Starting the weekend off with a batch homemade breakfast pastries. These raspberry, apricot and lemony cheese-filled pastries are made with a simplified Danish pastry dough. 

The ‘shortcut’ buttery dough is made in the food processor with the butter worked directly into the dough. The dough gets rolled out and folded but it’s not laminated. 

It still takes at least 5-6 hours with two rounds of refrigeration to make the dough and the end result is a buttery and flaky pastry. 

I like recipes like this!

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Homemade Breakfast Pastries

Course Breakfast

Ingredients

For the Pastry Dough

• ¼ cup warm water, between 100-110°F
• 2 ¼ tsp Red Star Platinum Yeast
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup whole milk at room temperature, between 68–72°F
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 tsp salt
• 200 g unsalted butter, cold
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for flouring surface and dough

For the Filling

• ¼ cup raspberry and apricot jam each
• ½ cup cheese filling – see details below

For the Egg Wash

• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp milk

For the Vanilla Icing

• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 tbsp milk or heavy cream
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions

For the Pastry Dough

• Whisk the water, yeast, and 1 tablespoon sugar together in a large bowl. Cover and allow to rest until foamy on top, about 5 minutes. Whisk in remaining sugar, the milk, egg, and salt. Once these wet ingredients are mixed together, lightly cover and set the bowl aside as you work on the next step.
• Cut the cold butter into ¼ inch slices and add to a food processor. Top with 2 ½ cups flour. Pulse the mixture 12-15 times, until butter is crumbled into pea-size bits.
• Pour the flour mixture into the wet yeast mixture. Very gently fold everything together using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Fold just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
• Turn the sticky dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap.
• 1st Refrigeration: Wrap the dough up tightly and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 48 hours.
• Roll and Fold: Take the dough out of the refrigerator. Very generously flour a work surface. The dough is very sticky, so make sure you have more flour nearby as you roll and fold. Using the palm of your hands, gently flatten the dough into a small square. Using a rolling pin, roll out into a 15×8-inch rectangle. When needed, flour the work surface and dough as you are rolling. Fold the dough into thirds as if it were a letter. Turn it clockwise and roll it out into a 15-inch long rectangle again. Then, fold into thirds again. Turn it clockwise. Repeat rolling and folding 1 more time for a total of 3 times.
• 2nd Refrigeration: Wrap up tightly and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours.

Fruit Filling

• You need about ½ cup of filling. Use jam or fruit preserves, lemon curd or any pie filling. You need 2 heaping teaspoons per pastry.

Cheese Filling

• Using a handheld mixer, beat 4 ounces room temperature cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth. Beat in 1 large egg yolk, ⅓ cup granulated sugar, ½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice and ½ teaspoon lemon zest until smooth. Use 1 tablespoon per pastry.

Assemble the Pastries

• Line two large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Take the dough out of the refrigerator and cut it in half. Wrap half the dough and keep refrigerated as you work with the first half.
• Cut the first half of dough into 8 even pieces. This will be about ¼ cup of dough per pastry. Roll each into balls. Flatten each into a 2 ½ inch circle. Use your fingers to create a lip around the edges. Press the center down to flatten the center as much as you can so you can fit the filling inside. (Center puffs up as it bakes.) Arrange pastries 3 inches apart on a lined baking sheet. Repeat with second half of dough.
• Spoon 2 teaspoons fruity jam filling or 1 tablespoon cheese filling inside each.

Egg Wash

• Whisk the egg wash ingredients together. Brush on the edges of each shaped pastry.
• Chill the shaped pastries in the refrigerator, covered or uncovered, for at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Bake for 19-22 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Some butter may leak from the dough and that’s ok.
• Remove baked pastries from the oven. Cool for at least 10 minutes before icing.

Make the Icing

• Whisk the icing ingredients together. If you want a thicker icing, whisk in more confectioners’ sugar. If you want a thinner icing, whisk in more milk or cream. Drizzle over cooled pastries and serve. Recipe inspired by Red Star Yeast.