8 Days Until Thanksgiving!
We are now one week closer to Thanksgiving! I know my last post was a salad, so to make up for that, I have Pumpkin Danishes with Cream Cheese Icing today!
Sometimes, Cheating is Okay
I’m going to be completely honest and say: yes, I did cheat a little on this recipe. I call these pastries “danishes,” but they’re not really danishes because I didn’t use danish dough. Rather, I took the shortcut and used puff pastry dough. I would go on to explain the differences between danish and puff pastry dough, but I’m not an expert in this field. All you need to know is that they’re different; however, puff pastry is commonly used in place of danish dough when you need a shortcut.
I mainly did this for your benefit. It’s the holidays, and there’s a lot going on. The last thing you want to do is make dough from scratch. Am I right? I figured that using prepared puff pastry dough would be much easier for all of you. Yeah, you’re welcome. It’s like Christmas came early.
Because we’re using store-bought puff pastry, these Pumpkin Danishes with Cream Cheese Icing are the easiest dessert, breakfast, or snack to whip up for your Thanksgiving festivities.
IMPORTANT WARNING!
Now, I do have to warn you about a few things. Puff pastry dough is supposed to be crisp, flaky, and airy. However, it can absorb moisture very easily, which means that it won’t be as crisp and flaky. Because pumpkin puree holds a lot of moisture, the pastry is going to absorb some of it. It sucks, and there’s not really a lot you can do to prevent this from happening. But we’re not going to let that stop us from living our pumpkin danish dreams are we?
So, what you can do is make the pastries the same day you’re going to eat or serve them. Definitely do not make these a day or two ahead of time. They will be soft and soggy, and we don’t want that. If you want to make them in advance, you can freeze the baked pastries (without icing), store them in a plastic bag, and then reheat them in the oven the day you serve them.
Additionally, hold off on drizzling the icing onto the danishes until you’re just about to serve them. The icing has moisture as well, so this is another preventative measure you can take to ensure you’re not giving your guests soggy danishes.
It would also be sh*tty of me to not tell you about this, and have you realize what a disaster your danishes are the second you’re about to serve everyone. When it comes to food, I’ve got your back!
Pump Up the Holidays With Pumpkin Danishes
I’m not going to force you to make these Pumpkin Danishes with Cream Cheese Icing — mostly because I can’t. But let me just say this. They certainly won’t make your holiday worse. And I don’t think anyone will complain if you make them. I’ll just leave it there, and let you make your own decision. The right decision. *Wink* *wink.*
Now that I’ve said what needed to be said, I sincerely hope that you enjoy whatever plans you have for Thanksgiving! Even if your only plans are to order pizza and watch Netflix, I hope it’s everything you’ve dreamed of. You do you, Boo! Have a great day, and I’ll catch you next week for one last post before Thanksgiving hits!
Pumpkin Danishes with Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
For the Pastry
- 2 sheets Puff Pastry (thawed)
- 1 cup Pumpkin Puree
- 1 Large Egg
- 3 tbsp Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanila Extract
- 2 tbsp All Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1/4 tsp Ground Cloves
- 1/8 tsp Ground Nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/2 Large Egg
- 1 tbsp Water
- 2 tbsp Demerara Sugar
For the Cream Cheese Icing
- 2 oz Cream Cheese (room temperature)
- 2 tbsp Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
- 1 cup Confectioner's or Powdered Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 tbsp Milk
Instructions
For the Danishes
- Preheat the oven to 400˚F and line 2 sheet trays with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, egg, brown sugar, vanilla extract, flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Mix with a whisk until everything is incorporated.
- Unfold the puff pastry and roll a rolling pin over it to flatten the seams. Cut the puff pastry into 9 squares.
- Take one square place it in front of you so that it looks like a diamond. Fold and align the bottom corner up to the top corner. You should now have a triangle. Use a paring knife to cut a slit 1/4 inch away from the border on the right and left sides. Make sure that the left and right slits do not meet at the top, leaving a space of the pastry between them. Unfold the pastry so that it looks like a diamond again. Fold the outer edge that is now cut over to the left side so that the corner meets the inner left corner. Then fold the outer edge on the left side so that the corner meets the right corner. Please use the photos in the blog post as a reference for clarification.
- Place the folded pastries onto a sheet tray, lined with parchment paper, spacing them 2 inches apart. If you notice your pastry has gotten soft and sticky, place them into the freezer for about 5-8 minutes. Spoon about 1 1/2 tbsp of the pumpkin mixture into the center of the pastries.
- In a small bowl whisk together the 1/2 egg and 1 tbsp of water to form an egg wash. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg wash onto the borders of the puff pastry. Sprinkle the borders with the demerara sugar.
- Bake the pastries for 12-15 minutes. The pastries should have puffed and turned golden brown. Transfer them from the tray onto a wire rack to cool.
For the Cream Cheese Drizzle
- Combine the butter and cream cheese with a rubber spatula or with the paddle attachment in a stand mixer.
- Add in the confectioners sugar and mix until combined. Then mix in the vanilla extract and milk. Use a fork or spoon to drizzle the icing onto the cooled danishes. Alternatively, you can transfer the icing into a ziploc or piping bag and cut a small hole in the corner to drizzle the icing on top. Enjoy!