Molten chocolate swirled with gooey cream cheese in a warm, toasty pastry crust. Sunday brunch just got so much better!

Molten Chocolate Ingredients

  • 5 ounces semisweet chocolate (I like Baker’s, but you can use chocolate chips too)
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar
  • ¼ tsp kosher salt
  • Two prep bowls, one large and one glass
  • Beaters

Cream Cheese Ingredients

  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • Prep bowl, beaters
  • Takes 2-3 minutes

Puff Pastry Ingredients

  • 2 puff pastry sheets, thawed yet cold
  • 1 egg white mixed with 1 Tbsp of water
  • Turbinado sugar (you can use coarse or granulated, but the Turbinado is SO GOOD)
  • Powdered sugar, optional
  • Baking Sheets
  • Parchment Paper
  • Sharp knife
  • Small prep bowl and pastry brush (or paper towel)
  • Ziplock bags and toothpick
  • Takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes

Background

Pastry puff brunch is so fun! Each season, I like to experiment and create a new pastry puff (check out my other pastry puff recipe: Roasted Lemon Artichoke Pastry Puff ). Recently, I wanted to try adding the cream cheese  and chocolate fillings from my muffin recipes. The final result was SO SO SO SO SO GOOD! These will be my new go-to favorite for special occasion breakfasts and brunches.

Chocolate molten filling adapted from Halfbaked Harvest

When You’re Ready to Begin

Step-by-step: Prep Ahead

  1. Set puff pastry out to thaw 35 minutes ahead (depending on room temperature, it may take 40 minutes to thaw – you want it to unfold easily yet still be cold, so check at 35 minutes…if it’s not ready, wait another 5 minutes). Prep baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove frozen sheets of pastry from package. Set on parchment covered baking sheets, but do not ‘unfold’ them. Set timer.
  2. Set out cream cheese and eggs to come to room temperature 35 minutes ahead of time.

When your Pastry Puff is Thawed

  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Separate egg white from yolk. Mix 1 Tbsp of water into egg white.
  3. Unfold pastry sheets.
  4. Brush pastry with egg white mixture. Then, fold edges and press with a fork (to make a thicker crust). Gently poke the pastry with the fork to make small holes, being careful not to push all the way through the dough. Brush crust with egg white. (Optional: prep for smaller, pastries by cutting the pasty roughly into squares or rectangles. (Pepperidge Farm pre-made dough comes in a 9 x 9 ½ sheets- so you can choose the size and shape of your final pastries – if you’re looking for inspiration, check out ‘puff pastry’ on Pinterest.) Poke holes across the pastry  in the middle and brush with egg white. Then, fold the corners of each square towards/into the middle. Use the fork to firmly press the corners to the center to seal these pieces together. Brush the edges with egg white mixture, and sprinkle with sugar. Now you have smaller squares or circular pastries!)
  1. Bake pastries for 15 minutes.

As the pastries begins to bake, prep your fillings.

  1. Chocolate filling prep: Place chopped chocolate and butter (cut into ½ pats) into a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at 30 seconds intervals, stirring between each, until chocolate and butter are smooth and incorporated. (I only needed to microwave twice.) In a different bowl, whisk egg and sugar together for 3 minutes. Whisk melted chocolate into the egg mixture. Then, mix in the salt. Place chocolate mixture in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
  2. Cream cheese filling prep: In a prep bowl, beat the cream cheese for about 60 seconds so it gets creamy. Add sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until combined.
  3. After 15 minutes, remove pastry puffs (allow to fall or press the center down with the back of a spoon if it got puffy – this is one of my secret tips – sometimes, puff pastry doesn’t behave…so I press it back into the desired shape after par-baking).
  4. Transfer your fillings into Ziplock bags.
  5. Decorate! Pipe your cream cheese and chocolate onto your pastry. I like to alternate between a line of cream cheese filling and a line of chocolate. Then, I draw a tooth pick through the alternating lines to create designs (see pics).
  6. Once all puffs are filled, return the trays to the oven. Bake another 10 minutes until pastry edges are golden brown.
  7. When done, remove from over. Let rest at least 5 minutes before serving. *I love these served warm; my boyfriend loves them to be room temperature or chilled! If you’d like to serve them at room temperature, allow them to cool for about 30 minutes before serving! If you’d like to serve them chilled, pop them into the fridge after they’ve cooled for 30 minutes.

Serve and Enjoy

Other Options

These are also fun to fill with cream cheese and lemon curd! See my new post