Summer Berry Cream Cheese Danish Braid

Summer Berry Cream Cheese Danish Braid

This berry danish is what every other danish wishes it could be. While danish can often seem intimidating, we’ve simplified the process so you still get plenty of flaky layers, but without all the added time and labor. The key is to make the dough the night before you plan on serving, then it’s quick and easy to assemble and bake.

Servings
8 servings
Prep time
30 minutes
Cook time
25 minutes
Passive time
55 minutes

Ingredients

Dough
  • ¼ cup Water, warmed to 110°F (59 mL)
  • 2 ¼ tsp Active Dry Yeast (7 g)
  • 1 ½ cups Unbleached White All-Purpose Flour spooned and leveled (200 g)
  • 2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar (24 g)
  • ¼ tsp Ground Cardamom
  • ¼ tsp Sea Salt
  • ¾ cup cubed and frozen unsalted Butter (172 g)
  • ¼ cup room temperature Heavy Cream (59 mL)
  • 1 room temperature Egg
Cream Cheese Filling
  • 4 oz room temperature Cream Cheese (115 g)
  • ¼ cup Granulated Sugar (48 g)
  • 1 Egg Yolk (18 g)
  • ¼ tsp Almond Extract
Berry Filling
  • 2 ½ cups fresh Mixed Berries (340 g)
  • 1 Tbsp Granulated Sugar (24 g)
  • 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice (15 mL)
  • 2 tsp Cornstarch
Egg Wash
  • 1 Egg (56 g)
  • 1–2 Tbsp Heavy Cream (5-10 mL)
Icing
  • ½ cup Powdered Sugar (65 g)
  • 2–3 tsp Heavy Cream
  • ½ tsp Lemon Zest
  • ¼ tsp Vanilla Extract

Instructions

  1. In a large mixing bowl add the yeast and warm water. Mix to combine and set aside for 5 minutes.
  2. Add flour, sugar, cardamom and salt to the bowl of the food processor. Scatter the frozen butter over the top of the flour mixture. Pulse to combine until the butter is the size of peas.
  3. Add heavy cream and egg to the yeast mixture. Whisk to combine.
  4. Add flour mixture to the liquid ingredients. Use a spatula to mix the dough until the ingredients just come together to form a shaggy dough. Turn onto plastic wrap, wrap the dough and place in the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours, but ideally overnight.
  5. Place the dough (it will be sticky) onto a floured work surface. Use a rolling pin to make a 16 x 7 inch rectangle. Fold the dough into thirds, like a book, making three layers. Turn the dough so the long seam side is facing you and roll out again. Fold the dough into thirds once again, working from right to left. Repeat this process once more.
  6. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
Fillings
  1. In a small mixing bowl add all ingredients for the cream cheese filling. Whisk to combine and set aside.
  2. In another small mixing bowl add all ingredients for the berry filling. Toss to combine and set aside.
Assemble the Danish Pastry Braid
  1. Place the dough onto an 16 x 12-inch piece of lightly floured parchment paper. Roll the pastry dough to roughly 16 x 11 inches, or almost the size of the parchment paper.
  2. Spread the cream cheese filling down the center 4 inches of the dough, leaving 1 inch of dough at either end. Spoon the berries over the top of the filling.
  3. Cut triangle segments from each corner edge at the top and bottom of the danish so you have a rectangle at the top and the bottom of the danish. Cut slanting strips at 1-inch intervals along both sides towards the center using a pastry wheel or a very sharp knife.
  4. Fold down the top rectangle of dough, slightly stretching as needed so you can pinch the corners down to seal. Then, begin "braiding" the dough by stretching the first strip of dough (closest to the dough you just folded down at the top) at an angle over the filling so that it wraps underneath the opposite edge of the danish. Repeat with the strip of dough on the opposite side, overlapping the first strip to create a criss-cross shape, once again, stretching (if needed) to wrap the strip under the side of the danish. Repeat with the remaining strips of dough.
  5. NOTE: If you don’t wrap the dough completely over the top and tuck it under the danish, the danish with open during baking and not keep the braided shape.
  6. Finally, fold the bottom rectangle of dough up to seal the danish, gently stretching to pull the dough over the edges to seal the danish. Grab the edges of the parchment paper and carefully move the danish and parchment onto the baking sheet.
  7. Let rise for 25-30 minutes, or until the strips of the pastry rise a bit. While the dough rests, preheat the oven to 400ºF.
  8. Immediately before baking, brush the pastry with the egg wash. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a deep golden color.
Icing
  1. While the danish is baking, make the icing. In a small mixing bowl add all ingredients for the icing. Whisk to combine.
  2. Remove danish from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before drizzling the icing on top. Serve while warm, or at room temperature.

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