Baked Cream Cheese & Chutney Samosa- these samosas are filled with cream cheese mixture flavored with chutney, green onions, jalapeño, raisins and cashews.

These make a great vegetarian appetizer for the holidays or just about any party!

Diwali parties will be different this time, most will be limited to a few people.

But I am sure what will not be different is the food! Diwali is one time of the year which I wait all year long and it’s mostly for the food and all the festive vibe.

While we or may not have parties this time, but what I will definitely have is good food. That’s the best part about festivals right?

I love making a big meal on Diwali, right from appetizers to main course and desserts. Growing up, Diwali dinner was a big deal with the whole family getting together and enjoying a large meal. So that has stayed with me and in a way makes me feel closer to home.

Appetizers are my favorite, I love them even more than the main course. And so this year while thinking about Diwali appetizers, I came up with these Cream Cheese Chutney Samosa!

A little different than usual samosa, these turned out so good you guys and as a bonus these are also baked!

In a way this samosa is similar to Spanakopita (the Greek dish). That has feta cheese and spinach in phyllo dough and these samosa has cream cheese and green onions in a flaky pastry.

If you are a fan of those flavors, you will love these samosas too.

These Chutney Samosa

✔make the perfect vegetarian appetizer for holidays and festive season.

✔are baked and not fried.

✔filled with a creamy filling making it very different from the usual samosa.

✔pairs well with hot sauce or chutneys.

Whenever I make samosa, I usually fry them. The main reason is that I don’t make them very often.

So once in a while when I do make them, I just end up frying them. But this time I thought of baking them. I am not very fond of frying, mostly because I am afraid of it and I also do not like wasting so much oil every time I fry things.

I used the same dough from my samosa recipe and just baked these in the oven. They came out perfectly crispy and flaky.

Sarvesh loved these samosa, he isn’t someone who liked off beat stuff so for him liking a samosa which didn’t have potatoes in it was a big win!

Let’s talk about the filling since that’s what makes these different.

Filling for The Samosa

Cream cheese: it forms the base of this filling. I use full-fat cream cheese but low fat should probably work too.

The most important thing is to take out the cream cheese from the fridge and let it be at room temperature for hours so that it’s really softened when you want to use it.

Chutney: so chutney gives that nice flavor to the cream cheese. I used my homemade cilantro chutney here, you can use your own homemade version.

Mint cilantro chutney will also be really nice here.

Green onions: I love using green onions here, adds nice flavor. You can also use cooked chopped spinach here.

Jalapeño: you can add more or less of this depending on spice preference. And in case you don’t have jalapeño, thai green chilies would be a good substitute.

Cashews & Raisins: for some sweetness and some crunch, I have used these raisins and cashews.

I like using golden raisins but black will also be okay. And also pistachios will be good here.

I kept the filling pretty simple and added no spices, just salt and pepper. I wanted the flavors of the cream cheese and the chutney to shine through and so I skipped on those.

But if you want you can definitely spice it up.

Using Puff Pastry

If you don’t want to spend time making the crust for the samosa, an easier alternative would be to use puff pastry sheets.

If using them, then follow the instructions on the package for the baking time and temperature.

They need less time than the traditional crust, usually 20 minutes at 400 F degrees.

Baked Samosa Time & Temperature

Baking samosa and achieving that flaky and crispy crust is very much possible. Trust me, these samosa were super flaky and nice.

First of all do follow the quantity mentioned for oil in the dough. That is important for the texture.

Then roll the dough thin and even, that will ensure even baking.

Use aluminum foil and spray it with oil spray and then place shaped samosa on top and spray them with oil too. You can also brush them with oil.

375 F degrees for 45 to 50 minutes works best in my experience but every oven is different so keep an eye after 35 minutes or so.

Once baked, the samosas would be evenly browned.

Serving Suggestions: serve these with either cilantro chutney and sweet tamarind chutney.

Also any hot sauce would be great!

These taste best when they are freshly baked. I had some leftovers which I refrigerated and next day I warmed them up in the oven at 350 F for 5-10 minutes.

They were still good but not as crispy as they were on the day they were freshly baked. I have not tried freezing them yet.

If you are bored of the same old samosa then it’s time to try these!

Method

1- To make the dough, to a large bowl add flour, salt and ajwain (carom seeds). Mix using a whisk.

2- Now add 4 tablespoons of oil to the flour.

3- Using your fingers rub the oil with the flour until the oil is well incorporated in all of the flour. Do this step for for 1-2 minutes since this is important. Once done, the mixture resembles crumbs.

4- You know the dough has enough oil and is well incorporated when you press some dough between your palm and it holds up shape without breaking.

5- Now, start adding water little by little and start bringing the dough together.

6- Bring the dough together, you just need to bring the dough together here. There’s no need to knead it and it won’t be a smooth dough either (that is fine). I added around 7 tablespoons of water here.

Now cover this dough with a damp cloth and rest for 30 to 40 minutes. I usually soak a paper towel in water and then squeeze out all the water and then cover my dough with that.

7- Meanwhile work on the filling. Take room temperature softened cream cheese in a bowl and whisk it using a wire whisk or you can use your mixer as well. Then add 4 tablespoons of cilantro chutney to it and mix well.

8- Add salt, pepper, chopped green onions, jalapeño, golden raisins, cashews and mix it all together. The filling is now done.

9- Now, divide the dough into 8 equal parts, around 50 grams each. Meanwhile line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil and pre-heat oven to 375 F degrees.

10- Take one portion of the dough and roll it to a round, meanwhile keep the remaining dough balls covered.

Roll the dough ball into a circle of around 6 inch diameter and then cut it into two parts. Meanwhile mix some flour with water to form a thick paste like consistency, this will act as a glue to seal the samosa.

11- Take one cut portion and apply water-flour paste on the straight edge/side.

12- Now bring the two ends of the straight edge together and pinch them to form a cone. See picture (#12) for reference.

13- Fill with around 2 teaspoons of the prepared cream cheese filling. Do not overfill.

14- Now apply the water-flour glue around the circumference of the cone as you have to seal it and then pinch to seal.

15- The samosa is now done, make all samosa regularly. You will get 16 samosas out of this since we divided the dough into 8 equal parts and made 2 samosas from each. Remember to keep the prepared samosa covered all time while you make all others. You don’t want these to dry out.

16- Once all samosas are done, spray the aluminum sheet with oil spray and then arrange all prepared samosa on it. Again spray the samosas with oil spray or brush them with oil if you don’t have a spray.

Bake at 375 F degrees for 45 to 50 minutes until golden in color. Serve these Cream Cheese & Chutney Samosa hot with cilantro chutney, sweet tamarind chutney or some hot sauce like sriracha.

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