- 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.
