Hello sweet little buttery puffy pastries filled with raspberry swirled cream cheese otherwise known as the Raspberry Cream Cheese Danish. You are a beautiful thing!
You won’t believe how quickly you can whip these little morning treats up. And even better, you can keep everything you need on hand in the fridge or pantry just in case the need for a little sweet bite to go with your morning cup of coffee comes along.
Friends, these are the cutest little pastries. You’ll love them too!
Here’s how you make them: Cut and score your slightly thawed frozen puff pastry. And just a note on the puff pastry – if you are able to find a frozen puff pastry made with all butter (like the one Trader Joe’s carries around Christmastime) go with it! Any puff pastry will be delicious, but I’ve found that the better quality puff pastries made with all butter do make a difference in flavor and in rise.
Place a small scoop of your sweetened cream cheese mixture onto the center of the pastry dough. Add a couple of dollops of raspberry jam and swirl away. Put them in a hot oven and watch them do their thing… which is of course get very puffy!
Let them cool for a bit and then go ahead and drizzle on that almond glaze. Better than any store-bought pastry I’ve ever had for sure. They make the perfect little treat to go with that morning cup (or cups) of coffee.
Everyone is always so happy to see these Raspberry Cream Cheese Danishes on a big platter on the breakfast table. They seem to make everyone linger just a bit longer than usual before the daily routines take over. Enjoy!
Raspberry Cream Cheese Danish
Sweet, flakey, buttery puff pastries filled with raspberry swirled cream cheese!
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 puff pastry sheet (usually come 2 per box in the frozen section)
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons raspberry jam
- 1 egg plus 1 tablespoon water
- sparkling sugar (optional)
For the Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1–2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Lay frozen puff pastry sheet on a clean work surface and allow to thaw for 10 minutes.
- While you are waiting for it to thaw, you can make the cream cheese filling. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar into the cream cheese. Add the heavy cream and vanilla and mix until smooth. Set aside.
- Unfold the puff pastry and cut it into four equal parts. When you unfold it, sometimes it will break on the creases which is fine. Then cut your four parts into quarters, so you have 16 rectangles or squares.
- With a sharp knife, score an inner rectangle as shown. You don’t want to cut all the way through. This helps the puff pastry rise around the filling, and creates a little wall so the filling doesn’t escape.
- Place about 1 teaspoon of the filling onto the center of each puff pastry. Top with a few small dots of the jam, and swirl it around with a toothpick. Don’t worry about being precise with your swirling because you really won’t be able to tell after baking.
- In a small bowl, beat the egg with 1 tablespoon of water and brush only the edges with a pastry brush. This adds a pretty sheen to the finished pastry. Sprinkle the edges with the sparkling sugar if desired.
- Bake for 13-14 minutes. They will puff up, and the edges should be golden. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Allow them to cool completely before drizzling with icing.
For the Icing
- In a medium bowl, whisk powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon of water. Add more water a tiny bit at a time until you have reached the desired consistency. Add almond extract and whisk. Transfer the icing to a small Zip-loc bag, seal, and cut off the tiniest tip of the bottom corner. Drizzle over the cooled danishes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Danish
- Calories: 139
- Sugar: 12g
- Sodium: 55mg
- Fat: 7.2g
- Saturated Fat: 2.3g
- Unsaturated Fat: 4.3g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 17g
- Fiber: 0.2g
- Protein: 1.7g
- Cholesterol: 20mg
These are exactly what I need this morning! Stunning!
What an elegantly simple idea! I’ve had a box of puff pastry in my freezer for a while now just waiting for cooking inspiration to strike – I think may have a found a good use for it ; )
YUM! Definitely better than store-bought pastries!
Yummy cheese danishes:)
Made these this morning they were wonderful. Definitely not as pretty as yours but delicious nonetheless. Thanks!
You are so welcome! Wish I had some right now.
For whatever reason, I love this series of pictures! The coffee and the books are a nice touch. I can totally envision myself eating one with coffee during my morning study.
These are so pretty, Julie. What a fun dessert that can be pulled together in no time!
Yum! This reminds me of a much more delicious (and grown up) version of those frozen Pillsbury toaster strudels I ate entirely too much growing up. These would be gone very fast in our house!
They are similar, you’re right! Loved that little packet of glaze those came with!
Yummy! I always love that icing on top! I like using puff pastry whenever I need to make a quick dessert, and just top it with something.
I LOVE danish, especially when it involves raspberry! Wow, I really want a piece right now.
Thanks Kloe! I really wish I had some left too. I’m going to have to make them again soon!
I wish I had these little lovelies in front of me right now! Raspberry Danish is one of my fav’s! 🙂
Oh me too :0) Thanks for stopping by Jocelyn!
I made these this morning, they are amazing! Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe.
These were easier to assemble than I expected. I had to buy Tenderflake Puff Pastry that came in 2 blocks, then I had to roll each block out. From there I was able to make the squares. They are still baking but I’m looking forward to cooling them and putting on the icing.
Carol, I’m glad you found them easy to make. Hope you enjoy!
Would I be able to freeze them either before or after baking? How would you store them? I’m afraid they’ll go bad before we can finish them.
Yes you can freeze them. Just place pieces of wax or parchment paper in between to they won’t stick. You may have better results if you put the glaze on just before serving. Hope you enjoy.
freeze them before you bake them? or afterwards?
I haven’t tried freezing these before, but I would try doing it after you bake but before you do the glaze. I think the glaze would be too sticky if it froze and thawed.
All I can find is heavy whipping cream is that ok and can you use a homemade thickish blueberry; strawberry; blackberry syrup?
I’m afraid whipping cream won’t work out quite the same as cream cheese, but the homemade syrup would be great!
These looks so good! Thanks
You’re welcome Rosemary. Hope you enjoy!
Thank you for this recipe, mine also didn’t come out looking as beautiful as yours, but they are great.
Glad you like them!
Oh so look good!!! I can’t keep my son from eating them all:)
These look so good!!! Can’t wait to try them! Thanks for sharing.
Hope you love them Heather!
These little jewels were so, so good! I really liked your trick for scoring the inner rectangle, it worked perfectly. Yum, I can’t wait to make them again….soon! Thanks for sharing.
I made apricot and black raspberry tonight. They are delightful and your instructions are easy to follow. Looking forward to enjoying them again in the morning with coffee!
That sounds wonderful! Thanks for letting me know.
Thank you for this recipe, tasted delish! My problem was the dough would puff making the filling spill out. Any idea how to fix that problem? Not enough filling??
Hmmm maybe try scoring the boarder a little more so that only the edges will puff up. Hope this is helpful and glad you liked them!
I made these this morning. I must buy a different brand of puff pastry sheets. I got 12 (toaster strudel sized) pastries, 6 from each sheet. I didn’t have any heavy cream, so I used almond milk in the cream cheese mixture, it worked out fine. The only other change I made was to add a little cream cheese to the glaze to cut the sweeteness a little. What a treat and sooo quick and easy! I’ll definitely make again!
I’m so glad you liked them Ginny, thanks for letting me know!
Did you line the baking sheet with parchment paper?
I used a Silpat baking mat buy parchment paper would be good too.
How do you cut and separate the little rectangules of dough without pulling them out of shape? Also, what surface are you using on your baking sheet? Thanks!
It’s more of a scoring than cutting. It’s easier to do it when the dough is not frozen but quite chilled. The surface is a silicone baking mat called Silpat. Hope you enjoy!
Wonderful recipes. love it!
Thank you Mary!
I made these sugar free for my husband, he loved them. I tried them too, so delish
How nice! Glad this recipe worked out for you.
There were wonderful. Not too sweet and not too rich. Easy to make. Thanks!
I tried this recipe and it was delicious, though not as pretty as yours. My whole family loved them!
Glad everyone enjoyed them Beth. Thanks for letting me know!
Can I make these ahead and how many day will they be good?
I just made the dough the night before. I think they are like cinnamon rolls – best eaten the same day they are baked, but no one refuses them the next day by any means!
These look so good! I’m wanting to make them for a brunch tomorrow morning. I’ve never worked with Puff Pastry before. Would it work to prep through the egg wash stage and refrigerate overnight to bake in the morning? Thanks for any advice!
Kelli, I’m a little worried that if you did these the night before they might not turn out quite as well. The puff pastry could possibly dry out and not rise as well. Hope you enjoy!
Hi again, Julie
I went ahead and tried making the the night before as I found another recipe that said you could. It worked out just fine. I got them on the pans, sprayed some plastic wrap with cooking spray and then covered them tightly and refrigerated them overnight. I took them out about 10 minutes before baking and sprinkled with sugar. They turned out wonderful. I did bake one pan last night so I would have something to compare it to and they seemed the same to me. Thanks again for a fun recipe!
Oh good to know! I’m glad you tried it!