Peach Mango Cream Cheese Danish | A Perfect Pairing with Liberté Méditerranée Yogurt

I have a special fondness for danish. I really, really do. I often blog about sweet treats for breakfast. I just can’t resist making them for my family because I love them so much.

I must thank Liberté  for asking me to make a recipe that would pair well with their yogurt. My husband and I were both in a little state of heaven in our kitchen as we savored every bite of this fresh from the oven danish and some Liberté  Méditerranée yogurt.

Does it sound amazing for the perfect weekend brunch?

It was.

Ingredients

1 sheet store bought frozen puff pastry, thawed
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/8 cup cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (6-ounce) jar peach mango fruit preserves (high quality)
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons natural cane sugar
flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a small bowl beat softened cream cheese, 1/8 cup sugar and vanilla until combined.

Dust the puff pastry with flour and roll with a rolling pin to flatten and smooth, pinching together the seams.

Place the puff pastry on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Spread cream cheese mixture down the middle of the puff pastry lengthwise into 3-inch wide strip. Spoon the fruit preserves on top of the cream cheese.

Using sharp kitchen shears cut the long sides of the pastry into approximately 1-inch wide strips. Cut towards the cheese filling center but stop at least one inch before you get to the filling. Braid the pastry strips, alternating sides over each other. Tuck under and/or remove excess dough at the end.

Brush beaten egg over the top with a silicone brush and sprinkle cane sugar over the top. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool before cutting into strips to serve.

I didn’t measure what I rolled out but it doesn’t need to be exact. The goal is to create a thinner crust and help the seams come together.  This recipe is very flexible, my favorite kind!

I had Liberté  Méditerranée yogurt in peach & passion fruit and wanted a flavor of preserves that would pair well with that. So I found this higher quality jar of peach mango preserves which worked beautifully. You can easily switch up your preserves to whatever flavors you like such as cherry or raspberry or a combination of flavors based on your preferences (or what you have on hand). I was a bit generous, using a little over half my 12 oz jar so if you would like to cut down on the sweetness you can add less.

Believe it or not, I’ve never attempted a braid before making this danish. How is that even possible?  It was so much easier than I imagined and took no time at all.

As you can see, my strips on the right are a bit wider than my strips on the left and it didn’t affect the finished look.  Whether you are an seasoned expert or have never made a braided pastry before, you can easily create a beautiful danish without worrying about perfection.

I left the top end open a bit on purpose so that some of the beautiful orange coloring of the preserves would show through. This did result in a bit of oozing but it if you are like me, a little bit of overflow just makes it even more appealing!

I tucked the ends under a bit on the bottom and cut a single extra strip off at the end so I didn’t have too much excess dough.

I had some sugar in the raw (cane sugar) and wanted extra sparkle to the top of the danish so I sprinkled that over the top after brushing with egg. If you don’t have this, you can use regular sugar as a substitute.

It turned out beautifully golden brown and with the silicone baking mat, the bottom was perfect.

After slicing this, I served it with Liberté  Méditerranée yogurt. Have you ever tried it? It has limited availability but I tracked it down in the organic yogurt section at my local Cub Foods. I’ll be honest, I have never tried a yogurt quite like this before.

It is decadent, almost a dessert in itself and wonderfully thick and smooth. The flavors are really amazing and paired perfectly with my fresh danish!

I found other flavors as well including french vanilla and lemon, although never at the same time. Apparently I’m not the only one enjoying this yogurt as it is often sold out locally.

Now isn’t that a little bit of sweet indulgence in the morning?

You can thank me later, after you’ve tried this awesome combination.

It’s ok, I’ll wait right here until you come back.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. All thoughts remain my own.