The best and easiest blueberry lemon Danish recipe

When we go to LA, we love to go to the farmers market.  Besides all the great veggies and fruit, they always have food vendors where we can get things that are delicious.  One of our favorites is the blueberry lemon Danish.   

I decided to try making them at home so we did not have to travel to LA so often.  This was my take.  I was not planning on writing this up except maybe for me and my nephew, but lots of people asked for the recipe, so here it is.  I did not measure as I made this, so amounts are approximate.  If you need a recipe with exact measurements, then this might not be for you. 

To make this recipe easy, I chose to use puff pastry rather than homemade Danish dough.  It was still fabulous.  Here's what I did.





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, I made the lemon filling.  I mixed together cream cheese and lemon curd. I used homemade lemon curd, but you can easily buy it from the grocery store. 

I was cooking some frozen blueberries anyway, so I just took some from the pan before they broke down too much.  In the blueberries I added some brown sugar, cinnamon and lemon.  You can easily use fresh blueberries or even canned blueberry pie filling.  I drained the liquid from the blueberries before I used them on the Danish.

I rolled out one sheet of puff pastry into a 12" square.  I tried to keep the borders straight but if yours rolls out with a less than perfect border, cut the extra parts off.  Try not to roll the puff pastry too hard or it will impact how much your pastry puffs.  Cut the puff pastry into four equal pieces.

The next part is a little tricky.  Each square will need to be cut so that you can make the design.  Use a sharp, pointed knife.  Cut along the top and sides of each strip at about 1/4 inch.  You will cut from the edge to almost the center for each corner.  Look closely at the photo to get a better idea of what this should look like.  While this does not have to be perfect, cutting it properly is important.

Now for the fun part.  Take some of the lemon curd/cream cheese mixture and place it in the center of each piece of puff pastry.  Use a spoon to spread it out just a little.  A few tablespoons should do it and this photo shows about 1 tablespoon.

 

 

Put a tablespoon or two of the blueberries on top of the filling.

 

 

  

  

To form the Danish, carefully take one outer corner of the puff pastry and pull it to the center.  Repeat the same with each corner, gently pressing the center pastry together.  If you want, lightly fold the outer points of puff pastry up a little, but you do not have to do that if you do not want.  Put a little blueberry over the center where the puff pastry folds meet.  I used several berries to cover the center.

  

Put the pastry on a sheet of parchment paper.  Do not use a silpat as is shown in the photo or your puff pastry will be soggy. Here's the recipe.  I hope you enjoy as much as we did.

 

Blueberry Danish

Makes 4
 

Ingredients

•   1 sheet puff pastry thawed
•     6 oz cream cheese, softened
•   2 tbsp lemon curd (or to taste…may use more; maybe less)
•     ½ - 1 cup blueberries (I cooked them a little, added a little sugar and lemon, but left them whole. You probably could use raw ones…or even canned blueberry pie filling if you must)
•   Powdered sugar

Instructions

 

Mix together cream cheese and lemon curd until smooth.  It should not be too lemony, but you can make it to taste.  Set aside.

 

Prepare blueberries by either cooking them slightly with some added sugar and lemon or using them uncooked…or just using blueberry pie filling (as a last resort).  See the texture of the blueberries on the photo below.

 

Roll out puff pastry to 12”, being careful not to press too hard or it will impact the puff you get from the pastry

 

If the pastry is uneven, cut off extra bits to make pastry square.  Cut the pastry into 4 squares.  Separate carefully.

To make the shape use a sharp, pointed knife.  Cut along the top and sides of each strip about ¼” in.  You will cut from the edge to almost the center for each corner.  Look closely at the photo to get a better idea of what this should look like.

 

Place a few tablespoons of lemon crème on the center of the puff pastry.  Slightly spread out.

 

Place blueberries on top of cream.  I ended up using more than this…maybe about 1 ½ times as much.

 

Fold each of the pre-cut edges into the center to make a shape like this.  (that’s why you don’t cut the dough all the way through and stop cutting  at the middle.  Add more blueberries on top of the center of the crust.  I added a lot more on the final product than I did on the first ones.

 

Place on parchment paper (DO NOT USE A SILPAT LIKE I DID IN THIS PHOTO.  THE BOTTOMS WILL NOT BAKE NICELY)  Bake in preheated 400° oven for about 15 minutes or until crusts turn brown.  This is how they will look directly from the oven.  Move to a wire rack and let cool.

 

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Today's Kitchen Tip: Make an easy Valentine's Day dessert

Yum!  Doesn't this look fabulous?  It's so simple to make and epitomizes Valentines Day with it's heart shape and beautiful strawberries and cream filling.

It's really simple to make.  So simple, in fact, that I had a version of this in my kids 9-12 cooking class several years ago.

If you would like the recipe see Valentine's Day Dessert. 

Today's Kitchen Tip: Serve dessert in a chocolate cup

For Valentines Day, it seems like everything goes better in chocolate.  I love to make chocolate cups to put mousse and strawberries in.  Sure, you can buy them in the store, that is, if you can find them.  They are so simple to make, that it takes me less time to make them than it does to find a store that carries them.

Just melt and temper chocolate, then brush a few coats of chocolate into a silicone cupcake liner.  Place in the refrigerator to harden.  Once hardened, remove the silicone and fill with your favorite filling.

We have written instructions for making these cups so you can easily make them, too.

Impress your guests with easy-to-make chocolate cups.

Today's Kitchen Tip: Last minute cookie baking tips

Christmas is almost here and you just realized you haven't even started doing any holiday baking.  There are some simple ways to get plenty of items done in a very short time.

First, you may want to prepare a basic sugar cookie recipe, then turn the dough into different types of cookies.  For example, you can make a plain sugar cookie.  Then you can take some of the dough, add some coloring and flavoring and make a different cookie.  You can roll the dough up into a pinwheel, using your favorite filling....all with the same dough.

I love to take shortbread dough and make shortbreads as well as use it for a delicious crust that can be filled.

If you love chocolate coated pretzels, dipping them individually can be time consuming.  You can take the square pretzels, put on a Hershey's kiss, pop it in a 250 degree F oven for about 3-4 minutes, then lightly press on an M&M.  They taste delicious and you can whip them out a lot quicker than hand dipping each pretzel.

The one thing you want to do is have fun while you are making your desserts.  If it isn't fun, then it just isn't worth making.

Simple sweet tart crust -- No rolling required

Removable Bottom Tart Pan

So many people panic when it's time to make a crust for a tart.  If you are one of those people who hate making and rolling a crust, why  not use a press-in crust. 

My favorite crust for a sweet tart is a shortbread crust.  I just use a shortbread cookie recipe for mine, but when I want a chocolate shortbread crust, this is what I use:




Chocolate Shortbread Crust
Makes 1 10-12” tart

1 cup	Butter, softened
1 cup	Powdered sugar
⅓ cup	Cocoa powder
⅛ tsp	Pure vanilla extract
dash	Kosher salt
1 ½ cups	All purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 300°.   
2. Place butter in medium sized bowl and cream butter until soft and smooth.  Beat in powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and salt until well mixed.  Gently mix in flour until just incorporated.  Do not overmix. 
3. Press dough into a 10 to 12” tart pan with removable bottom.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until crust is set.  Do not overbake or crust will become very hard.  Note:  if crust becomes really hard, it is still tastes great.  Just have people pick up the tart and eat it like a pizza!