Cranberry and Cheese Puff Pastry Bites

Ingredients Needed

For the Amaretto Cranberry Sauce

• Fresh or Frozen Whole Cranberries. We’re using fresh cranberries to make a delicious homemade cranberry sauce. During the fall you may find bags of fresh cranberries in your store’s produce area. Otherwise, check by the frozen fruit or pie making ingredients.
• Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice. Cranberry and orange are a wonderful flavor combination, and using fresh squeeze juice adds such a nice fresh and citrusy pop to our sauce.
• Granulated Sugar. Adds sweetness to our cranberry sauce and helps to balance out the tartness of the cranberries.
• Ground Cinnamon, Ground Nutmeg, and Salt. We’re using a few simple spices to add fall flavor to our sauce and enhance the overall flavor of our Thanksgiving appetizer recipe.
• Amaretto Liqueur. Adding in a little splash of booze to cranberry sauce is pretty common, but using Amaretto makes this recipe extra special! The almond flavor from the liqueur really adds to the overall flavor of our sauce and our puff pastry appetizer.

For the Rest of the Puff Pastry Bites

• Cheese of Choice. We’re showing our bites with a local cheese that we love, Wood River Creamery Gouda Gruyere, but you have lots of great options! Puff pastry with cranberry and brie is a popular combination. You can also use gouda cheese, gruyere cheese, or try a plain goat cheese too!
• One Sheet of Frozen Puff Pastry. Frozen puff pastry is so delicious and easy to use! Just be sure to set it out to thaw when you start your cranberry sauce (this usually takes about 30-40 minutes at room temperature) so you can keep the process moving.
• Large Egg. Used for an egg wash, which gives our puff pastry that beautiful golden-brown hue when baked.
• Fresh Rosemary Sprigs for Garnish. This gives our puff pastry appetizers a cute pop of color and makes them look extra festive.

See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredient measurements and directions.

Recipe Variations to Try

• Top with nuts. If desired, add chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds, or pistachios on top of the cranberry sauce before baking for another textural element.
• Use a cranberry sauce you already have in the fridge! If you don’t want to make the amaretto cranberry sauce outlined in the recipe card, or you happen to already have some sitting in your fridge, you can use whatever your family’s go-to cranberry sauce is! You’ll need about 1 Cup of cranberry sauce to make these.
• Use a different pastry base. You can also make this recipe using a tube of crescent dough! I also think it’d work well with the pre-made phyllo dough cups that are already mini muffin tin sized too.

How to Cranberry and Cheese Puff Pastry Bites

Be sure you’ve set your puff pastry out to thaw while you start on the cranberry sauce.

 Add all cranberry sauce ingredients (except the Amaretto) to a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.

Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium-low and cover to cook (this helps the cranberries burst!). Stir occasionally, smashing the cranberries with the back of the spoon, until the cranberries are mostly broken down (about 10 minutes).

Stir in the Amaretto and cook for a few more minutes with the lid off to help release steam and let the sauce thicken a bit. 

Set the sauce aside to cool and continue to thicken.

Preheat your oven to 375°F, and generously grease 24 mini muffin cups and set aside (make sure to get all sides and the bottoms of each muffin cup).

Roll out the thawed puff pastry dough into about a 10″ x 14″ rectangle. Cut the shorter side into 4 even strips, and cut the long side into 6 even strips.

This will create 24 puff pastry squares (each square will be about 2 ½ inches on each side, but they don’t need to be perfect!).

Gently place one square of puff pastry into each of the greased muffin cups.

Add 1 square of cheese into each puff pastry cup.

Then top each bite with about 1 tablespoon of the cranberry sauce.

Beat the egg in a small bowl and brush the exposed parts of the puff pastry with the egg.

Bake the bites for 18 to 20 minutes. The puff pastry will be golden brown and the cranberry sauce and cheese will be bubbly. Let the puff pastry bites cool in the muffin tins for a few minutes, then use a fork or butter knife to gently loosen and pop them out of the muffin tin to serve.

How to Serve

These puff pastry appetizers can be served hot or at room temperature.

Storing and Reheating this Puff Pastry Appetizer Recipe

In the Fridge

You can store leftover cranberry and cheese puff pastry bites in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat by placing the bites back into your mini muffin tin and baking them at 350°F until warmed through. You can also reheat them in an air fryer if that is a piece of equipment you have and use.

In the Freezer

Bake the cranberry and cheese puff pastry bites as directed and then allow to cool completely. Arrange into a single layer on a baking sheet or tray and place in the freezer to “flash freeze” for about one hour until they’re frozen solid. Store frozen puff pastry bites in a single layer in an airtight container for up to 2 months. When ready to enjoy, reheat directly from frozen at 350°F until warmed through.

Helpful Equipment

You’ll need a mini muffin pan to make this recipe. You can use a 24-cup mini muffin pan or 2, 12-cup mini muffin pans.