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Melting Crab w/Cream Cheese Pastry

Source of Recipe

net


List of Ingredients

Melting Crab Mouthfuls & Spinach Tarts OR Empanadas

Cream Cheese Pastry
Can be used used for tarts or empanadas using any filling; sweet, veggie or meat.
2 8 oz. pkgs. Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup Butter OR Margarine, softened
2 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten (if using for empanadas and you want to seal pastry before baking) OPTIONAL

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter OR margarine with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually beat in the flour and salt.
Knead the dough lightly by hand. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Options: Roll out to 1/8" thickness on lightly floured surface. Use a 3"
biscuit cutter to make 60 circles.
OR for mini tarts: roll into balls slightly smaller than the size of a walnut and press in mini tart pans lining bottom and sides. (If you have a Pampered Chef tart shaper, shaping the dough into the mini muffin pans goes faster.)
Place 1 Tbsp. of your favorite filling (spinach, crab, fruit pie filling) on one half of each circle. Brush with the egg mixture and seal edges with tines of fork. Pierce small vent in top of each with a fork and brush with beaten egg. Bake at 450 degrees aboaut 10 minutes until golden.





Recipe


Melting Crab Mouthfuls (Pampered Chef recipe)

1 recipe of cream cheese dough
1 7 oz. can Crab, drain & pick over to remove any bone or membrane
1 Tbsp. Onion, minced
1 cup Swiss Cheese, grated
1 Tbsp. Fresh Lemon Juice
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1/8 tsp. Thyme OR Basil
1 5 oz. can Water Chestnuts, chopped

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix well. Spoon in unbaked mini muffin shells. Bake at 385 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Serve hot. Note: don't overfill the pans because the filling can spread over edges of pastry making it very hard to get them out of the pans. Run a small metal spatula around edges of the tarts before removing them from the pans. These can be made a little early and placed on a hotplate to keep them warm.