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This pillowy Berry Cheese Danish is made with a rich, brioche-style dough thatโs incredibly soft and fluffy. Itโs filled with a sweet lemon cream cheese mix and topped with jam. Baked until golden and tender, this sweet yeast pastry strikes the balance of buttery, tangy, and sweet. I love these served alongside my Strawberry Matcha Latte and Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte.
If you love my Salted Honey Parker House Rolls, then you’re going to be obsessed with these. I adapted that dough to make these delicious and amazing Berry Cheese Danishes that are the most amazing thing to make for breakfast or brunch.
Ingredients for Berry Cheese Danish
- Jam. I love making quick jam (recipe below in the recipe card) or even using store-bought dough.
- Eggs. This is going to give the dough a delicious richness that is unbeatable.
- Butter. Melted butter makes the dough soft and supple. We love that.
- Cream Cheese. These danishes are filled with a cream cheese that’s mixed with lemon zest, sugar and vanilla. I love using my leftover vanilla beans from my homemade vanilla extract.
For the rest of the ingredients, please see the recipe card below!
How to Make this Berry Cheese Danish
- Make the dough. I love this dough because it’s so durable. You just mix all of the ingredients together and let it rise for 1 hour.
- Divide the dough into 10 pieces. Each piece will weigh about 100 grams.
- Shape the dough. They’ll be about 4-inches in diameter. Press the bottom of a glass into each cavity of dough to flatten it.
- Make the filling. Beat the cream cheese filling ingredients together.
- Fill the danishes. Spoon (or pipe) the cream cheese filling in the center.
- Brush the edges with the egg wash.
- Sprinkle on the streusel. And then bake.
- Whisk together the icing ingredients. Drizzle it on the danishes right when they come out of the oven.
FAQs
Yep! You can use a store-bought puff pastry. It’ll be similar to my apple cheese danish recipe or my guava pastelitos.
I like to place them in an airtight ziploc bag or container and store them at room temperature.
More Cozy Breakfast Ideas
Breakfast
Pumpkin Pancakes
Summer
Iced Matcha Latte
Breakfast
Breakfast Tacos
Breakfast
Freezer Breakfast Sandwiches
If you tried this Berry Cheese Danish Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a ๐ star rating and let me know how it went in the ๐ comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Berry Cheese Danish
Equipment
- 1 half baking sheet
- 1 parchment paper
Ingredients
Dough:
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature (for the baking pan)
- 4 1/2 (572g) cups all-purpose flour
- 3 1/2 teaspoons Instant Yeast, (see Notes for using dry active yeast)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 1/3 cups whole milk
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg yolks
Cream Cheese Filling:
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, homemade or store-bought
Streusel Topping:
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon dark or light brown sugar
- Pinch kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter, cooled to room temperature
For Assembly
- 1 jar berry jam, (I used a combination of wild blueberry and strawberry)
- 1 large egg, beaten in a small bowl
Icing for Topping:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract , store-bought or homemade
Instructions
To Make the Dough:
- In the bowl of a stand-up mixer (with the hook attachment), add the flour, yeast and salt. Mix until combined.
- In a small pot, set over medium-low heat, add the butter and when melted, pour in the the milk and honey. The mixture should be lukewarm; not too hot (no more than 120F or else it’ll kill the yeast).
- If it does get a bit too hot, simply let it stand at room temperature until it cools down.
- In a small bowl, add the egg and egg yolks and beat until combined.
- Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients. Next, add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and knead with machine on medium speed for about 5-7 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
- The dough will be sticky and thatโs ok! Rub a medium bowl with about a teaspoon of oil, (I used olive oil), and transfer the dough to the bowl. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rise for 30-40 minutes or doubled in size (these times can vary depending on how warm/cold your home is).
- Alternatively, cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and allow to rise in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours.
- Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces. Each piece of dough will weigh about 100grams. Roll and shape them into balls. And place six balls on the prepared baking sheet. To another baking sheet, add the remaining four balls of dough.
- Shape the balls of dough, by flattening them into 4-inch diameter. Dust the bottom of a glass with dough and press it in the center of the dough ball. This will make the center super thin.
To Make the Cream Cheese Filling:
- In a medium bowl, add the cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla and pinch of salt. Beat until nice and fluffy and smooth.
To Make the Streusel:
- In a small bowl, combine all of the ingredients and break it up with a fork.
To Fill and Bake the Danishes:
- Add about a tablespoon of the cream cheese filling to the center of each flattened piece of dough. Top the cream cheese filling with a teaspoon of jam.
- Brush the edges with the egg wash and sprinkle on the streusel.
- Transfer to the oven to bake for about 18-22 minutes, until puffed up slightly and medium golden brown.
To Make the Glaze
- In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, salt and vanilla. Drizzle the danishes with the glaze right when they come out of the oven.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Absolutely divine! I’ll definitely use less dough next time, but the flavor is amazing. Be sure to try one about 10 minutes after they come out of the oven, warm and tasty.
So glad you loved them, Hailey! ๐
This looked intimidating but was easy to follow while baking with my toddler. Portions were huge annd turned out delicious! The only thing missing was how much lemon zest to use and what the temp was for the oven. I eyeballed the lemon zest and did 350 for about 20 minutes.
Adriannaโs recipes donโt miss!
Plums are the most perfect autumn fruit. Please, more plum recipes!!!
The dough was so easy to make – and letting it rest overnight in the fridge came in clutch for prep! The cream cheese center was pillowy, slightly sweet and the lemon zest added a nice perky note.
These portions are generous so definitely use 100 grams as a good measure for each dough ball, my dough made extra! And after flattening the dough (but before making the indent with the bottom of a glass), let the dough puff a little, as I found the indent โstayed putโ better.
*recipe should be updated to say the amount of lemon zest use (I measured with my heart) and the oven temp wasnโt listed. I did 350 for 20m.
got it! thanks so much for this feedback, rachel. so glad you loved them ๐
These danishes were absolutely delicious. Everyone loved them!
Hi there! Making these now. Itโs super easy so far.
There wasnโt a temp listed so I am doing 350 and seeing how that goes. They smell delicious! Also you have the lemon zest mentioned in the steps but not in the ingredients.
Took me a few tries, but we did it! These are so fluffy and soft and delicious. Hope you all love them.