Strawberry Cheese Danish

So I haven't had a post in more than a week! 0.0 This week, I've been so busy hanging out with friends, watching Inception (Really great movie btw. It's mind boggling! haha), playing some mini golf, eating out, and playing pool and video games at Gameworks, that I didn't have time to really make anything and have a post. But here I am, back with another post just for you guys! :) As I type this, I am pretty much exhausted so I'm going to keep it short and simple. Hope that's alright! This week's creation was Strawberry Cheese Danish. Ina Garten has another appearance this week. This recipe is extremely simple to follow! The filling is the only thing that you have to work to put together but I was able to whip that up in no time. I made a few changes to the recipe though because the original recipe is for a Cheese Danish not a Strawberry Cheese Danish. I put all the measurements I used below. Overall, the flavor was great. It almost tasted like strawberry cheesecake! However, I did not like the texture of the filling at all. Maybe I'm wrong but shouldn't the filling be creamy? Instead of being creamy, the filling had more of a "curdled" texture which I believe came from the egg yolk. I searched other recipes and they also said to add an egg yolk. But!! I did find a recipe that used flour instead of the egg yolk! That might create a smoother filling than what I had. Here's the recipe and changes to it!!

Strawberry Cheese Danish (Makes 8 Danishes)
Ingredients
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature (Another recipe called for 2 tbsp of flour)
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese (I completely omitted this)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 cup Strawberry Preserves or Jam
2 sheets (1 box) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and cream them together on low speed until smooth. With the mixer still on low, add the egg yolks, ricotta, vanilla, salt, and lemon zest and mix until just combined. Don't whip!

Unfold 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured board and roll it slightly with a floured rolling pin until it's a 10 by 10-inch square. Cut the sheet into quarters with a sharp knife. Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese filling into the middle of each of the 4 squares. Then place a tablespoon of the strawberry preserves or jam onto the cheese filling. Brush the border of each pastry with egg wash and fold 2 opposite corners to the center, brushing and overlapping the corners of each pastry so they firmly stick together. Brush the top of the pastries with egg wash. Place the pastries on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry and refrigerate the filled Danish for 15 minutes.

Bake the pastries for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan once during baking, until puffed and brown. Serve warm.


-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
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