Almond Ricotta Cheesecake Braid (Easy Puff Pastry Recipe!!)

Get the recipe here: https://www.dimitrasdishes.com/almond-cheese-strudel-with-greek-honey/

Ingredients
1 package (1.1 lbs/490g) puff pastry (2 sheets)
3/4 cup sliced almonds
8oz (230g) whole milk ricotta cheese
8 oz (230g) cream cheese at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
cinnamon
honey for drizzling on top (optional)
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
granulated sugar for garnish
Instructions
Thaw the puff pastry at room temperature.

Make the Filling: In a large mixing bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, vanilla, and almond extract and beat together until smooth.
Assemble the Braid:
Lightly flour your work surface and roll each puff pastry sheet out to about 12 by 15-inches.
Place each puff pastry sheet onto a parchment paper.
Cut an even number of diagonal slits on each side of the pastry (see video).

Divide the filling between the two pastries anad spread it down the center of each pastry. Sprinkle some cinnamon over the filling.

Fold the diagonal strips of dough in a criss-cross pattern over the filling, forming a braid.
Brush the pastry with heavy cream and top with the sliced almonds. Tuck them into the braid.

Sprinkle the top with granulated sugar and place the braids on 2 baking trays and transfer them to the freezer to chill while the oven heats.

Heat the oven to 400 °F, 200 °C. (if your oven runs too hot, reduce the heat to 350 °F, 180 °C and bake a little bit longer)

Bake the braid on the center rack of the preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until puffed and golden.

Serve warm with Greek coffee.

Kali Orexi!

Notes
Freezer Instructions: the puff pastry braids will keep fresh frozen for up to 2 months. Chill them in the freezer until frozen solid. Wrap with a few layers of plastic wrap. Bake frozen as per the recipe’s instructions. They will take an additional 15 minutes when baked frozen.

Honey Instructions: Skip adding the granulated sugar topping. Once the pastry is finished baking, let it cool for 15 minutes and then drizzle honey on top. Sprinkle cinnamon and serve warm.

Music Used:
Greek Sun Time (With Intro)
ITEM ID: 66582698
By: tonyanthony

Its All Greek
ITEM ID: 84456733
By: LowNotes

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Hi everyone y to another episode of demitra dishes today I cannot wait to share this delicious dessert recipe with you we’re going to be making a creamy Rota puff pastry braid it’s kind of like a strudel but better because it’s looks it looks so much fancier but it’s so

Easy to make you have delicious flaky puff pastry with a creamy almost cheesecake like filling and some almonds it’s just it’s just a delight you’re going to love this let’s get started okay so we’re going to begin by making the creamy Rota filling I’m using a

Tabletop mixer but you can do this in a big bowl with a hand mixer as well go ahead and add 8 oz or 230 G of soft cream cheese it gets nice and soft when you leave it at room temperature for at least an hour then we’re going to add 1

Cup of granulated sugar 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of pure almond extract and then a heaping cup of the best quality Rota cheese that you can find full fat is best because it’s just just nice and creamy and not watery at all if you’re not using a good

Quality Rota it’s going to be grainy and watery and it’ll ruin your filling so try to find a really good quality one like this you’ll know it’s good quality because it won’t be watery and it and it’ll be pretty creamy so add that to the bowl with one egg yolk and then just

Start mixing it until it’s nice and smooth it’s just going to take 2 to 3 minutes on high speed or even a little bit less go in and scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl so if there’s anything Stuck Like Sugar and stuff like that it all incorporates evenly and

That’s it the creamy cheesecake layer is done now we’re just going to prepare the pastries I usually buy the big sheets of puff pastry from my restaurant supply shop but I didn’t have any I completely ran out so I just bought a pack from the

Grocery store it’s a one PB pack and it has two puff pastry sheets in it they’re not as big but I’m just going to roll them out on a lightly flowered surface until each one of them is about 12 inches wide and almost 15 inches long

I’m not going to go exactly to the 15inch mark because then they get too thin and then using a really sharp knife I’m just going to go ahead and cut some slits down the side about 1 in thick slits is going to be good and do that do

That at a diagonal so that way they fold over easily and they form a beautiful braid if you cut an equal amount it’ll just look prettier but I just forget to count and I just go ahead and I cut it the best way I can now take half of that

Creamy Rota filling and put it on the center of of the pastry and then just spread it down the center so that way it’s even and then we’re just going to take one strip at a time crisscrossing over the other and if you have a few

Extra slits on one side you could just take two at a time until they’re all even just like I’m doing over here once you roll the puff pastry out it is best to transfer it to a parchment paper because it just makes it so much easier

To transfer this on a tray later but anyway what’s done is done and we’re going to do the best we can and now it’s just time to brush the top with some heavy whipping cream I used to use an egg wash but I do prefer the flavor of

Heavy cream because it just adds that beautiful color that we want without that plasticky eggy taste so go ahead and brush the top and the side of the pastry with heavy cream and then I have some sliced almonds I’m just going to sprinkle them on top and kind of press

Them in so that way they stay on the pastry and finally I’m just going to sprinkle some granulated sugar on top and then transfer it onto my baking pan if you want to sprinkle some cinnamon on top of the creamy mixture once you’re done you can definitely do that it’ll

Add really good flavor chocolate chips go really good in here it’ll give it almost a canoli flavor but once your pastries are assembled you’re going to have to chill them in the freezer for a good 20 minutes that’s perfect because the oven is going to have to preheat

Anyway so you can do that in the meantime go ahead and preheat your oven to 400° F and then they’ll be ready to bake so we are making two puff pastry braids today because that’s how many you make and why not make an extra one if

You’re not going to be serving it they freeze beautifully so you can bake one and freeze the other or make these ahead of time and freeze both and they’re best frozen before they’re baked so basically you just assemble the whole thing brush it with cream do the whole almond and

Sugar topping and then you set these in the freezer you basically chill them in the freezer until they’re frozen solid and then you can transfer them into freezer safe bags or wrap them really nicely with some plastic W too so that way they don’t absorb any odors from the

Freezer and they will keep fresh in your freezer for like 2 months and you can bake these straight out of the freezer obviously we’re unwrapping them in plastic right and then you can just bake them straight from the freezer for about 45 minutes or as long as it takes for

Them to be beautiful and golden and puffy and so good but I’m baking one and I’m freezing another one today and it is important that you do chill them before you bake them because that’s going to help them puff up in the oven if you put put room temperature puff pastry in the

Oven you’ll you’ll find that it kind of bakes flat so if that’s ever happened to you before that’s the reason chill it a little bit in the freezer and you’ll see it’ll make such a big difference the house smells so good right now if you want to skip the sugar topping and once

It comes out of the oven you can drizzle some Greek honey on top that is so good too we give you options around here but it looks beautiful it’s going to taste delicious it’s golden and puffy and just it’s just perfection goes great with some coffee let’s do the taste

Test these kind of desserts are dangerous around me because I love creamy fillings especially when it tastes like cheesecake especially when it’s almond flavored so good the puff pastry is light and fluffy but perfectly cooked the almonds on top got crunchy and it’s a little sweet from the sugar

And that filling tastes like cheesecake it’s this taste in between like a a Danish like a like a Danish filled with cheesecake filling I don’t know it’s so good if you don’t like almond leave it out I know some people don’t like almond flavored desserts make this vanilla flavored make yourself happy you’re

Making it I hope you guys give this recipe a try you can print it out on the website demetr dishes.com if you have any questions or comments post them down below thank you so much for spending time with me today I’ll see you all next time yes s