Strawberry Cheesecake Conversation Heart Hand Pies

There is no Valentine’s Day candy more iconic that the conversation heart, so I had to put my own spin on it. I wanted to make something super easy that can be thrown together in under an hour. I love that Pillsbury has the crescent roll sheets now that don’t have the perforation in them to tear them into triangles for rolls. The sheets are perfect to roll out and cut. I did consider puff pastry for this and I do think it would work, however I wanted a very flat surface to write on because my piping skills are medium to low, if I’m being generous. Because of how puffy and flaky puff pastry can get, I decided that crescent roll dough was the safe option. But if anyone tries it with puff pastry, please let me know!

I wrote this recipe up with a sweetened cream cheese and strawberry jam filling, but really you can put in anything you want. I know I’ll have someone ask if it can be done with Nutella, so the answer is yes, definitely! I had some cream cheese frosting in my fridge left over from another recipe, so I used that with a piping bag fitted with a really small tip to write the words. Piping frosting is not my strong point, so I mostly held my breath and sent positive thoughts out into the universe as I was writing on these and I think it worked pretty well. You could definitely buy frosting at the store, or even those little tubes of icing that you can squeeze. I’ve seen them in the baking section.

If you’d like an alternative that isn’t so sweet, you could make these as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! Really any nut butter of choice plus your favorite jam or jelly and you’ve got yourself some warm, crustless pb&j sandwiches. It would make a really cute Valentine’s Day lunch that I bet your little ones would absolutely love to find in their lunch box at school.

If you’re here for the heart shapes, check out my heart-shaped cinnamon roll and my raspberry twists!

As seen on Instagram here.

This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Strawberry Cheesecake Conversation Heart Hand Pies

Recipe by Sarah

5.0 from 2 votes

It’s the iconic Valentine’s Day candy, but in a hand pie! You can fill these with your choice of filling. I went with strawberry jam and sweetened cream cheese.

Course: Dessert, SnacksCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

5

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

14

minutes

Calories

197

kcal

Total time

34

minutes

Cook Mode

Keep the screen of your device on

Ingredients

• 1 sheet crescent roll dough (see notes)

• 5 tsp softened cream cheese (room temp)

• 1 tbsp powdered (confectioners) sugar

• 1 dash vanilla extract

• 5 tsp strawberry jam

• 1 small egg for egg wash

• 1 sprinkle cinnamon sugar (see notes)

• 2 tbsp frosting (see notes)

Directions

• This recipe makes 5 hand pies, so if you are wanting to make more, you can double it or triple it. Start by mixing up your sweetened cream cheese for the filling. Whisk together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and a dash of vanilla extract until smooth.
• Roll out a crescent roll sheet on a lightly floured surface. You want the kind of crescent roll dough that isn’t perforated. Just roll it a bit so that it’s all an even thickness. Usually the edges are thicker when you take it out of the package, so rolling it out just makes it a consistent thickness.
• Using a heart-shaped biscuit or cookie cutter, cut 10 hearts from your dough. The cutter that I used is 3 1/4 inch diameter.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and set a rack int he middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay out 5 of the cut out hearts, spaced evenly on the baking sheet.
• Add 1 tsp of the sweetened cream cheese mixture and 1 tsp of strawberry jam to the center of each heart.
• Lay the top heart layer over the fillings and using the tip of a fork, press down on the edges of each heart, going all the way around to seal.
• Brush each heart lightly with egg wash using a pastry brush.
• Sprinkle each heart with cinnamon sugar,
• Place the hand pies into the oven. They will take about 12-14 mins to bake and will be golden brown when done.
• While the hand pies are baking, prepare your frosting. I used my favorite cream cheese frosting, See notes below for a link. If you make the frosting according to the recipe, you’ll definitely have extra that you can save in the fridge or freezer. You can also use store bought frosting or icing. I used a piping bag with a really small tip to write on the hand pies.
• When the hand pies are done baking, move them to a cooling rack and allow them to cool so that the frosting doesn’t melt off of them.
• Once the hand pies are cool, write your conversation heart-inspired messages on them using frosting and a piping bag. Serve and enjoy!

Equipment

• 
  Set of 5 Biscuit CuttersShop on Williams Sonoma
• 
  Wooden pastry boardShop on Williams Sonoma
• 
  Baking sheetsShop on Williams Sonoma
• 
  Geometry House TowelsSave with SarahR15
• 
  Unbleached Parchment PaperShop on Amazon
• 
  Measuring Cups and SpoonsShop at Williams Sonoma
• 
  Pyrex Mixing BowlsSave with SARAHTREED

Recipe Video

Notes

• For this recipe, I used the Pillsbury crescent roll dough without the perforations. It’s called the crescent roll sheet. Any brand will work, but you just don’t want the perforations that typically come with crescent roll dough.
• One sheet of dough will make 5 hand pies if your heart cutter is similar in size to mine. I fit 10 hearts and you need 2 for each hand pie.
• I keep cinnamon sugar mixed in our spice cabinet because the girls like to use it on toast sometimes. The best ratio (in my opinion) is 1 tbsp granulated sugar to 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon.
• You can use store-bought frosting or icing for this. Or you can make a little bit of frosting. I used my cream cheese frosting that I use for my cinnamon roll recipes.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @sarahtreed on Instagram and hashtag it with #bestlittlemomentsrecipe