- Hey, I'm John Kanell,
and today on Preppy Kitchen, we're making cheese danishes.
So let's get started.
To make this pastry, you'll need cream cheese,
it should be room temperature,
a lemon, some powdered sugar, one egg, divided,
granulated sugar, vanilla, milk, and of course, puff pastry.
You can make puff pastry at home, it's really fun.
I have a link for the how-to video in the description box,
or, if you're in a rush, you could definitely buy it,
there's all kinds.
This needs to be thawed before you start
so that you can give it
two 15-second bursts in the microwave,
there's instructions on these packages,
or just leave it to thaw on the counter
for about half an hour to 40 minutes.
First off, set that oven to 375
and position two racks towards the center.
These bake up really quick
and you want that oven nice and hot.
Now we're gonna grab a largish bowl
and make that filling.
You want one eight ounce package of cream cheese.
It should be fairly soft,
so room temperature is gonna be best for this.
Plop that cream cheese right in.
We want three tablespoons of granulated sugar.
A little bit goes a long way here.
I'm also gonna divide that room temperature egg.
I want the egg yolk for the filling
and the egg white is gonna be brushed onto the pastries.
Just separate that out.
If the yolk breaks, it's totally fine
because we're not making a meringue here,
it's a really delicious, easy pastry.
I also want two teaspoons of lemon juice,
but just because I'm a lemon-lover,
I'm gonna add a little bit of the zest in as well.
Lemon and cream cheese are a match made in heaven,
and this, oh my gosh, the zest is everything.
Just gonna estimate out two teaspoons.
One teaspoon of vanilla.
Oh my gosh, vanilla, lemon, cream cheese, arghh!
We're gonna mix this up until it's nice and smooth.
And by the way,
like, you could definitely do this filling
with lots of other things as well.
It's just plain delicious.
So, like for example, if you wanna make little filo cups,
this and the center, mwah, so good.
Once that's nice and smooth,
we are ready to get to the pastry.
So set this aside, clean your workspace off,
and just remember,
you're keeping the egg whites for that egg wash.
I grab two rimmed baking sheets.
I like using the rimmed ones
because I feel like puff pastry burns really quickly
and this just gives them
a little bit of protection in the oven.
I also grabbed a pastry sheet.
You can just use your countertop,
but this makes cleanup super easy.
Give it a light flowering.
This puff pastry thawed in the microwave.
You'll know your puff pastry is too cold
if you see it cracking.
Here, this looks just fine,
I'm giving it one more light flowering,
little flower for my rolling pin,
and we're gonna roll this out just a bit.
If you're using store-bought pastry like I am,
just give it a quick roll
to get the creases a little bit under control.
If you made your own at home, 16 by eight-inch rectangle,
and either way,
you're gonna be cutting this into four-inch squares.
So, get pizza cutter out, it's the easiest way.
You just trim the edge really quick
(lighthearted music)
so it's nice and square.
This recipe will make eight cheese danishes.
So, each sheet would give you four four-inch danishes.
They do not have to be perfect, it's not that kinda recipe.
All right, repeat that for the second sheet.
Just the lightest of roles.
Two simple cuts here.
Now you're gonna grab that reserved egg white.
Oh actually, also,
make sure you move your pastry pieces around
because you don't want them to get stuck.
You just wanna break the egg white up first,
and this isn't to be multipurpose,
it's gonna be a glue that holds everything together,
but it's also gonna give it just like a nice finish
so it'll look a little bit more golden and shiny.
Brush just the last inch with your egg white.
Now you're gonna fold this in
to make little beveled quarter situations.
So fold each corner in about an inch.
You're making a pastry nest, basically,
for your delicious filling.
So it'll help hold everything in,
and when it puffs up, it looks really pretty too.
You don't wanna have this like a big bite of pastry,
you want that filling too
so you're folding the corners in
so every bite will have
a delicious little bit of filling with it.
Repeat that brushing for the rest of it,
and just try and be kind of quick here
because this puff pastry thaws and then it warms up
and gets kind of messy
so you wanna work fairly quickly
and just have a fun time of it.
Notice that as I'm folding,
I'm pressing down in the center of it,
this will hold it together
and just prevent anything from popping up
or weird things happening.
So, grab some egg white between each stroke.
It's helping you not like scrape away
at the puff pastry too, so just grab and dab.
Fold in
(lighthearted music)
and press just like that.
So easy, and they already look pretty cute.
We're gonna transfer these over to your lined baking sheets.
I used Silpats, which are silicone mats
and they're reusable, which I love,
and nothing sticks to them ever,
which is perfect for baking.
Give these a little bit of room to grow.
You don't wanna squeeze them all on there
so just do four per baking sheet and stagger them out
because they will puff up
and it just makes your life easier.
You're also adding more space
so air can circulate in between and they bake evenly.
If you stick them all together,
you're gonna see the outside ones are like super golden
and the inside ones are just kind of like not as golden,
not as cooked through.
I was about to fill these up, I forgot the last step.
You have to brush the outside with the egg wash
before you add the filling on.
Oh my gosh, I've done that the other way around it
and it's not fun.
So we're just gonna brush
all the exposed parts with egg white,
and they'll just be a little bit more shiny and beautiful
when they bake up.
You don't wanna have like a flowery bite in your mouth.
Give them all a brush, don't forget your second tray.
(lighthearted hip hop music)
Now that they're all brushed with egg white,
we can add a scoop of filling in.
I know you wanna be extra generous
and like add a ton of filling into each one,
but it will ooze out and that's not gonna be as fun.
So stick to around a tablespoon, like that much,
I understand if you want a little bit more,
not gonna judge you, but a tablespoon will work best.
I've a little bit of extra filling,
so I'm gonna dole it out accordingly.
It's like a tablespoon and a half for some of these guys,
we'll see how it turns out, I'll report back.
And by the way, if you're wondering like,
"Uh, what about all this edge part,
"like, I really do love the filling,
"but I wanna have some extra sweetness
"because puff pastry is unsweetened?"
We're gonna add the most amazing glaze on
while these go into the oven.
So, that glaze
is gonna be a little bit of extra kind of crunch
and texture and sweetness,
and make everything amazing.
It's also pretty too.
Into the oven.
375 for about 15 minutes
or until that puff pastry is golden and puffed up.
My cheese danishes are out of the oven and cooling,
and while they cool,
we're gonna make a simple vanilla glaze with one cup
or 120 grams of powdered sugar.
Not super precise measurements.
You could make a little bit less glaze,
you could make a little bit more.
You might like it thick, you might like it runny.
It's really easy, so don't stress out.
Two tablespoons or 30ml of milk
and a little mwah, kiss of vanilla, quarter of a teaspoon.
And yes, you could add some lemon juice to this,
you could add like bourbon, whatever you like,
any delicious flavor is gonna be good in this.
Grab a whisk, say thanks to your scale,
and we're gonna give this just a little stir
until it comes together.
This is the consistency of my glaze,
it's really nice, a little runny.
Now, just grab that whisk and casually drizzle it over.
Look at that, so easy, and I actually love the way it looks.
I enjoyed these cheese danishes
like outta the package in high school,
they sold them in a vending machine.
Don't tell anybody that.
But the homemade version is this just amazing.
Just go ahead and really make sure
there's a little bit of glaze
on the outer puff pastry corners.
Everyone's gonna be so happy you did that.
And just like that, our cheese danishes are done.
Mm.
That is delicious.
The filling isn't super sweet
so the glaze just compliments it perfectly.
I hope you get a chance to make this.
And if you like this recipe,
check out my breakfast treats playlist.