FLAKY HOMEMADE CHEESE DANISH (Beginner Friendly)

The cheese danish is the crown jewel of donut shop pastry and believe it or not, the ones you can make at home with this recipe taste just as good.

🔪MY GEAR:

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RECIPE
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▪165g or 2/3c warm water (86F/30C)
▪165g or 2/3c whole milk (room temp)
▪50g or 4Tbsp sugar
▪8g or 3tsp instant yeast
▪10g or 1 3/4tsp salt
▪540g or 4 1/3c all purpose flour
▪40g or 3tbsp unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
▪225g or 1/2lb unsalted butter, softened
▪Egg wash (egg with splash of milk)

Add water, milk, sugar, yeast, salt and flour to stand mixer and mix on low speed using dough hook for 2-3min or until well combined. Add 40g of softened butter, 1 piece at a time. Once added, increase mixer speed to medium and continue mixing for 3-4 min until butter is incorporated.

Move the dough to a bowl, round off dough ball as shown @1:00, cover, and set aside to ferment for 90 minutes.

Measure and fold 2 sheets of parchment into an 8”x12” (20cmx30cm) rectangle as shown @1:38. Place 225g butter block between sheets of folded parchment and flatten and spread out butter so that you have a thin 8”x12” rectangle of butter. Place parchment/butter sheet onto a tray and refrigerate to firm up.

After the dough has fermented at room temp for 90 minutes, flour dough ball and work surface then transfer dough to work surface. Roll dough into about a 10” (25cm) x 18-20” (46-50cm) rectangle. Place piece of parchment to cover bottom half of dough as shown @3:39 then fold top half of dough over bottom half with the parchment. Cover with a towel and chill for 15min.

Before using butter, allow to temper slightly so that it’s still firm but malleable. Place butter on bottom ⅔ of dough then fold/laminate butter into dough as shown @5:37. Once laminated/folded roll out into a 12”x8” (30x20cm) rectangle, place on a tray, cover, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Remove dough from fridge and pound and roll out into about a 16” x 10” (40x25cm) rectangle. Place onto fridge one last time to chill and relax for 20 min.

To finish shaping, lightly flour dough then roll into a ½” (1-2cm) thick rectangle (you can cut and freeze half for later if you’d like). Cut into either circles or triangles and shape as shown @8:52 and place on oiled parchment on a sheet tray.

Add filling to center of danishes. 2oz/50g or so if making the larger rounds or 1oz/25g or so if making the smaller triangles. Press the filling down slightly.

Cover, and allow to rise at room temp for 90 minutes. If desired, add fruit jam to center of the cheese filling. Brush egg wash on exposed dough. Bake at 425F/220C for 16-20mins until golden brown.

Allow to cool for 15 min. Once cooled, glaze if you dare.

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FILLING
▪75g or 3/4c powdered sugar
▪2 egg yolks
▪5g or 3/4tsp salt
▪5g or 2 1/2tsp vanilla
▪450g or 1lb cream cheese, softened

Whip for 1-2min or until smooth.

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GLAZE (mix to combine)
▪500g or 3 1/4cpowdered sugar
▪30g or 3/8c milk
▪Zest of 1/2 lemon

🎧MUSIC:

**DISCLAIMER: Some links in this description may be affiliate links. If you buy any of these products using these links I'll receive a small commission at no added cost to you. All links are to products that I actually use or recommend. Thank you in advance for your support!

#cheesedanish #danish #breakfastpastry

[danwest]

The pounding with a round object is also how you stretch out metal when forging. This is a Damascus Danish

[lionelrichie]

Hey danish baker here
In denmark we have 27 butter layers in our pastries, and we either use 25 or 50% butter.
Also in The beginning before we add the butter layer, you want to keep the dough as cold possible. We dont want it to rise until right before you put it in the oven.
Also the Way we would shape the pastry youre making “spandauer”, we would Cut the dough into squares, fold all the corners into the middle and give Them a firm Press so they dont Open up when theyre rising.
;)

[_-JR]

Bri guy...I have forsaken you. I see now that you made this butter block, in the same way you did it for croissants, but I skipped over that part of the video because I thought you did it like how other youtubers do it, with like origami like precision and patience for folding/unfolding one piece of paper. this 2 paper butter block is honestly genius. I should have gave props to it last time you did it. Butterblocks were my biggest hangup for making laminated dough, but I'm so excited to make many flakey treats in the near future.

[deskysurfer]

"The butter is trapped!"

Idk why it was so funny to me, but I audibly laughed when you said that.

[fredfchopin]

I tried making these and they turned out great. Just watch your baking time if you end up making them smaller; I found 12 minutes was about right for the size that I made. Also you don't need to pipe the filling in. A spoon works fine.

[shadowangelina]

This has made me appreciate my favorite local bakery even more!

[NavyAirdaleVet]

Your dough recipe (measured by weight) is spot on, really good flavor and easy to work with. I didn't do the recipe exactly the way you did, but pretty similar. Turned out great.

[artleitch]

Another absolute hit with this recipe. I would caution that it is not particularly beginner friendly (navigating the butter temperature is tricky), but I just followed the instructions and I'm sitting here, proud of the danish I made all by myself. Thanks for another great video, Brian

[ToowokeforFlorida]

Parchment paper packet to trap butter into rectangle! Brilliant!

[alexwloe]

Just found my baking project for this weekend! I've always wanted to try laminated dough and this recipe seems like it will totally be worth the effort

[CookwithSammy]

I followed the folding carefuly, Thanks very much for the details... Always thought it is hard to do but you made it easy for us.
The final result is magnificent, Thank you

[rachelsfoodventures]

In 2016 I tried making these as a truly novice baker and the butter tragically melted out. Then I had the luck of visiting Denmark in 2019 and had the BEST pastry of my life (a chocolate glazed flakey cinnamon roll with this like, caramelized sugar on the bottom and it was so good it was sinful).
This video motivates me to try again, or at least just move to Vejle, Denmark and get in on their butter market 😄
Thank you for all the tips on dough and butter texture because TOO many videos just say "cold" which often leads to butter cracking and ruined lamination.

[patphares]

Wow…this is a top-notch keeper instructional video on laminated dough. Step-by-step demo and guidance with many “aha” moments. My confidence was increased ten fold…now have the courage to take the plunge and get going! Thank you Brian…great job!!

[JB_Fraulein_Kunst]

Adding this to my ever growing list of your recipes I wanna make! The list is growing rather than shrinking, but I'll defo be making them all.

Problem is once I make one of your recipes, it often becomes a fave and then I keep making that again instead of trying new ones (vodka pasta and pesto pasta salad to name a few)

[chrisitinabobinski]

Your little happy dance at the end is so lovely I thought I was the only one who did that 😊

[kevinbozman]

Made these for the first time. WOW. Totally amazing. My first attempt at making pastries. Next time I need to roll them out a little thinner. I found it hard to leave the dough out long enough to relax and roll out more without letting it warm up too much. I was nervous about having the butter melt into the flour. Can someone verify his measurement for the icing? I did it by weight and there was no where near enough milk. I just added some more milk and it was fine. I ended up making 1/2 of them on Saturday. a huge hit!! I let the rest of dough stay in the fridge till Tuesday am and made two more this morning. I didn't have any of the filling left so I just made a quick batch of icing/frosting. I let the dough warm up @ room temp for about 90 minutes then cook for about 12 minutes in my convection toaster oven. I think they were even better. I need to make these on special occasions only! highly recommend

[jcbartlett]

Made these today and they were EXCELLENT, I went too heavy on the cream cheese filling and not heavy enough of my strawberry jam. Next time I’m switching up those ratios

[irishredrose]

I can't tell you how happy I am to see someone use the best butter in the world. I love my Kerrygold Butter. The very first time I heard of Kerrygold butter came from my gym instructor. He was telling me that it doesn't go to your hips and thighs because it actually breaks down the fat in your system. Unlike other butters that go straight to your thighs, stomach and buttocks. I made this recipe and my boyfriend after eating one right out of the oven was floating and hugging himself in the air. I made huckleberry cream cheese danish and they were so good. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes. I have been a professional baker for over 30 years and always wanted to make cream cheese danish. I don't know why I was afraid. I make 6 tier wedding cakes and never give it any thought. Thank you again for sharing. Star

[johncspine]

Try a pinch or two of salt in the egg wash..it thins the egg just a bit, and adds flavor, and changes it a bit glossier..maybe deeper color..you can add more salt than just a pinch if you want that salt snap too..something about a bit of salt in the glaze I like in dessert pastry..

[pimmento]

This is like the Danish I had when I was at school, long ago. At last, than you for the hard work. Getting it together now ❤