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!
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Raspberry Cream Cheese Danish
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
Sweet, flakey, buttery puff pastries filled with raspberry swirled cream cheese!
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
Tina says
How do you store your extras for the next morning? Do you refrigerate,or just put in tupperware?
Shivonne says
I would say refrigerated because if the filling has cheese and hot house, eat.
Delores Ogden says
This was so easy and so good. The puff pastry is so flakey and the filling is so yummy. Everyone needs to try this.
Julie says
So glad you enjoyed, Delores, thank you!
Heather says
So, I didn’t have raspberry jam (never do, goes too fast and I haven’t had a chance to make any yet this year). I ended up using apple pie filling at hubby’s request. He loved them, said they were a keeper. I am not a sweets person so I have not tried them, but they look good :). Thank you for such a quick and easy recipe!!
Marie Shurtliff says
I made these for a community bake sale and all thought they tasted great, there weren’t very pretty. Either the filling spilled out or was caved in like a hole. I almost didn’t use them because I wanted them to look appetizing for buyers, but the glaze covered up some of the ugliness and ended up selling out! I want to make them again because they were so easy, but can you give me some tips on getting the filling to stay in without creating a crater? Also, the filling seemed runny- can I leave out the cream? Thanks.
Lydia Moore says
OMG, these are so good, my family went crazy over them. Made some with different jams, and all were so good. Off to Trader Joe’s for their Puff Pastry to have on hand for the coming holidays.
Pam says
Can I use fresh raspberries?
Julie says
Yes I think fresh raspberries would be just fine. Maybe a little juicier, but still good!
Paula says
These were delicious. I didn’t use the powdered sugar in the cream cheese though. Instead, I subbed in about 2 tablespoons almond pie filling and changed the vanilla to almond extract.
Julie says
Thank you Paula! I’d love to try them with the almond pie filling – that sounds amazing!
Nicole says
Can you use (for the icing) vanilla extract instead of almond extract? Will it just become sweeter?
Julie says
Vanilla extract will be fine! Enjoy!
Anna Marie says
I just got done making these and they are AMAZING!! Taste so good. I made with fresh raspberries however. Highly recommend and so easy.
Emily says
I’d like to use fresh cherries. Did you do anything to your fruit or just mash it up?
Julie says
I didn’t use whole fruit, just raspberry jam.
Vicki says
Hi Julie, I just made these this morning, and I think I used far too much filling per Danish. Out of curiosity, how big are the sheets of puff pastry you would typically use? I think mine may have been smaller, thus needing less filling in order to avoid overflow.
Thanks!
Sherri says
My first time making these, they came out good. However I like more of a dough with my danish, pasty puff gave me paper vibes. Maybe I should have doubled the sheet. As this recipe makes 16 danishes but they are small I think nexttime I would make 8 to make them bigger.
Katie says
Looks delicious! Do these need to be refrigerated? And are they freezer friendly?
Kendra says
These turned out fantastic! I made a mixed berry jam to pair them with. Family approved! I also added brown sugar and cinnamon to the icing which was perfect.
Diane says
Can I strain the jam to get rid of the teeny tiny seeds?
Diane says
Can I make them a day ahead?
Elaine Crossman says
Oh my goodness! The best!
Followed your directions exactly. Had all the ingredients and did not change anything. I did not have to use the optional sparkling sugar. This recipe is a keeper. Thank you so much.
Christy says
These are so good! Every time I make them people ask for the recipe and my kids beg me to make them. So easy if you buy the premade puff pastry, or you can make your own for much cheaper.
Jaycee says
I never have heavy cream around and, since the recipe calls for only 1 tablespoon of it, I wonder if it could just be omitted or is there something I could use in its place? I noticed in an older comment that someone used almond milk but that’s another item I never have. It seems wasteful to buy a container of either and only use one tablespoon. Do you think plain 1% milk would do the job?
Minerva Moser says
There was way too much of the filling for the amount of puff pastry called for in the recipe, like about five times too much. I didn’t bother to make the icing, but it looks like the recipe makes too much of that, too.
As someone else commented, the little “scoring” around the edges does NOT corral the filling in the center; the filling seeps deep into the pastry as it bakes.
I don’t know what brand of frozen puff pastry you used, but the Pepperidge Farm brand that I used puffed way high up when baked. Looking at your photos, the little pastries seem to have about a fourth of the height; they’re positively flat compared to what I got when I tried this recipe.