Easy Cheese Danish

October 3, 2011 by mydanishkitchen

Easy Cheese Danish

I saw Ina make these cheese Danish on Barefoot Contessa. They are easy, quick and very delicious. What’s not to like? They are wonderful served warm as well as the following day at room temperature. After the pastries are filled and folded, Ina tells you to refrigerate the pastries for 15 minutes before baking…which I failed to do. 😦 So the first four pastries I baked opened up during baking, not a pretty site (still tasted fantastic though). The next four I put in the refrigerator, as instructed, and these pastries stayed folded after baking. So I can only guess that the refrigeration of the pastries is an important step to keep the folded pastries closed during baking. I’ll remember this for next time 🙂

Ingredients:

2 sheets puff pastry (1 box)

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature

2 tbsp ricotta cheese

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp kosher salt

zest from 1 small lemon

1 egg, beaten, for egg wash

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line two baking pans with parchment paper.

Mix together cream cheese and sugar with an electrical mixer on low-speed. With the mixer still on low, add egg yolks, ricotta cheese, vanilla, salt and lemon zest, mix just until smooth. Place in refrigerator for 1 hour.

Unfold 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface. If needed, roll it to a 10 x 10 inch square. Cut pastry into 4 smaller squares. Brush borders of each square with egg wash and then place a heaping tablespoon of cream cheese filling in the centers. Fold one corner gently over the filling, brush this corner with egg wash. Fold the opposing second corner over the first corner allowing the egg wash to seal the two corners together. Finish brushing the top of pastry with egg wash. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry. Makes a total of 8 pastries.

Using a spatula, place pastries on baking pans and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Then bake pastries for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Enjoy!

Cheese Danish

Source: Barefoot Contessa

9 Responses

on October 5, 2011 at 20:58 outsideoslo

Those look delicious! I’ll be saving this recipe with hopes of making it someday soon. It’s good to hear that they’re still tasty the second day, too. Thanks for sharing!
on October 4, 2011 at 20:53 torviewtoronto

delicious looking danish looks wonderful
on October 3, 2011 at 16:16 Susie

These look so good and would be perfect for a breakfast treat. Love the easy recipe.
on October 3, 2011 at 16:07 Tina@flourtrader

I have a weakness for cheese danish, so posting an easy recipe for this is sure appreciated. They look so tasty and stunning. Great post.
on October 3, 2011 at 14:42 Claudie

I love Danish pastry, and those look great — opened or closed! (Btw: I regularly fail to refrigerate my pastries because I’m too impatient to get to the final result hehe 😉 )
on October 3, 2011 at 13:50 Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

Those look so yummy, hmmm, I’m definitely going to try these out. I love Ina, she’s got such great tips.
on October 3, 2011 at 12:02 Tes

Oh it looks so simple to make and sounds so delicious 🙂
on October 3, 2011 at 10:36 Kate@Diethood

These are beautiful!! I LOVE cheese danish…or any danish! 😉
Thanks for sharing the tip about freezing them a bit before baking… that helps a lot!
on October 3, 2011 at 07:41 Liz

Oh, these look fabulous! I’d be happy to eat the ones that came open 🙂