Everything about these cream cheese danishes will bring holiday joy to your kitchen! Twirls of crescent dough layered with cream cheese and baked with a pool of strawberry jam and a buttery glaze on top to finish. Add in those sugared cranberries to bring it right over the top!
These cream cheese danishes are a thing of beauty!
Croissant dough layered with cream cheese, twisted up and baked with a pool of jam on top, and a drizzle of buttery glaze to finish. The sugared cranberries on top are just the bonus for decoration and a bite of tart crunch. Hoo, wow, I’ve been eating them on the reg lately, and those layers of cream cheesy goodness hit just right when they are warm out of the oven. This is my current weakness. And best of all? Everything here is from ALDI – they’re really bringing the holiday magic this year at really affordable prices.
Cream Cheese On Top Vs. Cream Cheese Inside The Layers
I tried these with a little puddle of cream cheese filling on the top, but since this dough (refrigerated croissant dough) really wants to pop up when it bakes, I felt like it was hard to get that dense cream cheese center I was going for.
Personally, I love the cream-cheese-in-the-layers approach because the cream cheese gets evenly distributed throughout the dough so you are guaranteed cream cheese – and just the right amount – in every bite.
Topping Options
How I think about the 3-way topping situation:
- For flavor: strawberry jam
- For color and sparkle: sugared cranberries
- For beautiful sweetness: vanilla butter glaze drizzle
You can sub other types of jam (I’m a sucker for the classic strawberry, but raspberry, blackberry, or even something like fig or apricot could be awesome – and ALDI carries them all)! And you can use a different fruit to garnish in place of the sugared cranberries, or skip them altogether. The sugared cranberries do take some time, so I would recommend making those at least a few hours before, or even the day before, just to keep it really easy.
If you want to go all-out, some streusel crumbles on top would make it extra-danishy!
ALDI Faves For This Recipe
This recipe is sponsored by ALDI and that works out really well for us because, as I’ve mentioned, we *love* ALDI.
You can buy everything you need for this recipe at ALDI – most importantly, the croissants (“crescent rolls”), jam or fruit spread, and cream cheese.
You’ll also need some ALDI essentials as your extras which, if you’re me, you already have in your fridge anyway: organic eggs, organic milk, butter, powdered sugar, and cranberries.
I love ALDI year round but especially at the holidays because they make the holiday fun stuff (charcuterie, dips, snacks, candy, treats, seasonal fruit, meat and seafood, awesome cheese, drinks, even presents for the kids) more accessible and affordable.
BIG BIG FAN.
Pro Tip: Eat These Warm
The last thing to know about these little danishes is that they are really delicious when eaten warm, just a few minutes after coming out of the oven.
Let them cool enough to get the glaze on there without melting into a puddle, and then just sink your teeth into this very festive, warm, buttery, cream cheese and fruit deliciousness.
Description
Everything about these cream cheese danishes will bring holiday joy to your kitchen! Twirls of crescent dough layered with cream cheese and baked with a pool of strawberry jam and a buttery glaze on top to finish. Add in those sugared cranberries to bring it right over the top!
Cream Cheese Danishes
Vanilla Butter Glaze
Sugared Cranberries
- Make the sugared cranberries: Boil 1/2 cup water with 1/2 cup sugar for 3-4 minutes. Add washed and dried cranberries to the pot; stir to combine. Transfer to a parchment-lined tray and let cool for one hour (to make them sticky and not overly wet). Once cool and sticky, toss with the remaining 3/4 cup sugar to coat.
- Make the cream cheese danishes: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Unroll the croissant dough out into one flat piece, and place on a clean work surface. Use a rolling pin to roll it out and press the seams together. You want to make a solid rectangle that is just a bit bigger than the original shape.
- Using a butter knife, spread the cream cheese evenly over the croissant dough. Sprinkle with sugar.
- Cut the dough into 4 long strips. Fold each strip in half (so the cream cheese isn’t getting all over your hands) and then twist each strip into a long rope. Roll the rope into a spiral to make the shape of the danish. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Mix the egg and milk to make an egg wash. Brush each danish with egg wash and dollop each danish with 1-2 tablespoons of the jam. Bake for 10 minutes; increase temperature to 400 and bake for 3-5 more minutes to get desired browning.
- Finish and glaze: Remove from oven and let cool. While cooling, whisk the glaze ingredients together.
- Top each danish with a few sugared cranberries (see notes below) and drizzle with glaze. I really (like, really) enjoy eating these warm. The cream cheese layer, the jammy goodness, the tart crunch from the cranberries… oof. So good!
Notes
I would suggest stirring up your jam a bit to make it more “saucy” before you add it over the top of the danish (like, don’t just put a big solid chunk of jelly or jam on top). If needed, you can add a tiny bit of water to the jam to make it more spreadable and saucy. When they come out of the oven, the jam will be running over the top and they look a bit messy, but once you get the cranberries and the glaze on there it will be a masterpiece.
The glaze is designed to set fast, so that you don’t have to wait too long or make too much of a mess to eat these! So once you mix it up, don’t wait too long to use it or it will set and become harder to drizzle.
When you sprinkle the sugar over the cream cheese, it might create a less-smooth texture with the cream cheese. This didn’t bother me because you fold the strips before you roll and bake them, so the cream cheese layer is tucked inside anyway (and it saves you the step of having to pull out the mixers)! But if it bothers you visually or texturally, you can always just use electric mixers to get your cream cheese and sugar worked together before you start spreading it on the dough.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Scandinavian
Keywords: danish, cream cheese danish, sugared cranberries
Thank you to ALDI for sponsoring this recipe!
