Strawberry Cheesecake Croissants Recipe

By now, you've probably seen plenty of fancy, Japanese-cheesesteak-style stuffed croissants all over TikTok, or have spent hours in line in a crowded bakery to pay exorbitant amounts of money for a pastry. And if you've been wondering whether the real strawberry cheesecake croissants live up to their aesthetic appeal, then the answer is yes, but the even better news is that it's simpler to make at home than it looks.

As a recipe developer and blogger, I've fallen prey to the beautiful TikTok videos of delicate pastries stuffed with pastry cream and fresh fruit. I've yearned and coveted, but as a cook, I knew paying $20 for that creation just made no sense. Instead, I've gone to my favorite local bakery, bought good butter croissants, and decided to remake the recipe at home — and our version is actually worth the effort, and not just a pretty photo.

The key is in making a light-as-air cream cheese filling and daintily adding it to the croissant with a piping bag equipped with a serrated tip. Our filling has a delicate strawberry and lemon touch, which works beautifully with the fresh strawberries and the graham cracker crumble on top. The whole thing takes about 20 minutes and looks like something that came out of a glossy shop window.

To make these stuffed croissants, you'll need large croissants, fresh strawberries, granulated sugar, cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest, and a good-quality strawberry jam. For the crumble topping and serving, you'll need crushed graham crackers, melted butter, sugar, whole milk, and more powdered sugar, for dusting.

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Place the croissants on a baking sheet and warm them for 4 minutes, until just heated through and slightly crisped on the outside.

Remove and cool for 2 minutes.

Toss three-quarters of the sliced strawberries with 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar, set aside to macerate while you prepare the rest.

Beat the cream cheese, 3 tablespoons powdered sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest with a hand mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Fold in 3 tablespoons of strawberry jam with a spatula. Swirl rather than fully incorporate, so streaks remain.

Toss the graham cracker crumbs with melted butter and 1 teaspoon of sugar until evenly coated.

Toast the crumbs in a dry pan over medium heat for 2–3 minutes until golden. Set aside.

Whisk the remaining ¼ cup powdered sugar with 1½ tablespoons jam until combined, adding milk 1 teaspoon at a time until it falls off a spoon in a slow ribbon.

Slice each croissant horizontally.

Pipe or spoon the cream cheese mixture generously onto the bottom half, and top it with the macerated strawberries.

Close with the top half. Spoon or drizzle the glaze over the top. Add the remaining 2–3 fresh strawberry slices on top of each croissant. Finish with a sprinkle of the graham cracker crumble and a dusting of powdered sugar, if desired.

Serve immediately.

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Slicing these croissants neatly so that they don't fall apart is actually much harder than it sounds. Fresh croissants may be mushy and fall apart when cut, and freshly baked croissants become both soft and brittle. Luckily, cutting these croissants neatly for stuffing simply requires finesse and a bit of patience. The key here is to first wait at least five minutes after warming the croissants in the toasted oven or regular oven before attempting to cut them. This means they won't be too soft and they won't fall apart at the slightest pressure. Sometimes, that's really all it takes to avoid a croissant-slicing disaster.

The next thing to keep in mind is that it's best to use a serrated knife and operate with a light touch. A bread knife, which is one of the key 4 knives any budding chef should own, works better here than any other blade because the serrated edge does the cutting, rather than your pressure, which is what causes the layers to compress and crumble. Second, you should avoid pressing down on the croissant from the top: Instead, lay the croissant flat on your cutting board and use a gentle sawing motion, working slowly from one end to the other. Cutting from the back of the croissant first, where the layers are more compact, gives you more control than starting at the tapered tip. Thus, with a bit of subtle skill, you'll have two neatly-sliced croissant halves, rather than a pile of squished up layers.

Our interpretation of the TikTok strawberry cheesecake croissant trend is pretty spot on, but there are additional adaptations you can make. One of my favorite things to do is to turn this into a custard bake. Thus, I take the strawberry cheesecake-piped croissants as they are, layer them in a baking dish, and then make a quick custard from extra cream cheese filling, eggs, and cream. I pour it all over the croissants, throw in some sliced strawberries, and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes. It's essentially a cheesecake croissant bread pudding, and it feeds a crowd with minimal extra effort.

If you want to keep the refined look and presentation of these croissants, but play around with them slightly, you have a few other options. I love changing up the fruit, supplementing or replacing the strawberries with raspberries, blueberries, sliced peaches, cherries, or any combination thereof. Raspberries and lemon together are a particularly good combination if you're in the mood for something tart.

You can also switch up the cream cheese filling for something more complex. If you change the fruit, use whatever jam makes sense in combination with it, but you can also use lemon curd for a brighter version. I also love the complexity of fig preserves in combination with apricots, in which case I add toasted almonds to mimic the flavor of a frangipane tart.

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