This Cheese Danish recipe is so easy to make. The cream cheese filling tastes like Cheesecake and the fresh berries and lemon glaze add a bright pop of flavor just like on our Blueberry Muffins.
From the flaky buttery crust to the creamy center, everything about these Cheese Danishes is good and they always disappear fast.
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You’ll love this method of forming the puff pastry. It looks fancy but it’s really very simple and you will be a pro in no time. This is a perfect party dessert or after breakfast treat with a mug of coffee.
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Ingredients for Cheese Danish Recipe
- Puff Pastry – Using a store-bought (thawed) puff pastry, is the easiest way to make these. You can of course use homemade dough if you prefer.
- Berries – For this cheese danish, you will need about 1 1/2 cups of fresh berries or 12 pieces of each berry. If you prefer to make them all blueberry danish or all strawberry danish, that would work as well.
- Cream Cheese – forms the creamy center of the pastry
- Sugar – sweetens the filling
- Egg yolk – gives the filling a smooth and rich texture
- Vanilla extract – either homemade vanilla or storebought work great
- Lemon zest – adds subtle lemon flavor to the filling
Tools You Will Need
- Electric Hand Mixer (or a stand mixer)
- Rimmed Baking Sheet lined with Parchment
- Rolling Pin and a Pizza Cutter
- Small Cookie Scoop to portion cheese filling
- Pastry Brush for applying egg wash
Tips for Making Cheese Danishes
- Thaw puff pastry according to the package instructions. If you try to speed thaw, it will become sticky and difficult to roll out.
- Let the pastries cool completely to room temperature once they are out of the oven. Be patient at the end! The cream cheese filling is very much like cheesecake, so it needs a little time to set properly before enjoying.
- Cool before glazing – once the pastries are at room temperature, apply the glaze. If you glaze a hot pastry, the glaze will melt and run off the pastry.
- Be generous with the glaze. We use every last drop and then lick the spoon.
More Puff Pastry Desserts
The possibilities are endless with puff pastry; braided, filled, folded, rolled, and even made into a cake! These are our favorite easy puff pastry dessert recipes you will make over and over.
Easy Cheese Danish Recipe
Ingredients
Cheese Danish Ingredients:
- 1 lb puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed
- 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon zest from 1 lemon
- 1 1/2 cups berries, (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries)
Egg Wash Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbsp water
Ingredients for Lemon Glaze:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Instructions
How to Make Cream Cheese Danish:
- Thaw puff pastry according to package instructions. Preheat Oven to 400˚F with a rack in the center of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat liner.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine 8 oz of softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg yolk, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1 tsp lemon zest. Beat together on medium/high speed until creamy and smooth.
- Unfold the first puff pastry sheet onto a clean work surface and roll lightly into a 10″x10″ square. Use a pizza cutter to slice each sheet into 12 even strips.
- Combine 2 of the strips by tightly pinching two ends together then twist the strand from top to bottom. Press one end onto your work surface and loop the twisted strand around it, working from the center out. Pinch the end to attach it to the pastry. Flatten the center slightly with fingertips and poke the center a few times with a fork to prevent the center from puffing up too much.
- Place 1 Tbsp of the filling into the center and press the berries halfway into the cream. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 for the remaining strands and second sheet of puff pastry. Transfer filled pastries to lined baking sheet, keeping at least 1/2″ space between them.
How to Make Eggwash & Bake:
- In a small bowl, combine 1 egg and 1 Tbsp water. Beat together thoroughly with a fork.
- Brush outside edges with egg wash and bake in the center of the oven at 400˚F for 18 -20 min. Let cool completely to room temperature so the cream cheese filling sets properly then drizzle with lemon glaze.
Nutrition Per Serving
Q: What is YOUR favorite way to use Puff Pastry? I would love to hear about your creative ideas in a comment below!
Hi I really enjoyed this recipe but I have a question when you don’t want any more of these wonderful pastries do u store them in the fridge or in a container please let me know as soon as possible
Hi Andrea. These don’t last very long in our household but we have stored them in the reference for 1-2 days covered with plastic or in an air tight container.
Love these. They taste amazing, however, the tedious part for me is the dough.😅 is there any other shape or way to make these?
Hi Laura, the store-bought dough is really the easiest version of these that I can think of. I’m glad you enjoyed them!
Made this yesterday and LOVE it!
Thank you Natasha for all the wonderful recipes.
That’s great to hear, Pauline. You’re very welcome. I appreciate the feedback.
I’m excited to try out this recipe! Can I substitute phyllo dough for the pastry dough?
Hi Dani! You can experiment with it. But they are actually quite different so the result would not be the same.
Natasha, do you think your Eclair pastry cream would work for this? I have some leftover.
I haven’t tested that but I think it could work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe, Erika!
I Made this recipe using Challah dough. Omg! Delicious!! Perfect filling. (I don’t like zest, so I used lemon juice instead). Definitely going to make this again. For those that asked about making puff pastry dough… By the way, I have made puff pastry dough, I would not call it easy, it’s time consuming you need to let the dough rest in the fridge a number of times. There is a great recipe in the ‘Spice and Spirit’ cookbook.
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Rivi! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Also… (don’t hate me) but can you use bottled lemon juice if you dont have fresh lemon on hand and if so, how much for each application? Unfortunately,
don’t have fresh, my bad.
Hi Jackie, I haven’t tested that to advise. If you do an experiment, we’d like to know how it turns out!
I used 1 tsp of lemon juice fresh or bottled. Tried both, was delicious.
Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Rivi!
Really need to know if these can be prepped the night before and baked the next day. Does the the berry juice run into the cream cheese if you put them on the night before? Or should we put the fruit on right before baking the next day?
Hi Jackie! I haven’t tested it myself but I think that would work to prep them ahead, cover and refrigerate until ready to bake the next day. Let us know how they turn out if you experiment.
Fantastic recipe! This was the first time that I worked with puff pastry dough and it was tricky, but they still turned out beautifully. The creme cheese filling is wonderful too. Thanks for posting your recipe!!
That’s great, Jeannie! So glad you loved the recipe. Thank you for the feedback.
Natasha can these be made mini using only one ribbon of dough?
Hi Maria! I think it could work but you’ll have to experiment with it.
Hi Natasha,
I’ve made your danish’s quite a few times. I’m running into an issue where the Danish’s have an eggy taste, not very pleasing. I know that my eggs are fresh from Trader Joes, so they’re not bad, but for some reason the danish has that eggy taste that’s off putting. Do you know what I could be doing wrong?
Hi Mike, the proportion of eggs to cream cheese should not cause any eggy taste, but what comes to mind is anytime you have an egg-based recipe around an outdoor draft, it can cause a more pronounced ‘eggy’ smell. You shouldn’t have an eggy taste though.
Loved this recipe, absolutely delicious! Thank you again for another recipe I will add to my recipe book.
You’re welcome, Verell! I’m so glad you loved it.
Hey Natasha! What square cream cheese are you using in the picture?
Hi Jan, we purchased the long block of cream cheese from Costco and cut it into portions.
How could I make mini Danish? Could I use 1 strip of cut dough, twist it and wrap it around itself? I would adjust the cook time
HI Lisa, I have not tested making a mini version yet. I’m sure that will work, we’d love to know how it goes!
Hi can powdered sugar be used instead of granulated ??
And if we can do that then Will the quantity stay the same ?
Btw i Cant wait to try the recipe !!
Hi Samia! I think you could but I have not tested it to advise. I hope you love this recipe!
Thank you so much for this dessert receipe. My Step Son is fighting fires and I am always trying to find ways so that he can have a dessert with his sandwiches which are easy for him to handle operating a front end loader. Thank you again and I know he would thank you also.
I bet this was the perfect treat for him! That’s so thoughtful of you to make that for him!
You’re welcome, Louise! So glad it was enjoyed.
I would like to try these with TipTree raspberry jelly with the cream cheese. Do you think that would work?
Thanks
Hi Monna! I think that could work.
I was craving a cheese danish today and automatically knew I could count on Natasha’s page for a good recipe! And I was right, they turned out DELICIOUS. Thank you!
You’re so welcome, I’m glad you liked it!
Just made these. They came out great, had to go slow on the turning the pastry because of my arthritis, but took my time and found the rest of the process was really easy and fun. Very tasty. thanks
Thanks for sharing, Helen. Good to know that you enjoyed the process of making this recipe!
Hi Natasha,
I love your recipes! But for some reason struggling with this one. I tried this receipe twice but for some reason the dough it coming out raw on the inside. The only part that seems to bake is the outer layer I put the egg wash on. Do you know what I may be doing wrong?
HI Maggie, is your oven fully preheated? Also, are you using the same type of dough as indicated in the recipe?
Can you teach us how to make home made puff pastry store bought is really unhealthy.
Hi Annie, thank you for that suggestion! I’m hoping to tackle this recipe some day soon!