeps well in the refrigerator.
FAQ: Should I Leave the Rind on the Brie?
Cheese aficionados say yes, absolutely. The bloomy rind is there intentionally and its earthy flavor is meant to complement the soft cheese inside. But you’re in charge of your flaky little cheese tarts, so if you want to cut the rind off, go ahead. The tarts will be tasty either way.
How to Assemble the Cranberry Brie Tarts
Roll out the dough to be *about* 12×16 inches:
Cut the dough into 12 roughly equal 4-inch squares. A pizza cutter is a handy tool for this. Brush egg wash on top of each, and then transfer them to a 12-cup standard-size muffin pan.
Squares don’t have to be perfect; mine never are!
Don’t Forget Your Finishing Touches!
You’re almost done.
After the cranberry brie tarts have finished baking, sprinkle some chopped fresh thyme and flaky sea salt on top, and serve immediately. They taste best warm, but that shouldn’t be a problem… in my experience, they’ve never lasted long enough to get cold!!
I hope you LOVE these.
Cranberry Brie Puff Pastry Tarts Recipe
Ingredients You’ll Need
Instructions
- Prepare homemade rough puff pastry dough through 2nd refrigeration. If using store-bought frozen puff pastry, make sure it’s thawed. Keep either dough in the refrigerator until step 4 below.
- After rinsing the cranberries, set 1/4 cup (25g) cranberries aside. You will stir these in at the end for extra texture. Combine the remaining cranberries, water, orange juice, and sugar together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally as the mixture comes to a simmer. Once simmering, reduce heat to medium-low. While stirring occasionally, continue to cook until liquid has reduced and cranberries have burst and thickened, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup reserved cranberries, orange zest, and vanilla extract. Allow to cool slightly while you continue.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Grease a 12-cup muffin pan (I use nonstick spray).
- On a lightly floured work surface using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll pastry dough into a 12×16-inch rectangle; it doesn’t have to be perfect. (Tip if using 2 sheets of store-bought: place the edge of one sheet over the other and use a rolling pin to adhere them together. Roll the whole thing out into a 12×16-inch rectangle.) With a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, cut dough into 12 4-inch squares. (Again, doesn’t have to be perfect.)
- Brush egg wash all over puff pastry squares, including the edges. Transfer the squares to the prepared muffin pan, pressing them down to fill each cup as a “crust.” Slice the brie into 12 pieces, about 1/2 ounce (14g) each. Place the slices of brie in the centers of the dough crusts. Top each with a spoonful (about 2 heaping teaspoons) of slightly warm or cold cranberry sauce. Gently fold the corners of the dough in toward the center of each tart. Sprinkle coarse sugar over the tops of tarts.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until tarts are golden brown. If adding pecans, at the 10-minute mark, gently place them in the center of each tart and continue baking for the remaining 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and garnish each tart with flaky sea salt and fresh thyme leaves. Cool for a couple minutes, and then use a spoon to help remove the tarts from the pan. Serve warm.
- Cover and store leftover tarts in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. To reheat, cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 300°F (149°C) oven for a few minutes before serving.
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