Pumpkin Butter and Cream Cheese Danishes

Pumpkin butter and cream cheese danishes. These danishes are incredibly delicious, and I think they’re multiplying while I’m at work, as we seem to have an infinite supply that gets replenished every time I think I’ve polished off the last one. Raise your hand if you want one! Just kidding, I’m keeping these (and their baker!) all to myself. But you can definitely have the recipe.

I made some pumpkin butter to go in these danishes. I’m a huge fan of raspberry cream cheese danishes, so that’s the route I chose to go with for the pumpkin ones. I make the pumpkin butter a little lemony to get some tartness to go with the cream cheese, and I think they came out really well. The dough recipe I used makes about twice as much dough as I needed for the first batch, so more pastries are definitely in order.
 

Pumpkin Butter and Cream Cheese Danishes

Makes 16 danishes.

For the pumpkin butter filling:

• 4 c. pumpkin puree
• ¾ c. water
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• ¼ tsp powdered ginger
• 1 Tbsp honey
• ¾ c. brown sugar

For the Cream Cheese Filling:

• 8 oz. package of cream cheese
• ½ c. Greek yogurt
• ¼ tsp vanilla
• ¼ c. sugar

For the Danish Pastry Dough:

• 2 c. milk
• 1 ½ tsp dry yeast
• 2 large eggs
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 7 c. all-purpose flour
• ⅓ c. granulated sugar
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 lb unsalted butter
• ½ tsp cardamom

For the pumpkin butter:

1. If you are using whole pumpkins to begin with, follow these instructions to make your puree. If you are using canned pumpkin, skip to step two.
   1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
   2. Cut the pumpkin in half, and scoop out the seeds and fibers, discarding or reserving for another use.
   3. Place  pumpkins, cut side down, in a pyrex baking dish and fill the dish with ½ inch of water.
   4. Steam pumpkin in oven for about 45 minutes, until flesh is fork-tender all the way to the skin. Remove the pumpkins from the oven and let cool.
   5. Once the pumpkins are cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and blend until smooth
2. Combine all pumpkin butter ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the ingredients are evenly blended and the mixture holds it’s shape.

For the cream cheese filling:

1. Whip together all ingredients until the mixture is smooth and completely combined.

For the Danish dough:

1. Warm milk to 110°F (in a small saucepan over low heat or in the microwave), then sprinkle yeast over the top of the warm milk without mixing. Allow to sit for five minutes, then beat in eggs and vanilla. Whisk until ingredients are thoroughly combined.
2. Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl until just combined. Cut in 3 Tbsp of butter, cut into small cubes, and use a pastry cutter to loosely combine.
3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and knead until combined. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour. Leave remaining butter to soften while dough chills. The butter should be stiff, but spreadable.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 2’ x 1’ rectangle. Spread remaining butter over the bottom two thirds of the dough. Fold the top third of the dough down into the middle, then fold the bottom third up onto the top, and roll into a 2’ x 1’ rectangle again. Repeat the folds, and refrigerate for another hour.
5. Repeat the folding and rolling process two more times to create layers of butter in the dough. This is what makes the final product light and flaky.

To assemble and bake:

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Roll out chilled dough to approximately ¼ inch thickness. Cut into 6”x8” squares.
3. Orienting rectangles such that the long edge is horizontal, make seven 1 ½ inch slits on either side.
4. Spread a line of cream cheese filling and a line of pumpkin butter vertically down the center of the rectangle, keeping approximately ½ inch away from the inner end of the slits on either side.
5. Fold the top and bottom slits on either side vertically down, to create a cup shape at either end.
6. Fold the remainder of the strips over the filling diagonally, starting from the top and alternating sides to create a crosshatch pattern. Pat down the ends of the strips as you go.
7. Place danishes on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the pastry is golden all over.