Puff pastry is such a great way to make a really fancy dessert without much effort (that’s if you buy the puff pastry at the store, anyway). Try my theory out with our Puff Pastry Cream Cheese Danish recipe.
For more ideas, check out all of our desserts.
When I lived in Pennsylvania, a new bakery and coffee shop opened. It had the absolute best cheese danish I ever had. To be fair, it probably had the first cheese danish I ever had, too. But the sweet, creamy filling, the flaky pastry, it had me hooked.
I moved away and my friend who was still there actually sent me some from time to time. Even through the mail, they were delicious.
The coffee shop closed and my danishes went with them. So, of course, I had to recreate them.
A good danish is always made from puff pastry and has a sweet filling. I use store-bought puff pastry because that’s just easier than trying to make your own homemade puff pastry. And I top mine with just the cream. Some people will put an icing on top of the cream cheese filling, but I think that makes them too sweet.
If you want to, though, go right ahead. And if you want to, you can add fresh berries into the cream as well. I don’t, but you can experiment and see what you like best.
This recipe only uses one sheet of puff pastry, but the packs come with two. So, if you’re looking for another dessert for the second sheet, check out our list of Puff Pastry Dessert Recipes for more ideas.
Puff Pastry Cream Cheese Danish Recipe
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Puff Pastry Cream Cheese Danish Ingredients:
- 1 sheet of puff pastry
- 4 oz. room temperature cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
How To Make Puff Pastry Cream Cheese Danishes:
Pre-heat the oven to 400 F.
Defrost the puff pastry sheet.
Check the package for directions, but most say leave it out at room temperature for 20 to 40 minutes.
When it’s defrosted, unroll the puff pastry sheet.
Put them cream cheese and sugar in the large bowl of a stand mixer.
You want the cream cheese to be room temperature or it won’t cream properly. The easiest way to assure it is is to remove it from the fridge at the same time you take the puff pastry from the freezer.
On medium-high speed, cream together the cream cheese and sugar for about five minutes until the cream cheese is completely soft.
Separate the egg. Add just the egg yolk into the stand mixer bowl. Set the egg white aside.
Add the lemon juice and vanilla into the stand mixer bowl. Mix until all the ingredients are combined, about two minutes.
Use a pizza cutter to cut the puff pastry into 12 rectangles.
Quick note: You want to make sure your pizza cutter is sharp. Or, if you use a knife, make sure it’s a sharp knife. A dull knife or pizza cutter will squish the pastry as it cuts and prevents it from rising properly.
Place the rectangles onto a silicone baking mat-lined baking sheet.
If you don’t have a silicone baking mat, you could use parchment paper instead. I just don’t use that because you can reuse a baking mat, making it more frugal and sustainable than single use paper.
Use a knife to trace a smaller rectangle in the center of the puff pastry rectangle. You don’t want to piece through the puff pastry, but you want to give yourself a barrier for cream cheese filling.
Spoon the cream cheese mixture into that rectangle. You can fit about a tablespoon of the filling into each piece of puff pastry. You may have some leftover (although not enough to fill two puff pastry sheets, but you can try).
The mixture may slide a little bit while you’re filling the rest of the pastries. If that happens, just push it back up into the rectangular area. It won’t spread during baking.
Use a fork to make indents along the outside rectangle, making sure to stop at the edge you made with the knife.
Quick note: The fork marks help the pastry bake evenly, so you don’t want to skip them. Plus, the pastry looks so pretty with them when it’s baked.
Grab the egg white you saved earlier. Whisk it up quickly to make a simple egg wash, then use a pastry brush to brush the outer edge of the top of the pastry.
Quick note: When you’re brushing the egg wash, make sure that it doesn’t drip down the sides of the puff pastry. That will act like a glue on the flaky layers and they won’t puff up properly.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until the puff pastry puffs and the edges are golden brown.
Let them cool before eating.
Puff Pastry Cream Cheese Danish: Frequently Asked Questions
After the danishes have cooled completely, you can store them in an airtight container. They’ll be fine at room temperature if you eat them the next day or the day after, but if you need to save them longer than that, you can put them in the fridge.
Making cuts in the middle of the puff pastry gives the air somewhere to escape and prevents the middle from rising. If it rose, your would risk all your filling falling off the side of your pastry.
If you want, you can add bits of fruit or chopped chocolate chip pieces on top of the cream cheese mixture. These are your dessert, so vary them to fit your taste buds.
Full fat, plain cream cheese works best in these pastries. We don’t recommend no fat cream cheese because the taste wouldn’t be right.
Puff pastry can be found in a cardboard box in the freezer section of most grocery stores. It’s usually near the pie crust and whipped topping.
If you’ve never used puff pastry before, you might want to check out these detailed instructions from Pepperidge Farm (the most popular brand of puff pastry) about using the pastry before starting.
Puff Pastry Cream Cheese Danish
Puff pastry is such a great way to make a really fancy dessert without much effort (that’s if you buy the puff pastry at the store, anyway). Try my theory out with our Puff Pastry Cream Cheese Danish recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 sheet of puff pastry
- 4 oz. room temperature cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 F.
- Defrost the puff pastry sheet.
- When it’s defrosted, unroll the puff pastry sheet.
- Put them cream cheese and sugar in the large bowl of a stand mixer.
- On medium-high speed, cream together the cream cheese and sugar for about five minutes until the cream cheese is completely soft.
- Separate the egg. Add just the egg yolk into the stand mixer bowl. Set the egg white aside.
- Add the lemon juice and vanilla into the stand mixer bowl. Mix until all the ingredients are combined, about two minutes.
- Use a pizza cutter to cut the puff pastry into 12 rectangles.
- Place the rectangles onto a silicone baking mat-lined baking sheet.
- Use a knife to trace a smaller rectangle in the center of the puff pastry rectangle. You don’t want to piece through the puff pastry, but you want to give yourself a barrier for cream cheese filling.
- Spoon the cream cheese mixture into that rectangle.
- Use a fork to make indents along the outside rectangle, making sure to stop at the edge you made with the knife.
- Grab the egg white you saved earlier. Whisk it up quickly to make a simple egg wash, then use a pastry brush to brush the outer edge of the top of the pastry.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until the puff pastry puffs and the edges are golden brown.
- Let them cool before eating.
Notes
You want the cream cheese to be room temperature or it won’t cream properly.
Nutrition Information
Yield
12Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 61Total Fat 5gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 25mgSodium 42mgCarbohydrates 4gFiber 0gSugar 3gProtein 1g
Have you tried this Puff Pastry Cream Cheese Danish recipe? Let us know how it went in the comments.