Light, crispy, delicious Mini Caprese Tarts are an incredibly delicious appetizer or light snack. These crispy little bites have the perfect flavor combo of fresh tomatoes, creamy mozzarella cheese, and crisp, buttery pastry.

An overhead shot of Mini Caprese Tarts on a blue plate.

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Caprese Tarts Recipe

Easy peasy Caprese! These little, fluffy pillows of cheesy puff pastry make for a great appetizer or party snack. They come together quickly and only need a handful of ingredients.

Topped with fresh basil, they are utterly addictive, so make a big batch!

Why You’ll Love Mini Caprese Tarts

Super Speedy: Only 30 minutes from pantry to table, with only a few ingredients needed.
Easy: Uses packaged puff pastry for extra ease. Just cut, layer, and bake!
Plan ahead: These are the perfect snack to prep ahead of time.

Ingredients in This Recipe

Puff pastry dough – This frozen dough takes all the work out of fancy pastries.
Tomatoes – Roma tomatoes work great and are the perfect size.
Mozzarella cheese– Go for fresh and whole milk if possible.

How to Make Mini Caprese Tarts

You can jump to the recipe card for full ingredients & instructions!

Roll out the dough, cut in circles, and place on a baking sheet.
Lightly score the dough with a knife, making a circle about a half inch inside the edge of the dough.
Top each circle with tomato, a drizzle of vinegar, basil and mozzarella. Bake and enjoy!

A process shot of cutting out pastry circles with a glass.

A close-up view of pastry circles on a baking tray for making Mini Caprese Tarts.

What is Caprese?

Caprese salad is a classic salad consisting of mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes, originating in Capri, Italy.

You really can’t go wrong with creamy whole milk mozzarella and juicy fresh tomatoes. It’s like pizza, only a little fancier!

I added a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar for a little zing, fresh basil leaves, and buttery puff pastry.

The end result is a simple yet incredibly flavorful tart everyone is sure to love! When you pull these out of the oven, you’ll impress everyone. Nobody needs to know how easy they are to make!

Unbaked Mini Caprese Tarts on a baking tray.

Cooking with Mozzarella

Mozzarella can contain a lot of liquid so to prevent the pastry from becoming soggy when the tarts bake, it’s best to dry the mozzarella using kitchen paper.

You just need to pat it dry gently to get rid of any excess moisture.

What is Puff Pastry?

Do you love croissants? Puff pastry is what makes all those paper-thin layers so crispy and buttery. It’s layers of ultra-thin dough, with butter in between the layers.

It’s a lot of work to make puff pastry, but you can buy it frozen and ready to use. The paper thin layers are called phyllo dough, and you can also buy that frozen, and do the layering and buttering by yourself.

Save some time, though, and buy a box of frozen puff pastry dough. You’ll find dozens of way to make good use of it–starting with Caprese Mini Tarts!

Can I Prep These Mini Tarts Ahead of Time?

You can easily get these Caprese Mini Tarts ready in advance. They keep well at room temperature for a few hours but can also be made 1-2 days ahead of time and stored in the fridge (in an airtight container).

Serve them at room temperature or reheated in the oven for 5-10 minutes.

Storing mini tarts

The Caprese Mini Tarts will store well in the fridge for 2-3 days, although the pastry may turn a little soggy the longer they are left.. They’re definitely at their best fresh from the oven!

Leftovers can also be frozen in suitable containers.