Cherry pies, cherry cobblers, cherry jam. Red cherries, black cherries, yellow-marbled cherries, and those fleeting tart cherries that horde like I've got issues when they are ready for picking in mid-July.
Yes, I love me some cherries.
So, you can imagine how thrilled I was to find out that the #TwelveLoaves theme for this month was...have you guessed yet...CHERRIES! Which means that I just so happen to have two cherrylicious recipes coming your way in less than a week's time. It sort of all started with a craving for a cherry pie. More on that this Sunday, so stay tuned.
In the end, I decided on Danish. Because it's been ages since I've had a good Danish. The storebought variety are usually too sweet for me, and I don't know of a bakery around me that makes them. So, I used my "all purpose Danish and Coffee Cake" dough as the base, and added a sweetened cream cheese to go along with my cherries. And if you look closely at the filling in the photos, you'll see that the cherries are accented with vanilla beans. What you won't see is that they're also accented with Pinot Noir. Really. I did that. I'll add the link to the filling itself on Sunday.
Cherry Cream Cheese Danish
Rich Danish Pastries filled with sweetened cream cheese and cherry pinot noir filling.
by
Prep Time: 30 minutes active + 12 hours inactive
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Keywords: bake bread breakfast vegetarian soy-free nut-free cherries cream cheese flour pastry
Ingredients (8 large pastries)
- 2 1/4 teaspoon (1/4 ounce / 7 grams) active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup lukewarm water (110°-115° F)
- 325 grams (2-1/2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour + more as needed
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 ounces (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 1/2 cup lukewarm whole milk (110°-115° F)
- 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
- 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 egg yolk (approximately)
- finely grated zest of 1/4 of a lemon
- 1/4 cup Cherry Pinot Noir Pie filling (or your favorite)
- 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
Instructions
Sprinkle yeast over water in a small bowl and allow it to bloom; this will take about 5 minutes. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Add butter and cut in, as you would for a pie crust, until crumbly. Add the yeast mixture, milk, and egg yolks and stir to combine. Stir in a tiny bit of extra flour to form a soft, slightly sticky dough. Using floured hands, quickly form dough into a ball and place in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Just before you're ready to proceed with your dough, combine all of the ingredients for the cream cheese filling and stir together until smooth. Also have your cherry filling ready.
Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. It'll be stiff, but give it a little punch anyway. Divide dough into 8 (fairly) even pieces. Keep the dough covered with plastic while you're working with a piece.
Working with one eighth at a time, divide it in half. On a lightly floured work surface, roll each of those halves into a long snake (about 18"-20"). Twist the two snakes together, then coil the rope around itself. Tuck in the end. Set on parchment lined baking tray. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover loosely with a sheet or two of plastic wrap, and allow to rise at room temperature until puffed up to almost double in size, ~1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350° F during last 15 minutes of rise time.
Using your thumb or the back of a rounded spoon (a rounded one talbespoon measuring spoon works well) dipped lightly in flour, press down the center of the dough to make a deep indentation. Add 1/2 tablespoon of the cream cheese filling into the indentation, then top with 1/2 tablespoon of the cherry filling.
Slide the tray into the preheated oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden.
Whisk together all of the ingredients for the glaze. Drizzle most of it over the Danish while they are still slightly warm.
Best eaten the same day that it is made, but it can be stored, covered, for a day or two extra, if you wish.
This makes 8 large Danish. You could make 12 smaller ones by dividing the initial dough into 12 portions instead of 8, and then proceeding as directed (adjust filling, as needed). You'll probably need two baking sheets, and watch your baking time as it may be a bit shorter.
#TwelveLoaves June: Cherries
- Buns with Cherries and Beetroot wrapped in Bacon from Luisa of Rise of the Sourdough Preacher
- Cherry-Almond Focaccia from Lora of Savoring Italy
- Cherry Almond Sweet Rolls from Renee of Magnolia Days
- Cherry Almond Twists from Dionne of Try Anything Once Culinary
- Cherry English Muffins from Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories
- Cherry Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins from Alice of Hip Foodie Mom
- Cherry Cream Cheese Danish from Heather of All Roads Lead to the Kitchen
- Cherry Oatmeal Muffins from Kathya of Basic N Delicious
- Cherry Quick Bread from Holly of A Baker's House
- Cherry Sweet Bread Twist from Stacy of Food Lust People Love
- Cherry Swirl Overnight Sweet Rolls from Donna of Cookistry
- Double Cherry Muffins from Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Dried Cherry and Mahlab Scones from Felice of All That's Left Are the Crumbs
- Gluten Free Cherry Almond Muffins with Streusel Topping from Sherron of Simply Gourmet
- Sweet Cherry Rolls with Almond Cream Cheese Glaze from Renee of Kudos Kitchen by Reneé
