Raspberry Candy Cane Danish

I received a recipe for a Raspberry-Cream Cheese Candy Cane Crescent Danish in my e-mail the other day from Pillsbury. I thought it looked really pretty and I was instantly inspired to want to make it here at home!!
What better time than the holiday season to bake special treats for your family. Something like this delicious Danish pastry, is not only incredibly tasty but very easy to make as well!
Raspberry Candy Cane Danish

I went to the shops and picked up everything I needed in order to make it. Refrigerated Crescent Roll dough. In the UK you can use refrigerated Croissant dough.
I think it would be even better with the Croissant dough. Just saying . . .
Raspberry Candy Cane Danish

The refrigerated Croissant Dough in the UK is a bit more like puff pastry I have to say. It is somewhere in between both the crescent dough and puff pastry.
Both will work well. I used the Croissant Dough in the place of the Crescent Dough the whole time I lived in the UK, with the only real difference being there were not quite as many triangles in the roll, and it was a bit flakier.

The fiddliest part was putting them together. There are three elements to the recipe. The dough. The cream cheese filling and the raspberry filling.

The dough of course is ready made. The cream cheese filling as simple as stirring cream cheese and sugar together. The raspberry filling, simply fresh berries stirred together with raspberry jam. I did warm the jam first a tiny bit so it would mix easier.

The fiddly part was cutting the croissant dough triangles in half and placing them onto the baking sheet. You need to place them so they are slightly overlapping at the wide end. It has a tendancy to stretch somewhat.

Once you get that all in place however, the rest is very simple. You do need to soften the cream cheese a bit.

Fifteen seconds in the microwave does the trick beautifully. Stir it together with the sugar and spread it onto the center of the wide end of the pastry, leaving a 1/2 inch border.
I warmed the jam first as I said and then stirred in the raspberries. This gets placed down the center of the cream cheese strip.

Once you have done that, it is as simple as pulling the pointed ends over top to cover the filling and pressing the edges shut. That was probably harder than it sounded, but I managed fairly well.
You then have to gently shape one end of the plait to curve like a candy cane would. I thought that was the most difficult part. I had to fiddle with it a bit to get it just the right shape.

Brush with butter, sprinkle with sugar and bake. Easy peasy. I got there in the end and was reasonably happy with how it turned out!
It was not perfect like the one on their page. But in all honesty any time I do one of these kinds of things, it never does look exactly like theirs!

This was close enough and I was pleased with it in the end. All that remained was to transfer it to a large platter, and then to flick a tasty glaze over top! This was much harder than it seemed. Its a bit flimsy. I had to use three wide ended spatulas to do it and co-ordinate them so that I lifted them at the same time. Now is when I could have used a couple of much longer ones. (Note to self, buy a long flat spatula.)

Also I did not have a platter large enough to hold it. I ended up using a plastic table place mat. Not ideal, but it served the purpose.

Was I in my own home I would have used a baking sheet turned upside down and lined with Christmas wrapping paper and topped with a few paper doilies. Now that would be pretty.

Nevermind, I got there in the end and I thought it looked quite pretty. It is meant to be eaten while it is still warm.
You didn't have to ask me twice did I want a piece. Of course I did! I loved everything about this pastry!

I love, LOVED the dough. Very nice. Soft interior and crisp edged. Very nice indeed.

I loved the cream cheese. What's not to love about a cream cheese filling in anything I ask!

I ADORED the raspberry filling! Tart from the berries and slightly sweet from the jam. Together, all three were spectacularly delicious!

And if it didn't look quite like the one on the Pillsbury page it didn't really matter. This was close enough and had everyone smiling.
I reckon your family would smile as well did you bake this and serve it to them on Christmas morning after the opening of the gifts. It would go fabulously on a Christmas Morning Buffet Brunch Table. Its pretty, its festive, and its delicious!