Easy Blackberry and Cream Cheese Danish

I love a good cream cheese danish. It’s even better when filled with fresh wild blackberries. This one looks and tastes like it came from a fancy French bakery, but it only takes a few minutes to put together and couldn’t be easier, even for a non-baker like me.

This blackberry cream cheese danish looks and tastes like it came from a fancy bakery but is quick and easy to make at home.

The recipe starts with a package of frozen phyllo pastry dough. If you aren’t familiar, phyllo is a stack of paper-thin layers of dough that gets flaky and crisp as it bakes. You can find it in the freezer section of most grocery stores. Most brands will have two 8-ounce rolls per package. You only need one per recipe. Thaw it out before using it.

Find phyllo dough in the frozen dessert section of your grocery.

I like to line a baking sheet with parchment paper and build the danish directly on it. Then you can just transfer directly to a preheated oven and not have a ton of mess to clean up. Start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Unfold the roll of pastry on the parchment paper. In a mixing bowl, blend the cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and egg yolk.

Mix the cream cheese filling ingredients in a bowl.

An electric hand mixer makes this quick and easy.

Use an electric mixer to process until smooth.

Once your filling is mixed, spread it down the center of the pastry, leaving a good 2 inches of bare pastry on either side. Top the cream cheese with fresh blackberries.

Spread the filling down the center of the pastry, then add the blackberries.

Now, you could just fold the sides over the filling and bake, but it just takes a few minutes to make this one really look great. Starting at one end, use a sharp knife or a pair of kitchen shears to make slits every ½ to ¾ inch down the pastry from the filling to the outer edge. Make the slits at a slight angle to the filling. Now, repeat on the opposite side, matching the angle. Don’t worry if the slits aren’t perfect, it will still look great. Now alternate folding each side in, one slit at a time, overlapping as you go to give the pastry a braided look.

Fold the slits over each other, covering the filling.

Brush the top with the beaten egg for a golden finished look.

Sprinkle on some coarse or raw sugar evenly over the surface for added sweetness and texture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25 or so minutes until the danish has puffed up and turned golden brown.

Bake until crisp and golden brown, then drizzle with honey before serving.

Remove from oven and drizzle with honey before slicing. You can also top the danish with slivered almonds, if desired.