Introducing Bakery Style Vegan Cheese Danish!
Authentic bakery style yeast buns filled with sweet vegan cream cheese
Quickly though, I must address what has been the most commented phrase on my vegan cheese danish recipe:
“HOW DARE YOU! THAT IS NOT A REAL DANISH DOUGH!”
If you are one of those who want to call me out for this~ Yes you are correct, this is not a true laminated danish dough!
Which in and of itself is an art form and one that I am not about to teach in a 5 minute YouTube video or try to explain in a blog post.
So if it is real deal laminated danish dough you are after then look elsewhere
This vegan cheese danish recipe is for folks who want an easy & fast near exact replica of a danish dough without all the time and technicalities involved.
Not to mention I will bet my last dollar that no one will ever know this is not a true danish dough!
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Notes for Success
I only use Tofutti Cream Cheese for my BAKED recipes *not sponsored
However I recently tried Violife again and it actually worked, though I still prefer Tofutti brand!
Cornstarch is a very difficult ingredient to measure consistently with a volume spoons measure
So while I list both measures below I cannot stress enough how the grams measure with a scale is going to give you the best results.
Divide this process into two days for fresh baked Vegan Cheese Danish in the morning!
Rather than proceeding with the second proofing as listed below in the instructions and video tutorial
You would instead cover the formed danish dough snails with plastic wrap and place the tray in the refrigerator for a very slow proof overnight
However you must still bring them out of the refrigerator at least one hour before baking to allow them to come to room temperature and then get nice and fluffy before baking
This could actually take longer than one hour, so plan your time accordingly to the conditions in your area.
Additionally you can top the danish with nuts or fruit filling for a variation on the cheese variety!
Re: Egg Replacer:
In the video I note that I am using The Plant Based Egg by Freely Vegan
This product is no longer available which has me greatly regretting my heavy promotion of this product in so many of my recipes and videos
That said, I now use Bob’s Red Mill with great results.
Feel free to use any egg replacer you like the most, this is a very friendly recipe
WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO FOR HOW TO MAKE THESE CHEESE DANISH!
Vegan Cheese Danish
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- All Purpose Flour 4 cups (500g) + more for rolling the dough
- Granulated Sugar ½ cup (100g)
- Baking Powder ¼ teaspoon
- Egg replacer 3 teaspoons *see notes above
- Nutmeg ¼ teaspoon
- Cardamom 1 teaspoon
- Salt ½ teaspoon
- Plant Milk warm (approx 100°F) 14 Tablespoons (207ml)
- Dry Yeast 1 Tablespoon + ¼ teaspoon
- Softened Vegan Butter 1 cup (226g)
For the Cheese Filling:
- Vegan Cream Cheese 1½ cup (336g) *see notes above
- Vegan Butter 2 Tablespoons (28g)
- Confectioner's Sugar 10 Tablespoons (75g)
- Cornstarch 3 Tablespoons (24g) *see notes above
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon
For the Cinnamon Schmear:
- Light Brown Sugar ¼ cup (50g)
- Vegan Butter Softened 4 Tablespoons (56g)
- Cinnamon 2 teaspoons
For the Wash:
- Aquafaba 1/3 cup OR your favorite egg replacer wash
- Granulated Sugar 3 Tablespoons
For the Glaze
- ½ cup any jelly or jam * I use apricot for a neutral color
- 2 Tablespoons water
Instructions
- First prepare the dough by proving your yeast in the warm (100°f) plant milk with a pinch of sugar, let it stand to frothy for about 5 minutes.
- In a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment combine all the dry ingredients including the sugar and the egg replacer and mix well
- Add the proved yeast/milk mixture along with the softened vegan butter
- Mix on low speed to incorporate then turn the mixer to medium speed and mix for 5 minutes (scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to help it mix evenly) *You can mix this entire recipe by hand by kneading it all together on a lightly floured work surface to a soft pliable dough
- Turn the dough out onto floured surface and knead it by hand about 20 turns
- Place into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and rest in a warm spot for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour or until almost doubled in size.
- Meanwhile prepare the cheese filling by combining all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand with a wooden spoon until smooth, reserve in the refrigerator until needed.
- Mix the cinnamon schmear also by hand in a medium bowl by blending all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon or spatula until smooth and to a whipped like consistency.
- Once the dough is risen, turn it out onto a floured work surface and gently press out the gasses while forming it into a rectangle shape. that is 18" X 12" approximately ¼" thick.
- Spread the cinnamon filling over the entire surface of the dough then fold the dough over in half from the long side. The resulting size of the dough will now be 18" X 6"
- Cut strips along the short sides to 1" pieces.
- Dock a slit in the middle of each dough strip and form the snail shapes as shown in the video.
- Place the danish snails onto a parchment lined sheet pan spaced 2" apart.
- Cover the pans loosely with plastic wrap and set to a warm spot for approximately 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the temperature of your room. The danishes will be fluffy and puffed.
- Once the danishes are proofed and puffy, start preheating your oven to 350°F
- Press an indent into the center of each danish and fill with 2-3 Tbs of the cheese filling.
- Combine the aquafaba and sugar together & whisk to loosen it up & dissolve the sugar then brush over each danish
- Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 25-30minutes or until golden browned *A double sheet pan will prevent over browning on the bottoms
- While the Danish are baking heat the jelly/jam & water over low heat to melt
- Immediately out of the oven brush the hot melted jam over each danish.
- Serve as soon as possible, yeast pastry goes stale fast and is meant to be eaten the day they are made
Notes
yeast pastry goes stale before it will go bad, so be sure to serve these the same day they are baked.
They will stay fresh for an entire day loosely wrapped and some people keep for 2-3 days & reheat before serving
Do you use instant (quick rise) or regular yeast in this recipe?
regular yeast
I use dry active (so: regular) , NOT quick rise
This recipe was absolutely amazing. I made them with my grandma who is not vegan and she absolutely loved them. The only suggestion I would make is don’t forget to put the cinnamon smear in the fridge because if you don’t it will melt. These would even be good if you made them without the cream cheese and you double the cinnamon smear and made cinnamon rolls.
This was amazing would be great with no cream cheese and if you double the cinnamon smear you could totally make cinnamon rolls. Diffidently buying your book.
Thank you for this amazing recipe. They turned out perfect.
These look amazing! I’m hoping to make them next week for my husband’s birthday. I have a few questions: I’d love to buy the egg replacer you recommend but I doubt it will get here in time before I want to make them. If I wanted to use aquafaba instead, how much should I use? And if I wanted to cut the recipe in half, is there anything in particular I should do or is it as simple as putting in half of each ingredient? Thank you!!
Hi Great thanks! Sorry for the late reply, but YES to AF, 3 Tbs liquid AF and take out 3 Tbs of the liquid from the soy milk portion. With any dough type recipe you may have to adjust the flour by a few Tbs anyway at the stage of mixing after everything is in, but taking out the 3Tbs of liquid that was used to compensate for the PBE will help!
I would love to make these but I live alone so it would be a lot of danish for me. Do you know if at any stage these could be frozen? Thanks!
hi Yes, you can freeze the formed danishes (unfilled) After thawing in the refrigerator overnight (covered) proceed from that step for the filling, second proofing and then baking.
OR you can freeze the finished baked danishes wrapped well for up to 1 month- just take 1 out at a time and let them thaw (you can microwave them too for a faster that)
I made these recently and completely forgot to add egg replacement altogether (was going to use aquafaba). They still turned out amazing! The only thing I noticed is that the Earth Balance that I used might have coalesced a bit at the bottom as they were baking. The bottom did brown a bit more than would be desired, but I didn’t have an extra sheet pan.
I also used an apple filling instead, by just dicing up apples, sauteeing in EB, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, and deglazing with a bit of brandy to help it along. These were simply phenomenal!
Hi Gretchen,
I made this recipe using the method in your cookbook. The danishes looked great after assembling and the final rise, but during baking they all started melting. I lost the filling on most of them. Should I have put the danishes in the fridge during the last rise to keep everything cold?
Thanks!
Hmmm, sounds like they could have been OVER proofed? That would cause the butter in the danishes to melt before the baking process even happens causing very greasy, flat, dense results. NOT SURE that’s what happened?? But would be my first suspicion
I was wondering if that could be part of the problem. I wasn’t very fast at assembling them since it was my first time making them. They were delicious though, so I’ll definitely try again.
Have you been able to successfully make eclairs or puff pastry?
Good attitude! I have always said mistakes are the BEST TEACHERS since you would not know Greatness until you know Failure!!
Yes I have tried Eclairs and NAILED IT…..Until……….. CLICK HERE and be sure to READ the article 🙁
If you are on facebook, join the group Aquafabulous, Baking the Soy Whey- Moira is AMAZING and she has created the best – closest- version of eclairs AND sponge cakes!!
Can you share what brand of vegan cream cheese you used? I’ve used Daiya in the past for baking but it gets very watery and I worry it will make my danishes soggy.
Hi! YES! I only use Tofutti Brand! I have to note that here on this recipe thank you for the reminder! I have not had good luck with any other brand unfortunately!
Thank you so much for your reply! I will have to get my hands on some Tofutti so I can give this recipe a whirl!
I tried these exactly as the recipe mandated–tofutti cream cheese (I agree with you), FYH Vegan Egg (essentially the same as the PBE), aquafaba and sugar wash, lots of butter, new yeast, double sheet pan, etc., and they came out flat like cookies with the bottoms burnt. I know the yeast worked as I saw the dough rise. The cheesy filling is pretty good (though I would add some lemon extract next time), but the cinnamon snail is a grave disappointment. I think the aquafaba wash contributed to the burnt bottoms as there was a burnt sugar crust surrounding some of the danishes. Also a note to the recipe reader: use a LIGHT COLORED jelly. My test batch used elderberry jelly, and while it tasted relatively good for a glaze, it looked horrible. I used lemon marmalade for the second batch–looked much better. That glaze will be sticky, just so you know…..
Hi Amy thank you for the comments to help others, I appreciate the time you took to write this out and I’m sorry it didn’t meet your expectations 🙁
I made these over the weekend, they were OK. I wish you had more instructions on the aquafaba- when to put it in the mix, is it 5 Tbsp or 3- you have in the recipe subbing 5 T milk for the aquafaba, but in the comments you tell someone 3T. Also is grams for the yeast a thing instead of volume? My yeast/milk/aquafaba mixture had doubled in size after the 5 minute activation time, yours looked like milk with a few bubbles mine was VERY bubbly and huge, not sure if i used too much yeast or I wasn’t supposed to have the 5T of aquafaba in with the milk/yeast. The cream cheese filling was great! I used Miyokos cream cheese and it was awesome. The bread part was just kinda blah, it tasted off.. which was most likely due to one of the above issues.
Hey thank you so much for this comment, this is an older recipe from several years ago that sounds like it can use an update! I appreciate that indication and will get right to updating this recipe with more clear instructions!
I saw you added the note! Very cool!
Hello, I’d like to make these today and bake them tomorrow morning for breakfast. Do you think it would be possible to do the final proofing in the fridge overnight?
Thank you!
hi! YES! You are exactly right. Instead of proofing before baking, you will place them in the refrigerator, take them out in the morning about an hour before baking to allow them to come to room temperature and then fluff up before bakng
Hi!! Can I make this recipe non vegan???
Yeah sure, I bet you can find some cow cheese danish on the internet, just do a Google search
Is there another egg replacement powder you’d recommend? The one linked in the youtube video is unavailable. I even went to their actual website and it says the same thing as amazon. I have bob’s red mill egg replacer but I looked at the ingredients and they’re different than the ingredients in the brand you recommend. I haven’t been able to find any with the same combination of ingredients so I’m not sure what would be the best alternative. I also don’t want to use to aquafaba because I haven’t experienced great results using it in baked goods in the past. Any recommendation/s would be appreciated!
Hey there, here is the updated version of the Notes for Success section to help with this!
In the video I note that I am using The Plant Based Egg by Freely Vegan
This product is no longer available which has me greatly regretting my heavy promotion of this product in so many of my recipes and videos
That said, I now use Bob’s Red Mill with great results.
Feel free to use any egg replacer you like the most, this is a very friendly recipe
Great, I’ll try it with that! Thanks for responding!