Serve up this Cherry Cheesecake Danish for breakfast, brunch, or even dessert.
This breakfast Danish is made with puff pastry, cherry pie filling, cream cheese, and a sweet drizzled glaze on top.
It takes around 30 minutes to make these danishes.

Danishes are a breakfast recipe that is typically made with a fruit filling or jam.
Then you will find most have a cream cheese base for that ultra creamy texture.
Light, flakey, and bursting with sweet flavor in each bite.
Make sure to check out these biscuit cinnamon rolls, and banana chocolate chip muffins, or try these savory omelet bites.
Reasons You Will Love These Cherry Danishes
- Ready in 30 minutes or less.
- Easy to find and use ingredients for this breakfast Danish recipe.
- Made with pie filling and frozen puff pastry.
- This is an easy breakfast, brunch, or dessert recipe.
- Versatile in ingredients you can use for filling the puff pastries.
- Budget-friendly to make.
Cherry Cheescake Danish Ingredients
Puff Pastry – I bought frozen puff pastry for the base of this recipe. Just ensure you thaw the pastry before you go to shape and make it.
Cream Cheese – Ensure you use cream cheese that is at room temperature. This will ensure it spreads and mixes well with the other ingredients.
Egg – Reach for a large egg that is at room temperature.
Sugar – Granulated sugar is going to sweeten the cream cheese mixture.
Vanilla – Add a splash of vanilla in the mixture for added extra sweetness to the cream cheese mixture.
Pie Filling – I used cherry pie filling but you will find that you can use any flavor of the pie filling.
Powdered Sugar – Now you will make a sweet glaze on top using powdered sugar as the base. If your powdered sugar has a lot of clumps, sift it first.
Heavy Cream – Heavy cream is the thickening agent for the powdered sugar glaze.
How to Make Cherry Danishes
Full directions on how to make these Cherry Danish are in the printable recipe card below.
This is a quick walkthrough of how it is made.
Step 1: Preheat the oven and prep your pan.
Then slice your puff pastry into rectangles and place it on the baking sheet.
Step 2: In a bowl, you will add your cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla.
Spread some cream cheese on each pastry in the center.
Step 3: In another bowl add water and egg together, and brush the egg wash around the border of each pastry.
Step 4: Bake as directed, and once you remove spoon the cherry pie filling on top of the centers of the pastries.
Step 5: Mix up the powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla.
Drizzle over the pastries.
If you want to make your own pie filling go right ahead. Whip it up in advance and then store it in the fridge until it is ready to spread on top of the danishes.
Make sure that you put your danishes in a fully preheated oven. You want to make sure it is fully hot so it instantly begins cooking. Otherwise, it can thaw and melt down the pastry too much and make it soggy.
Use a spoon and drizzle over the top, or pour in the Ziploc bag and cut a small tip off the end and drizzle over the top.
Tips and Variations to Recipe
- Ensure your puff pastry is thawed before you work with it. Or it will break apart.
- Make the cherry Danish recipe any size you would like.
- Add lemon zest or a splash of lemon juice to the cream cheese mixture.
- Use any flavor of pie filling you would like.
- Leave off the powdered sugar glaze.
- Dust the top with powdered sugar instead of powdered sugar glaze.
- Drizzle the tops with honey.
- You can make homemade puff pastry if you want.
- Swap the puff pastry with canned crescent rolls if you want. Just roll it out into a large rectangle and then slice it into individual rectangles.
- Top with some chopped nuts for a crunchy texture.
- Drizzle with chocolate or even a hazelnut spread.
- Top with freshly sliced fruit instead of pie filling.
How to Store Homemade Danish
Refrigerate the danishes in a sealed container in the fridge.
These need to be refrigerated due to the cream cheese filling.
The danishes will last around 3 days.
How to Freeze Danish
You can also freeze the cherry danishes as well.
If you stack place wax paper or parchment paper in between layers.
Then freeze for 3-4 months.
Thaw in the fridge.
More Pastry Recipes
If you liked this pastry recipe, you’ll love these ones too:
- Lemon Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish – This recipe uses puff pastry that creates a delicious, buttery, and crisp base for the sweetened cream cheese and sugared blueberries.
- Homemade Poptarts Pastry – Every bite of these toaster pastries, with their flaky pastry shell and sweet strawberry center, takes me back to my childhood.
- Pull Apart Cinnamon Roll – It’s so easy to make and everyone will love these ooey, gooey cinnamon rolls straight out of the oven.
Cherry Danishes
Ingredients
- 1 box 17.3 ounces frozen puff pastry, thawed
- 8 ounce cream cheese softened to room temperature
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract divided
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 can cherry pie filling
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Lay the two sheets of thawed puff pastry out flat on a clean work surface. Use a sharp knife to cut each sheet into 6 rectangles, making 12 total rectangles.
- Use the knife to score a ½ inch border around each rectangle (only cut about ½ way down into the dough). This will allow the outside ½ inch border to puff up while baking and the middle to stay flatter.
- Use a fork to prick several areas around the middle of each rectangle of pastry. This helps to keep the center from rising too much while baking.
- Place the pastries onto one large or two medium baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.
- In a medium mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and 1 teaspoon of the vanilla extract. Scoop the mixture onto the pastries and spread out evenly over the center area, but not onto the ½ inch border.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush the egg wash onto the ½ inch border of each pastry.
- Bake the pastries at 400F for 18-20 minutes until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown. Remove from the oven and transfer the pastries to a wire cooling rack.
- While the pastries are still warm, add a spoonful of the cherry pie filling to the center of each pastry and spread out just enough to mostly cover the cream cheese layer.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, heavy cream, and remaining ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. Drizzle the frosting over the cooled pastries.
Video
Notes
Other pie filling can be substituted for the cherry, such as raspberry, blueberry, lemon, apple, etc.
The pastries should be stored in the refrigerator and keep fresh for up to five days. They can be reheated in the microwave on high for 10-20 seconds.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is automatically calculated with ingredients and serving size and may not be accurate. Please always double check with your own nutritional apps as well.
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