These easy homemade cheese danishes are made with a food processor dough, allowing it to come together in seconds. The dough is flaky and buttery and combined with the lemony ricotta filling, it’s consistently one of the most delicious breakfast pastries I turn out of my kitchen. Truly restaurant worthy.

A freshly baked cheese Danish on a sheet pan.

One day, while waiting for my Auntie to arrive in the early afternoon, I pulled out my copy of Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess and looked for something special to make.

Her cheese Danish recipe sounded ideal for a number of reasons: the pastry is made in the food processor; the filling contains lemon zest and ricotta cheese, two of Auntie’s favorite ingredients; and Nigella notes that recipe is her all-time favorite.

The intro to the recipe sold me. Nigella describes the practice of making this sort of pastry dough in the food processor as revolutionary, not only because the dough comes together in seconds but also because it produces an authentic Danish pastry. She even includes a word of encouragement from Beatrice Ojakangas, the Scandinavian chef who taught her the method via Dorie Greenspan: “Don’t think you’re cheating by taking the fast track — this is how it’s done these days all over Denmark.”

Truly, of all the baking efforts I have made over the years to transform my kitchen into one of my favorite cafes, none has succeeded more than this food processor Danish pastry. This dough is life changing, and the Danishes transcendent.

How to Make Cheese Danishes, Step by Step

First, make the cheater’s croissant dough:

making the processor pastry

Next, mix the filling, a mixture of ricotta, lemon zest, salt, and sugar:

The lemon-ricotta filling ingredients on a board.
Two images: on the lef a bowl with the lemon-ricotta filling unmixed; on the right, a bowl with the lemon-ricotta filling all mixed.

Place a spoonful of the ricotta filling into the center of each square:

Danish pastry dough cut into 8 squares, filled with the ricotta filling, ready to be pinched.

Pinch the corners of each square into the center to make a parcel:

Four pinched cheese danishes, ready for their second rise.

Place the assembled Danishes on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Let proof for 1.5 hours at room tempearture.

Eight egg washed cheese Danishes, ready for their last rise.

Bake for 15 minutes.

An overhead shot of a sheet pan of 8 freshly baked cheese Danishes.
An up close shot of cheese Danishes on the baking sheet.

Then transfer to a cooling rack to cool briefly before serving.

An overhead shot of ricotta-filled cheese Danishes cooling on a rack.

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baked Ricotta Danishes on a sheet pan

Homemade Ricotta Cheese Danishes with Lemon Zest

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Description

Source: Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess

Notes: As noted above, the dough for these Danishes should rest in the fridge overnight. I have included notes below if you need to rush the process along — the Danishes can be made start to finish in as few as 6 hours.

The filling amount listed below is for 6-8 pastries. Double it if you are making the full amount of pastries.

Day-old pastries reheat quite nicely at 350F for 10 minutes or so.

Ingredients

processor danish pastry:

  • 1/4 cup (60 ml) warm water
  • 1/2 cup (125 ml) milk at room temperature
  • 1 large egg at room temperature
  • 2 1/4 cups (286 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 package (2.25 tsp. | 7 g) instant yeast
  • 1.5 teaspoons (6 g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons (25 g) sugar
  • 1 cup (250 g) butter, salted or unsalted, cold, cut into thin slices

cheese danish:

  • 1/2 quantity of the processor danish pastry
  • 1 cup ricotta cheese (I used homemade bc it’s SO easy and SO delicious)
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 6 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 large egg, beaten
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

egg wash:

  • 1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons of milk

Instructions

make the pastry:

  1. If you are using rapid-rise yeast or fresh yeast and have planned ahead such that you know you will be refrigerating the dough overnight: Pour the water and milk into a measuring cup and add the egg, beating with a fork to mix. Set aside. If you need to speed up your cheese-danish-making process or want to make sure your yeast is alive and well: Sprinkle yeast over the warm water and milk with a little bit of the sugar (I take 1/2 teaspoon from the 1 tablespoon) and let stand until the mixture starts to foam a little bit. Then, beat egg with a fork until broken up and add to milk-yeast mixture. Beat mixture with fork again until just combined. Set aside.
  2. Place a large bowl near your food processor. Then put the flour, yeast (if you haven’t mixed it with the milk), salt and sugar in the processor, and give it one quick whizz just to mix. Add the cold slices of butter and process briefly so that the butter is cut up a little. You still want visible chunks of butter about least 1/2 inch in size — about 5 short pulses.
  3. Empty the contents of the food processor into the large bowl, then add in the milk-egg mixture. Use your hands or a rubber spatula to mix the ingredients together, but don’t overdo it: expect to have a gooey mess with some butter lumps pebbling it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, put in the refrigerator, and leave overnight or up to 4 days. (Note: If you have “bloomed” your yeast as noted in step 1, you can get away with two hours in the fridge at this step.)
  4. To turn the dough into pastry, take it (or half of it — I find it easier to work with half the amount of dough at this step) out of the refrigerator and roll the dough out roughly into a 20-inch square, using flour as needed. Fold the dough square into thirds, like a business letter, turning it afterward so that the closed fold is on your left, like the spine of a book. Roll the dough out again into a large square, repeating the steps above 3 times (see video for guidance).
  5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes (you can keep it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, if you haven’t already done so at the earlier stage), or refrigerate half to use now and put the other half in the freezer to use later. Note: If you are pressed for time, skip this 30 minute chill time.

make the danishes:

  1. Combine the cheese, sugar, salt, lemon zest, egg, and butter to make the filling. Roll out the pastry into a big rectangle and cut it in half. Divide each half into fourths and place a tablespoon of filling on each piece of dough. Fold the opposite corners up together and seal with a pinch. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush with the egg wash. Leave them to rise until they double in size, about 1 1/2 hours; they should then feel like marshmallow. Note: With both these cheese danishes and the prosciutto & gruyere croissants, it never looks as though the pastries have doubled nor does the texture of the dough feel like marshmallow. I just stick them in the oven after 1.5 hours regardless of how they look.
  2. Meanwhile, about 30 minutes before they’re ready to be cooked, preheat the oven to 350°F. Pinch corners back together if they have come apart, then place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until puffy and golden brown.
  3. Remove to a wire rack to cool.
  • Prep Time: 11 hours
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Category: Breakfast
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: French