Cream Cheese Strawberry Danish with Puff Pastry
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Hosting a brunch party soon? Make sure a batch (or two) of these cream cheese strawberry danish pastries is on the menu! With puff pastry, vanilla, and lemony glaze, they’re flaky, jammy, and beyond delicious. Serve them with a hot cup of coffee and find brunch bliss.
My fantasy of late is that it’s peak summertime and I’m picking juicy strawberry after juicy strawberry from my garden to turn into a stunning brown butter strawberry crumble pie, a no-bake strawberry crunch cheesecake, or perhaps a flaky pastry. Of course, this dream will completely depend on whether or not I actually get it together for a garden this year. Only time will tell.
But for the time being, I’m perfectly content using some store-bought strawbs to make what is perhaps my favorite pastry of all time. The humble cheese danish.
If you’re not familiar with danishes, we need to chat for a minute. These Scandinavian pastries (a.k.a. wienerbrød) are made with laminated yeast dough and a variety of fillings from cheeses to fruit. The edges of the dough rise up, leaving us with a jammy, creamy center and flaky, golden edges. A total dream.
When I was in pastry school, we made dozens upon dozens of batches of puff pastry. So many batches, in fact, that I came to the conclusion that I never wanted to make it ever again. I will leave that task to my favorite bakery down the street thank you very much. But, the beauty with this particular recipe is that we’re using a little shortcut with store-bought, frozen pastry. No lamination needed. We love to see it.
Shortcut ingredient – puff pastry!
As a little hack, we’ll use store-bought, frozen puff pastry. It’s still nice and flaky without spending hours making homemade pastry. Use all-butter if you can find it!
Then, you’ll need full-fat cream cheese, granulated sugar, one large egg, a lemon, vanilla bean paste or extract, fresh strawberries, apricot preserves, and powdered sugar.
If you don’t want to make glaze, try sprinkling the edges of the pastry with raw sugar instead. I use Demerara or Turbinado sugar.
Cut the puff pastry
Always keep the puff pastry as cold as possible! In pastry school, they taught us that cold fat is essential for those flaky layers. If the pastry starts to warm up too much or sticks to the surface of the cutting board, pop it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, until cold and firm.
Cream cheese filling
Bake the danishes
Don’t over-fill the pastries or the filling with overflow in the oven. You want to leave about 1/4-1/2 inch of space between the filling and the edges of the pastry.
Drizzle with lemon glaze
How to refrigerate & freeze
To store any leftover pastries, place them in a single layer in an airtight container. Refrigerate for up to 4 days.
To freeze the baked danishes, place them in a single layer on a sheet pan and freeze until solid, about 1-2 hours. Then, stack the frozen danishes in an airtight container or freezer bag, adding a sheet of parchment paper in-between each layer so they don’t freeze together. Freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost the danishes at room temperature for 1 hour or so before reheating.
Reheating danishes
The danishes may get a bit soft in the fridge, so I recommend reheating the leftovers to crisp them back up! To reheat the danishes, place them on an un-greased sheet pan. Then, bake the pastries at 300°F (150°F) in the lower 1/3 of the oven for 8-10 minutes, until the pastry is crisp on the bottom.
If you have a toaster oven, you can also reheat them that way! Just place the pastries in the toaster oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 4-5 minutes. Keep a close eye on the pastries so they don’t burn.
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Cream Cheese Strawberry Danish with Puff Pastry
Ingredients
Strawberry Danishes
- 454 grams strawberries (1 pound)
- 1 egg white
- 520 grams puff pastry, preferably all-butter, thawed (2 sheets)
- All-purpose flour, for dusting
- 40 grams apricot preserves (2 Tablespoons)
Cream Cheese Filling
- 228 grams full fat cream cheese, softened (8 ounces)
- 50 grams sugar (1/4 cup)
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract)
Lemon Glaze
- 60 grams powdered sugar (1/2 cup)
- 15 milliliters fresh lemon juice or milk (1 Tablespoon)
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- Paring knife
- Hand mixer, (or rubber spatula)
- Pastry brush
Instructions
Prep the ingredients
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Core and thinly slice the strawberries. Then, in a small bowl, whisk the egg white with 1/2 Tablespoon of water to make egg wash. Set aside.
Cut the puff pastry
- Next, unroll the thawed puff pastry on a lightly-floured cutting board or pastry board. Using a rolling pin, roll the puff pastry a few times width-wise and length-wise just to seal the seams together.
- Cut the puff pastry in half length-wise with a pizza cutter or a sharp paring knife. Then, cut each strip of puff pastry into 3 equal rectangles width-wise.
- Using a paring knife, score a 1/4-inch border around the outside of the puff pastry rectangles. Don't cut all the way through! The scoring will allow the edges of the puff pastry to rise and create a border to keep the filling in place.
- Transfer the puff pastry rectangles to the prepared sheet pans, spacing them at least 2-inches apart. (They will puff up quite a bit.) Place the puff pastry rectangles in the fridge.
Mix the filling
- Add the cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla bean paste or extract to a large mixing bowl. Use a rubber spatula or hand mixer to beat the filling until it's well-mixed and there are no lumps of cream cheese.
Assemble the danishes
- Remove the puff pastry rectangles from the refrigerator. Use a pastry brush to brush the edges of the puff pastry rectangles with egg wash. This will help the danishes bake up shiny and golden-brown!
- Dollop about 1 Tablespoon of the cream cheese filling in the center of each puff pastry rectangle. Use a rubber spatula or butter knife to evenly spread the filling, making sure not to go past the borders.
- Top the centers of the danishes with a few slices of strawberries, letting some of the cream cheese filling peek through. Depending on the size of the strawberries, you will have anywhere between 4-6 slices. Don't over-crowd the danishes, or the strawberries will be too heavy for the delicate pastry.
- Bake the danishes on the middle rack of the oven for 18-20 minutes, until the filling is set and the edges of the puff pastry are golden-brown. Meanwhile, microwave the apricot preserves in a small bowl until it's runny.
- Right after you remove the danishes from the oven, use a pastry brush to brush the tops of the berries with the apricot preserves. Let the danishes cool on the sheet pan for 5-10 minutes. Then, transfer the pastries to a wire rack to cool until they're warm.
Add the glaze
- While the danishes cool, combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice together in a small bowl. The glaze should be the consistency of glue. If it's too thick, add a bit more lemon juice 1 teaspoon at a time. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar 1 Tablespoon at a time.
- Using the tines of a fork, drizzle the lemon glaze over the warm danishes. Let the glaze harden for about 10-15 minutes. Enjoy the danishes right away with coffee or tea!
