Throughout our marriage, one of my side projects with Joey has been figuring out how to make foods he didn’t think he liked into something he likes.
This has been really easy for tons of vegetables and mushrooms, but I recently decided to tackle one that I thought might be impossible: raspberries.
I knew it was a difficult assignment for two reasons: 1. He’s not much of a dessert guy to start with, and 2. He’s tried raspberries several times over the course of our marriage and not really liked them.
Challenge accepted.
I decided to try three different applications for raspberries to see what he might go for, so if you’re like Joey and not much of a fan, I’ll apologize now for the bombardment of raspberries over the next few weeks.
The good news, though, is this week’s recipe can easily be made with any berries, so you still have options.
This comes from the blog “Vanilla Bean Cuisine” by Molly Pisula. You can find the original post at https://www.vanillabeancuisine.com/raspberry-danish/. I added extra ingredients, including bonus vanilla, in my version.
Raspberry Danish
Ingredients
- 1 or 2 sheets frozen puff pastry thawed in the refrigerator (I had about 13 ounces of pastry.)
- Flour for rolling pastry
- 1 egg
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar plus some for decorating
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 6 ounces fresh raspberries
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet or a couple plates that can fit in your freezer with parchment paper, and set it aside.
- Lightly flour a cutting board or your countertop, and roll out the puff pastry to a square about 1/8-inch thick. Cut the pastry into about three-inch squares using a knife or pizza cutter.
- Prepare an egg wash by beating the egg in a small bowl with a fork. Whisk in a tablespoon of cold water, and set it aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until the mixture is smooth.
- To assemble, put a scant tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture into the middle of each square, and top it with three or four raspberries.
- Fold one corner to the middle of the pastry, and then brush the opposite corner with a little egg wash and fold it on top of the other, pressing it a little to make sure it sticks.
- Place the finished danish on the baking sheet. Repeat until all of the puff pastry is used. (There’s no need to put the danishes very far apart on the baking sheet at this point, so go ahead and squeeze them on there.)
- Place the egg wash in the refrigerator to use later, and place the danishes in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.
- When the 30 minutes is nearly up, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Line another baking sheet with parchment paper and place the danishes about two inches apart on the sheet. Using the egg wash from before, brush a solid coating all over each danish.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and cooked through. Let them cool fully, and then sprinkle them with powdered sugar just before serving.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
I really liked these, and when I took them to the office, Adam declared them one of my better triumphs as of late. Plus, they were pretty to look at while being fairly low effort.
The sweetened cream cheese is a great compliment to the slightly tart berries, and the crisp of the puff pastry sends it over the top.
The real question, though, is how did Joey feel about them? I asked. He gave them an eight out of 10. Not too bad for someone who started out disliking the fruit entirely.
And with that newfound confidence, I was ready to give a few more options a try.
This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 8, 2024.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
