Strawberry Cream Cheese Danish

Strawberry Cream Cheese Danish features flaky puff pastry, sweet strawberries, and creamy cheesecake filling, all baked to golden perfection. Easy to make at home, these Danishes are perfect for brunch, breakfast, or an afternoon treat. With minimal ingredients and maximum flavor, they’re sure to impress family and friends every time.

Love More Fruit Based Desserts ? Try My Fluffiest Cottage Cheese Blueberry Cloud Bread or this Chocolate Chip Cherry Bars next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

With just a few simple steps, this Danish turns basic ingredients into a golden, flaky pastry filled with tangy cream cheese and sweet strawberries. The combination of a crisp exterior and soft, buttery interior creates an irresistible texture, while the sweet and creamy flavors make every bite feel indulgent. Easy to prepare yet impressive enough for brunch or a special treat, it’s a dessert that delivers maximum flavor with minimal effort.

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Ingredients

For the Danish:

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (thawed but still cold)
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• ¼ cup granulated sugar (plus an extra ½ tbsp, divided)
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract (divided)
• 2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced not too thin
• ½ tbsp cornstarch
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp water

For the Glaze:

• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp milk (whole milk works best)

Why These Ingredients Work

Puff pastry has all that butter folded into layers so it does the fancy work for you. Just thaw it and you’re halfway to looking like a pastry chef. Cream cheese needs to be room temperature soft or you’ll get weird chunks no matter how hard you beat it, learned that lesson multiple times. The cornstarch is the secret weapon that keeps the strawberries from making everything wet and gross looking. That egg wash makes them look store-bought instead of like you slapped random stuff together at home.

Essential Tools and Equipment

You don’t need anything fancy for these:

• 2 mixing bowls (medium size works)
• Electric mixer or just a strong arm with a fork
• Sharp knife for cutting
• Pastry brush or honestly just use your clean fingers
• Large baking sheet or cookie sheet
• Parchment paper (don’t skip this)
• Small whisk for the glaze

How To Make Strawberry Cream Cheese Danish

Preheat Your Oven

Turn your oven to 400°F. This high heat is what makes the pastry puff up properly and get that golden brown color that makes people think you know what you’re doing.

Mix the Cream Cheese Filling

Beat the cream cheese with ¼ cup sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Beat it really good until it’s completely smooth – should take about 2-3 minutes by hand or less if you have a mixer. Any lumps will taste weird and people will notice them.

Prep the Strawberries

Slice your strawberries and toss them gently with ½ tablespoon sugar and the cornstarch. Don’t mash them up or cut them too thin or they’ll fall apart. Just slice them thick enough to hold their shape.

Cut the Pastry

Roll out your puff pastry on a floured surface and cut it into 8 rectangles. I cut it in half the long way first, then cut each half into 4 pieces. Here’s the important part – score lines about ½ inch from all the edges but don’t cut all the way through the pastry. Just mark it. This makes those borders that puff up and look professional.

Fill Each Danish

Put about 2 big spoonfuls of cream cheese mixture right in the middle of each pastry piece, staying inside those scored lines you made. Then add a generous spoonful of the strawberry mixture on top. Don’t go crazy with the filling or it’ll spill out everywhere and burn on your pan. I learned this the hard way.

Brush with Egg Wash

Mix the egg with 2 teaspoons of water until it’s well combined. Use a pastry brush or your fingers to brush just the edges of each pastry piece. This is what makes them turn golden brown and shiny instead of looking pale and sad.

Bake Until Perfect

Put them on a parchment-lined baking sheet with some space between each one. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges are puffed up and golden brown. The filling should look set but not overcooked. Don’t open the oven door too much or they might deflate.

Make the Glaze

Let them cool for exactly 5 minutes – any longer and the glaze won’t stick right, any shorter and it’ll just melt off. Mix the powdered sugar with the remaining ½ teaspoon vanilla and milk until smooth. Drizzle this over the warm danishes and serve them right away.

You Must Know

Get that cream cheese soft: Cold cream cheese from the fridge will stay lumpy no matter what you do. Leave it out on the counter for at least an hour before you start baking. If you forgot, you can microwave it for like 10 seconds but watch it carefully.

My secret trick: I put a tiny pinch of lemon zest in the cream cheese filling. Not enough to taste lemony, just enough to make the strawberry flavor way more intense. People always ask what makes them taste so good and I never tell them.

Mistakes I’ve made so you don’t have to:

• Put way too much filling in the centers and it leaked everywhere and burned
• Used cream cheese straight from the fridge and got chunky gross filling
• Forgot the egg wash and they looked homemade but not in a good way
• Didn’t score the borders properly and got flat ugly pastries
• Opened the oven door too many times and they deflated

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

Don’t skip scoring those border lines or your danishes will look flat and boring instead of puffy and impressive. If your strawberries are super juicy, pat them dry with paper towels before adding the sugar and cornstarch. Work fast with puff pastry because when it gets warm it won’t puff up right and you’ll end up with flat disappointing pastries.

Flavor Variations & Ideas

Want to switch things up? I’ve tried all of these and they’re all winners:

Mixed berry version: Use blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, whatever berries you have. Same amount of sugar and cornstarch.

Peach danish: Slice fresh peaches instead of strawberries and add a pinch of cinnamon to the sugar mixture. Tastes like summer.

Apple cinnamon: Dice apples small and use brown sugar instead of white sugar. Add cinnamon and a tiny bit of nutmeg.

Chocolate version: Fold mini chocolate chips into the cream cheese mixture. My kids go crazy for this one.

Lemon cream: Add lemon zest to the cream cheese and use blueberries instead of strawberries.

Savory option: Skip the sugar in the cream cheese, add chopped herbs like chives or dill, and top with sliced tomatoes instead of fruit. Weird but really good for brunch.

Make-Ahead Options

You can put these together completely the night before and stick them in the fridge covered with plastic wrap. Just bake them straight from cold in the morning, adding 2-3 extra minutes to the baking time. Perfect for when you have people coming over and don’t want to wake up at dawn to make breakfast.

I’ve also frozen the assembled unbaked danishes for up to 2 months. Put them on a baking sheet, freeze them solid, then transfer to freezer bags. Bake them straight from frozen, adding about 5-7 minutes to the cooking time. Great for when you want to look like a breakfast hero without doing any actual work that morning.

The baked ones don’t freeze as well – the pastry gets soggy when you thaw them. Better to freeze them unbaked and bake fresh.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

Keep everything cold and work quickly – that’s the secret to good puff pastry. The butter layers need to stay separate to create all that flakiness. If your kitchen runs really hot, stick the assembled danishes in the fridge for 10 minutes before baking.

Don’t stress if your danishes aren’t perfect rectangles or if some filling leaks out. Mine are never perfect and they still taste incredible. The rustic look is fine as long as you get those scored edges right so they puff up.

If your puff pastry tears while you’re working with it, just pinch it back together. It’ll still bake fine. These are supposed to be homemade, not perfect.

Serving Suggestions

These are absolute perfection when they’re still warm from the oven. The pastry is at its crispiest and the filling is creamy and soft. Perfect for weekend breakfast when you don’t want to do much work, holiday mornings when you want something special, Mother’s Day breakfast in bed, or anytime you want to feel fancy without spending a fortune.

I serve these with strong black coffee because the bitter coffee balances the sweet pastry perfectly. Also good with fresh orange juice or even mimosas if you’re feeling fancy. They’re also amazing with a simple fruit salad on the side or Greek yogurt if you want to pretend they’re healthy.

My mother-in-law insists these are better than anything from her favorite bakery that charges eight bucks each. That woman doesn’t compliment anything so I know they’re legit good.

How to Store Your Danish

Room temperature: Keep them covered loosely with foil for up to 2 days, but honestly they’re way better eaten fresh the day you make them.

Refrigerator: They’ll last up to 5 days covered in the fridge, but the pastry gets a bit soft and loses that crispy texture.

Reheating: Pop them in a 350°F oven for 5-7 minutes to crisp the pastry back up. Don’t use the microwave because it makes them soggy and sad. Trust me on this.

Freezing: Don’t freeze baked ones, they get weird. Freeze them unbaked instead.

Allergy Information

Contains: Wheat (gluten), dairy, eggs

For dairy-free people: Use vegan cream cheese (I’ve tried it, works fine) and plant-based milk for the glaze. Tastes a little different but still good.

For gluten-free people: Look for gluten-free puff pastry at specialty stores. It’s harder to find and costs more, but it exists. The texture won’t be exactly the same but close enough.

Egg-free: You can skip the egg wash but they won’t look as golden. Still taste fine though.

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

Can I use frozen strawberries instead of fresh ones?

Yeah absolutely, just make sure to thaw them completely first and pat them really dry with paper towels to get rid of excess water. Otherwise everything gets soggy and gross.

My puff pastry didn’t puff up properly. What went wrong?

Usually happens when the pastry got too warm before baking. Make sure it stays cold while you work with it. Also check the expiration date – old puff pastry doesn’t puff as well.

Do I really need to make the glaze?

Nah, they’re perfectly good without it. You could just dust them with powdered sugar if you want something sweet on top, or eat them plain.

Can I make these for a big group the night before a party?

Definitely. Assemble them completely the night before, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate. Bake in the morning adding just a couple extra minutes since they’ll be cold.

My filling leaked out during baking. Did I do something wrong?

Probably just put too much filling in. It happens to everyone. They still taste good even if they look messy. Next time use less filling and make sure it stays inside those scored border lines.

💬 Tried making these? Leave a comment below and tell me how they came out! I always want to know what people think and if you came up with any good variations I should try.