Easy No Bake Cheesecake Mini Fruit Tarts with delicate crispy mini phyllo tart shells take just a few minutes to make with any mix of fresh (or frozen!) fruit you have on hand and frozen pastry sheets.
Perfect for Mother’s Day, spring brunches, bridal showers, summer parties and more!
Easy fruit dessert recipe
Using no bake cheesecake filling instead of the standard pastry cream and phyllo tart shells it’s easy to have a quick light dessert whenever you need it. Perfect for serving year round to highlight the freshest and most beautiful seasonal produce. Or, for whipping up on the fly using frozen fruit. This is a versatile recipe that really allows you to make it your own.
Perfect as a part of your brunch display. Or set up a toppings bar with all sorts of fun fruit and dessert style toppings and let people get creative!
Ingredients
- Fresh or frozen fruit – raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, peaches, strawberries, rhubarb, cranberries, kiwi, mango, passionfruit, nectarines, and more! These mini tarts are delicious with whatever seasonal fresh, or even frozen, fruit and berries you have on hand.
- Frozen phyllo dough– pronounced FEE-lo and also spelled “filo,” a good quality phyllo dough with thin sheets like you would use to make baklava will produce the same rustic flaky texture shown here. Phyllo is commonly found in the freezer section by frozen pie crusts and puff pastry. The difference between phyllo dough and puff pastry is that puff pastry sheets are thicker and contain butter while phyllo is wafer thin sheets of butter-free pastry that separate easily. If available, pre-made frozen phyllo pastry cups can be substituted. Or frozen puff pastry sheets. Puff pastry will be a bit puffier after baking. Simply indent with the end of a wooden spoon when still warm after removing from the oven. Or try my recipe for homemade tart shells using cream cheese dough in these Mini Red, White and Blue Lemon Cheesecake Tarts.
- Cream cheese – the classic block cream cheese.
- Granulated sugar – granulated sugar breaks down the cream cheese.
- Confectioner’s sugar – sweetens and helps thicken and stabilize the no bake cheesecake filling.
- Heavy cream – thickens the mixture when whipped into whipped cream with the sweetened cream cheese.
- Lime – zested and juiced.
- Butter- melted, to brush between the layers of phyllo.
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
Step by step instructions
Defrost phyllo sheets and brush the dough’s layers with melted butter, cut into squares and push into muffin pans. While they’re baking and cooling, make an easy no bake lime cheesecake filling and prepare your favorite fruits for topping the mini tarts. I used fresh raspberries, diced nectarines and frozen blackberries but ripe strawberries, juicy mango, or tart lime curd are other delicious topping options.
- Defrost phyllo, bring cream cheese to room temperature and melt then cool butter.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- When defrosted unfold phyllo. Keeping sheets covered with a damp paper towel while not using. With dry hands and a pastry brush, lay one sheet of phyllo dough out on a cutting board. Brush lightly with butter. Carefully lay another sheet of dough over the first and repeat with butter and dough until you reach the desired thickness, 4-6 sheets thick, ending with a layer of butter. Roll unused phyllo sheets back up, place in an airtight bag and refrigerate for up to 1 week. Or refreeze for up to 2 months.
- With a sharp knife cut into twelve 3” squares. Or cut out rounds using a cookie or biscuit cutter or a less rustic look. Push into mini muffin tins, butter side down. And continue again with another stack of 6 sheets until all 24 mini muffin cavities are filled.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the pastries are golden brown. Allow the pastries to cool in the pans for several minutes. Then remove the tartlet shells from the pans and let cool completely on wire racks while you prepare the filling.
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and granulated sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add confectioners sugar, lime juice and zest, salt, vanilla extract and cold heavy cream and beat on low until smooth. Then increase speed to high and beat until thick and fluffy stiff peaks form. Either use this no bake lime cheesecake filling immediately or cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to assemble.
- To serve place a generous dollop of no bake lime cheesecake filling on top of each mini tart shell, or pipe on using a pastry bag. Top with a few tablespoons of fruit and dust with additional powdered sugar, if desired. Serve immediately or refrigerate several hours to allow the cheesecake filing to set up before topping with fruit and serving.
- Enjoy!
Make it your own
- Using no bake cheesecake filling instead of the standard pastry cream makes it so easy to whip up these mini fruit tarts! But you can make it even easier using whipped cream, sweetened marscapone or vanilla pudding as the tart filling instead.
- Use any mix of fresh or frozen fruit you have on hand.
- Switch up the phyllo tart shells for mini cream cheese tart shells, pie crust, puff pastry, baked oatmeal cups, or any store bought filo or puff pastry shells you can find!
- No mini muffin pan? Simply bake squares of puff pastry and top as instructed. Or use a regular sized muffin pan, cutting (12) 3″ squares instead of (18) 2″ squares.
Yield
This recipe yields (24) mini fruit tarts, roughly 8 servings of 3 tarts per serving. Easily double this mini tart recipe to yield (48) fruit tarts by using the whole roll of phyllo pastry and doubling the filling.
How to store
For best flavor and texture enjoy immediately. Or fill shells and refrigerate for several hours to allow filling to set. Then top with berries and serve.
The lime no bake cheesecake filling can be refrigerated, tightly covered, for up to 5 days. Although it will thicken making it more difficult to spoon cleanly into the tart shells. The phyllo mini tart shells will remain super crisp at room temperature for up to three hours. Or can be stored frozen in an airtight container for up to a month. Reheat slightly in a warm oven to become crispy again before filling and serving.
Once set you can leave the no bake cheesecake fruit tarts at room temperature for several hours before having to refrigerate or discard. To serve longer or hot locations, place on a chilled sheet pan set over another ice-filled pan of the same size.
Ingredients
- ½ pound frozen phyllo dough 1 9×14” roll, 8-12 sheets, thawed
- 1 cup fresh berries or mixed fruit, or frozen
- ½ cup heavy cream chilled
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened, 1 cup
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar
- 1 tablespoon lime juice fresh squeezed, from ½ lime
- 1 teaspoons lime zest finely grated, from ½ lime
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon fine salt
- 4 tablespoons salted butter melted and cooled
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Unfold phyllo and keeping sheets covered with a damp paper towel while not using, lay one sheet of phyllo dough out on a cutting board, brush lightly with melted butter. Then carefully lay another sheet of dough over the first and repeat with butter and dough until you reach the desired thickness, 4-6 sheets thick, ending with a layer of butter. Roll unused phyllo sheets back up, place in an airtight bag and refrigerate for up to 1 week. Or refreeze for up to 2 months.
- With a sharp knife cut into twelve 3” squares. and push into mini muffin tins, butter side down. Continue until all 24 cavities are filled.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the phyllo is golden brown. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire racks while you prepare the filling.
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and granulated sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add confectioners sugar, lime juice and zest, vanilla extract, salt and cold heavy cream and beat on low until smooth. Then increase speed to high and beat until thick and fluffy stiff peaks form. Either use immediately or cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to assemble.
- To serve place a generous dollop of no bake lime cheesecake filling on top of each mini tart shell, top with a few tablespoons of fruit and dust with additional powdered sugar, if desired. Serve immediately or refrigerate filled tart shells several hours before topping and serving.
Nutrition
Leah
I can’t find the salt. The recipe references salt in 2 places, but I don’t see where to include it.
Tristin Rieken
Thank you for bringing this omission to my attention. Yes, salt is listed both in the ingredient list on the post and as well in the recipe card and it is supposed to be included in the no bake cheesecake filling. I have updated the post to include this. Thanks again 🙂