Photo: Easy Cheese Danish Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
- 2 sheets (1 box) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
- 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and cream them together on low speed until smooth. With the mixer still on low, add the egg yolks, ricotta, vanilla, salt, and lemon zest and mix until just combined. Don't whip!
Unfold 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured board and roll it slightly with a floured rolling pin until it's a 10 by 10-inch square. Cut the sheet into quarters with a sharp knife. Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese filling into the middle of each of the 4 squares. Brush the border of each pastry with egg wash and fold 2 opposite corners to the center, brushing and overlapping the corners of each pastry so they firmly stick together. Brush the top of the pastries with egg wash. Place the pastries on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry and refrigerate the filled Danish for 15 minutes.
Bake the pastries for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan once during baking, until puffed and brown. Serve warm.
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By oheylindsay
San Diego
on May 12, 2013
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Delicious! I didn't change the filling recipe at all, but I had to use pastry shells instead of sheets since the store was out of stock of the sheets. I rolled each shell out so each was a circle, 4-5 inches in diameter. They still came out delish, but I over filled a couple and didn't take too much care in sealing them, so a couple leaked filling. That being said, I am not ashamed to say I scraped off the leaked filling and ate it! Yummm
By edward458
on March 17, 2013
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ok so it was good but make sure to let the batter sit for about 10 min before putting it on the pastry also unless u love lemon flavor leave out the lemon zest it makes taste very lemony and you cant taste the cream cheese.
By RedHairedMama
on March 12, 2013
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I just made this exactly as written, and it was easy and delicious. The filling is a little runny, but sets up with baking; do not over-beat the filling (you just want to fold the filling together--and note that you are just using the lemon zest, not the juice. I let the thawed pastry get too warm, so I struggled with unfolding it--no worries, though: I just cut each sheet into fourths and rolled them out into 5"x5" squares. The final product was just as puffy and light. I used Pepperidge Farm--all butter puff pastry would taste better, but it is harder to find. I am going to try this with Trader Joe's puff pastry, just to compare. I wasn't overly fussy about sealing them (I just pressed the edges together, as directed, and only had one small leak. These are good-sized turnovers; you would want make them half the size if you are serving them as part of a brunch. I think the zest of one lemon would be plenty. Wonderful!
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