Early fall is a bittersweet time for peach fanatics like myself. I relish the cooler weather, but I know this is the end of another fantastic peach season, and the start of a long wait until the next one begins. Personally, I used up my last summer peaches making a gorgeous, four-ingredient peach danish.
Someone once asked me: assuming we're talking about peak ripeness, what fruit do you think is best? Without hesitation, I said the peach. When you get a batch of good peaches, there’s nothing daunting about finishing a dozen in a week. They’re sweet with a touch of acid and super juicy, and the texture offers the perfect amount of resistance without going mealy. I usually enjoy eating them fresh, but recently I wasn’t eating them fast enough—within a day of purchasing a bunch from the Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn, they started to get noticeably ripe. Too ripe.
I decided to skin and pit them for freezing, but I kept some slices for a quick peach dessert. What I didn’t expect was that I’d be thawing those same frozen peaches within a few days so that I could make more of these faux peach danishes. This recipe is an absolute stunner: suspiciously simple to make, and you only need four ingredients.
Technically, these aren’t "true" danishes, but they sure are close. For the pastry, I use store-bought, freezer section puff pastry because it’s easy and tastes good. I remove the skin when I bake with peaches, but you don’t have to. It’s easy to do: Just score an “x” at the base of the peach and give it a 30 second blanch in a pot of boiling water. Rinse the peach in cold water and peel the skin off from the “x” mark you made. Pit the peach and cut it into slices.
From here, it’s just a matter of making the cheese filling and putting the parts together. I made a lightly sweetened cream cheese filling, which couldn’t be easier: Powdered sugar and cream cheese blend easily to make a rich, sweet, and tangy filling that plays well with any summer fruit. Add a dollop to some puff pastry squares and top with peach slices.
This quick Danish bakes tall and produces a dynamic presentation with pointed edges and a sunken fruity center. The textures and flavors add more drama. There’s the brittle crunch from the pastry’s edge, the silky hidden filling, and the bright, tender fruit to add contrast. It’s the perfect breakfast with coffee or an appropriate pick me up in the afternoon.
These are best enjoyed the day they’re made, as the leftovers are lackluster. Luckily, they take barely any time to assemble, so you can easily make them fresh.
Ingredients:
1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 or 2 peaches, peeled and sliced
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Make a sweet cream cheese filling by stirring the powdered sugar together with the soft cream cheese.
2. Lay out a sheet of thawed puff pastry on a bit of flour to prevent sticking. Cut it into six equal rectangles. Place the rectangles on the parchment lined pastry sheet with an inch or two of space in between. (You can brush the outer edges with an egg wash if you’d like extra browning.)
3. Dollop a heaping tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture into the center of each rectangle and place a couple peach slices on top. Bake the danishes for about 15 minutes, or until well-browned and fully risen.
