Strawberry Cheesecake Danish

These strawberry cheesecake Danish are buttery pastry layers filled with cheesecake filling and jam and topped with a browned butter crumble.

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Servings: Danishes

For best results, weigh ingredients with a kitchen scale.

Ingredients

1 batch easy Danish dough
½ cup strawberry jam 140g / ~5oz
1 egg yolk mixed 1-2 teaspoon milk or cream (the egg wash)

CHEESECAKE FILLING

250 g full fat cream cheese softened (8oz will work)
1 egg yolk from a large egg
¼ cup sugar 50g / ~1 ¾oz
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons whole milk

BROWNED BUTTER CRUMBLE

65 g plain flour all purpose flour (2 ⅓oz)
2 tablespoons light brown sugar 40g/~1 ½oz
2 teaspoons demerara sugar turbinado sugar
40 g salted butter ~1 ½oz

Instructions

Once your Danish dough has had all its folds and has rested for at least 1 hour in the fridge, remove from the fridge and sit it at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes. You don’t want it stone-cold when you roll it or the butter will break up too much.
On a clean work surface, lightly dusted with flour, roll the dough out to 45cmx18cm (~18x7inches). Trim the ends if needed to square them up but make sure you roll it a little more to make it the correct overall size. It should be about 1cm (a little under ½ inch) thick.
Measure and cut the dough into 10 even squares - 9x9cm (~3 ½inch) square.
Place the squares onto baking sheets lined with a silicone baking mat or baking paper. Don’t overcrowd the trays. Cover the trays loosely with plastic wrap and let them proof in a warm spot (not hot) for 45-60 minutes until they’ve puffed up to about double their height.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling and topping.
BROWNED BUTTER CRUMB:
First, preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
In a small saucepan, melt and cook the butter for 4-5 minutes over low-medium heat until it turns a caramel brown colour. Make sure to stir or swirl the pan regularly so as the milk solids separate from the liquid, they don’t burn. Once browned immediately pour it into a medium mixing bowl to stop it cooking.
To the bowl add the flour, brown sugar and demerara sugar and mix with a fork until fully combined. Set aside.
THE CHEESECAKE FILLING:
In a medium bowl, add the cream cheese, sugar and egg yolk. Use an electric mixer to beat for 1-2 minutes until smooth and fully combined. Make sure there are no lumps.
Add the milk and vanilla and beat just until combined and smooth.
Transfer the cheesecake filling to a piping bag (optional but makes it easier to fill the pastries neatly).
Transfer the strawberry jam to a piping bag (also optional).
ASSEMBLE THE DANISHES:
Once the dough squares are nice and puffy, press a big deep dip into the centre of each one. You can just use your fingers or use the base of a glass (slightly smaller than the width of the pastries) for a nicely shaped circle. If using a glass, dip the base in flour before pressing into each pastry.
Brush the top edges of each one (not the sides and not inside the dent) with egg wash.
Pipe about 2 teaspoons of jam into the centre of each dent.
Top the jam with a big swirl of cheesecake filling totally covering the jam.
Add a small dot of jam to the middle of each cheesecake centre and give it a swirl around with a skewer.
Crumble the brown butter crumb topping over each as generously as you like.
You will likely have some crumb topping leftover which you can just bake on a tray in the oven for about 8 minutes and devour at will or save it for scattering over ice cream.
Bake the strawberry cheesecake danishes, one tray at a time, for about 20 minutes. Turn the tray at the halfway point.
Transfer the danishes to a wire rack and serve at or just above room temperature.
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