This Apple Danish is just one way to enjoy fall. A simple homemade pastry made with flaky puff pastry, rolled and topped with homemade Apple filling and sweet tangy cream cheese. Enjoy bite is a reason to fall in love with Fall. Let me show you how you can make this at home. Let’s watch the short video.

It’s no doubt Fall season, so let’s welcome it with a cup of tea and a freshly baked Apple Danish on hand, that’s the way to welcome Fall.

What does Fall means to you? In Vancouver, Fall is associated with rainy gloomy dayhs ahead of us. We’re talking about October to maybe March of mostly rainy days. But I got used to it, having come from the Philippines were we often have torrential rain, Vancouver rain is nothing. I’ve come to leave with it, and made the most of the rainy days. Fall is more than rain for me, it also means the start of another delicious season, Fall baking is something that I look forward to, and all the other seasons too. Season change opens up variations to what I can cook and bake. Fall is closely associated with Apple and Pumpkin and so that’s what I am going to share with you today. Today is about homemade Apple Danish, crunchy, flaky with homemade Apple filling and sweet tangy cream cheese. Watch the video to see how in made it.

Ingredients for Apple Danish?

• Puff Pastry – I prefer to use the store-bought to make the process easier. Store bought puff pastry are already rolled and the thickness is even. But by all means, use a homemade puff pastry if you feel like it.
• Apple Jam – This one, I make my own. You can also substitute it with other fruit jam like Strawberry, Peach or Apricot.
• Icing Sugar – this is for the sugar glaze, you can skip on the glaze if you want to keep it less sweet.
• Water – to dissolve the icing sugar
• Granulated Sugar – for sprinkling on top before baking
• Egg Wash – a combination of egg plus water for brushing the pastry before baking. This produces a nice browning, but doesn’t really affects the taste. Totally optional
• Cream Cheese – To balance the sweetness of the Apple Filling. Cream Cheese Spread or the one in the box will both work. I find the spreadable easier to use an requires no thawing, so this is what i recommend.

How to Make Apple Danish

Making a homemade Apple Danish is not as difficult as it looks like. Here is a quick run down on how to do it, you can find the detailed instruction below.

Two things that can make the process of making this easier is if you use a store-bought puff pastry. It will save you a lot of time from making it, rolling it and making sure that it has the right thickness. The second one is making the fruit filling in advance. I used my homemade Apple filling but any fruit filling will work great too. Once you have this 2 ready, making this on the day that you want to serve it will be such a breeze.

• Make the Puff Pastry – Just in case you want to make one, make it at least a day ahead so that you do not feel rush.
• Make the Apple Filling – Again, I recommend making this a day in advance, not only that it will make the process faster when you make the Danish but it will also give the Apple filling sauce time to thicken. Alternatively, you can also use store-bought jam or any homemade jam
• Prepare the Cream Cheese Filling – There is nothing to do here, you just take it out of the refrigerator. I prefer not to add any sugar and egg just to keep it simple and easy. Besides, it will tone down the sweetness as the fruit filling is already sweet, or the jam if that is what you are using.
• Make the Danish – This is the most that you need to do the day that you want to make it. Basically you have to cut the puff pastry in 10 strips of 1-inch size. This will make 5 medium size Danish. Connect the 2 strips together and pinch the ends, then twist and turn and with circular motion, make the Danish pastry. Make sure to press the center to give room for the filling, and to seal the center. Once you have this ready, spoon the cream cheese and apple filling (or any filling you prefer). I like to sprinkle raw  sugar on top for a nice browning. Chill the pastry in the freezer at least 15 minutes or however long you need to pre-heat your oven. Puff pastry needs to be cold all the time. Then bake at pre-heated 400F oven.
• Drizzle Sugar Glaze – You can add sugar glaze or you can opt to skip it. Sugar glaze is just a combination of icing sugar and water or milk. You can adjust the consistency by adjusting the amount of liquid. Simply drizzle it on top, again as much or less as you like.

How To Make Apple Filling

I have a simple Apple Filling recipe, this is what I used for this recipe. You can use any fruit jam if you do not feel like Apple. Making a fruit filling is quite simple, simply cook the Apple in sugar and simmer until reduced. Click the recipe HERE

The steps seems quite long, but really it’s not difficult at all. You can replace Apple Filling with Peach, Cherry or Blueberry Filling, I’ll leave below the link for the recipes.

Alternative Filling Options:

If you do not feel like Apple, I know there are people who doesn’t like Apple desserts then substitute it with any other fruit filling,  jam or reduced fruit sauces. I have quite a few selections in my blog, give them a try.

• Small Batch Strawberry Chia Seed Jam (No Refined Sugar Added)
• Small Batch Blueberry Jam (No Refined Sugar Added)
• 5 Easy Homemade Pie Filling
• Small Batch Homemade Cherry Sauce
• Small Batch Peach Pie Filling
• Small Batch Fresh Blueberry Sauce
• Homemade Pineapple Filling – Quick & Easy!

Alternative to Cream Cheese

I find that cream cheese is the easiest option to use as you can buy it ready to use. But another two options that you can also use are:

• Small Batch Salted Caramel Sauce
• [VIDEO] Small Batch Pastry Cream – 3 Flavors

Best Serve the Same Day

Puff Pastry desserts are best serve the day they are made. This gives you a chance to enjoy the flaky crunchy pastry right off the oven. But if you cannot finish it, keep it refrigerated and re-heat at 300F for 15 minutes before serving. It will not be as good as the day it was made, but it will somehow bring the crunch back.

Ingredients:

• 1 Roll of Puff Pastry – Use Store-Bought to make the process easier
• 4 oz or 1/2 cup Cream Cheese (Spreadable in tub is preferable)
• 1/2 cup Apple Filling
• 1/2 tsp Granulated Sugar
• Egg Wash – 1 beaten Egg + 1 tsp water

Sugar Glaze

• 1/3 cup Confectioners Sugar/Icing Sugar
• 1 tbsp Milk or Water

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400F
2. Make the Puff Pastry – if you are making your own, make it in advance to make the process faster and easier. The store-bought puff pastry is my go to as it is saves a lot of work, and this is also what I recommend for this recipe. The original size of the puff pastry that I used was 9 x 10, so I stretch it a little bit to make it square. Roll the puff pastry to a 10 x 10 size then cut into 10 strips (1-inch each). Work as fast as you can while the puff pastry is still cold. Once it soften, it will get sticky and quite challenging to at wits.
3. Make the Apple Filling – Get the Full recipe Homemade Cinnamon Apple Filling
4. Prepare the Cream Cheese Filling – Since this recipe uses spreadable cream cheese (in a tub), there’s really nothing that you need to do here except to take it our in the refrigerator to soften it. If you want to make it sweeter, you can add 1 tablespoon granulated sugar.
5. Twist and Turn – Cut the puff pastry into 10 strips. Get 1 strip and pinch the end to another strip. Twist and turn the puff pastry then make a circular motion to create a circle out of the puff pastry strips. Press the middle of the circle to give space for the filling. Do this for the rest of the strips.
6. Add the Cream Cheese and Apple filling – you can add as much or less as you like. 2-3 tbsp is about right to the portion of the puff pastry.
7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 – 25 minutes
8. Sugar Glaze – You can add sugar glaze or you can opt to skip it. Sugar glaze is just a combination of icing sugar and water or milk. You can adjust the consistency by adjusting the amount of liquid. Simply drizzle it on top, again as much or less as you like.

Makes 5 pieces

Recipe Notes:

1. If the puff pastry becomes soft, put them back in the freezer of refrigerator to harden a bit
2. You can also use caramel or custard as substitute for cream cheese

Other Fall Favorites:

• Pumpkin & Raisins Buttermilk Biscuit
• Cinnamon Glazed Apple Turnover (VIDEO)
• Baked Apple with Walnuts
• Mini Caramel Apple Tarts
• Homemade Apple Filling (VIDEO)
• Caramel Apple Crumb Bars
• 12 Fall Soup To Keep You Warm
• Apple Streusel Muffin (VIDEO)
• Apple Cinnamon Roll
• [VIDEO] Small Batch Bite Size Apple Pie
• Apple Chips

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