Strawberry Cream Cheese Danish

All right. Here's the deal- 

Over the next couple of days, I'm going to be crafting a recipe with my alpine strawberries. I know I said last month that my strawberries were starting to peter out, but I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, WRONG. They are still going and I'm collecting about 20 berries every 2 days. Something needs to be made with these lovely little berries...

Over a year ago (geez) the hubby and I went to Oregon for our 2015 trip. Whilst on our fantastic trip, my brother's girlfriend whipped up a couple of desserts for us. Her parents own an upscale hotel and restaurant in Ashland, OR, and it's safe to say cooking skills and knowledge were passed from parent to child. She made a delectable homemade raspberry tart with the most amazing filling. One of the best parts of the tart, however, was the crust. Oh, that crust. I asked her for the recipe and I've had it in my back pocket for well over a year now. I'm guessing you know where this is going...

That's right. A strawberry tart! A Strawberry Mascarpone Tart to be exact. Oh man, I'm excited! So, because I'll likely be posting a few strawberry recipes coming up, I decided to publish the other existing strawberry recipe I had on deck. Lucky you! 

I find it cray-cray that I'm still getting fresh strawberries. If you were to ask most, they'd snort and say strawberry season was over months ago. But my September has been full of strawberries. As for these danish's here today, I actually made these danish months ago. Months, and months, and MONTHS ago. With store-bought strawberries. Because, you know, you can't win em' all 😜 

But even with store-bought berries, these are amaze-balls. I even completely cheated and used store-bought puff pastry, so these are super-duper easy to make. Hey, even Ina Garten (aka The Barefoot Contessa) uses store-bought puff pastry, so I don't feel guilty about that one! 

Let's talk about how to make these:

Take a defrosted puff pastry sheet-

And cut it into 4th's. 

Roughly chop some strawberries. You could use fresh or frozen.

Place them in a saucepan with some sugar and cook until the strawberries have broken down, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Next, you are going to want to make your cream cheese-mixture. Mix softened cream cheese with a little sugar and vanilla extract. I used Vanilla Bean Paste, but that's not a necessity. 

Mix until whipped.

The last step is to put a dollop of the cream mixture in the middle of a puff pastry square. Top it with a dollop of cream cheese. Next, you'll want to brush a smudge of egg wash on the corners of the puff pastry so they will stick when you fold the squares up. That's it! Put in the oven and it will come out looking all delicious and golden brown-

I added a little icing and some sliced almonds for interest and texture. And let me tell you- these sweet treats were sooooooo hard to stay away from!

I actually had a bit of the cream cheese-mixture and a bit of the strawberry mixture leftover. There was the perfect amount to make a couple of cheesecake shots. At the bottom, I layered graham cracker crumbs, followed by the cream cheese, followed by strawberry. Easy peasy little desserts!

Wouldn't these be perfect for a weekend breakfast-in-bed? I think so! 😍😍😍

All right, I'm off to harvest more strawberries and get to work on that tart 🍓

No rest for the wicked! 😁

Ingredients (makes 4 danish with leftover strawberry and cream cheese mixture):

Strawberry Filling-

1 lb strawberries, roughly chopped

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

Cream Cheese Filling-

1 block cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 puff pastry sheet, defrosted

1 egg, lightly beaten

Icing-

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

garnish- sliced and toasted almonds (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. Make the strawberry filling- Combine strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer. Cook for 20-25 minutes, or until strawberries have begun to break down. Remove from heat, set aside.

3. Make the cream cheese filling- in a stand mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla. Beat until whipped, 2-3 minutes. Set aside.

4. Lay your puff pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Cut into 4th's. Place the puff pastry squares onto a lightly cooking spray-coated cookie sheet in a row. Place a spoonful of cream cheese mixture onto puff pastry, followed by a spoonful of strawberry mixture. Using a pastry brush, brush egg wash onto corner's of puff pastry. Fold all corners of puff pastry towards each other, pinching all the seams together. Bake in preheated oven for 20-30 minutes or until puff pastry is golden and beginning to flake. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before icing.

5. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Mix until well combined. Add more milk to achieve a thinner consistency, if desired. Drizzle icing over cooled danish's, then sprinkle with toasted almonds (if using). Serve immediately!

*Leftover strawberry mixture is also perfect for topping pancakes and ice cream!*

Printable Recipe

Looking for other breakfast ideas? Try these!

Cream Cheese Danish

Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts with Vanilla Glaze

Blueberry Breakfast Bars

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