Easy Cherry + Cream Cheese Puff Pastry Braid
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This cherry puff pastry braid looks fancy but is actually easy to make. Pre-made puff pastry is filled with a sweet cream cheese filling and cherry jam for a delicious breakfast treat!
Looking for a beautiful and sweet breakfast treat? This easy cherry and cream cheese puff pastry braid is just the thing!
It looks like a fancy Danish pastry- with puff pastry, cream cheese filling, and delicious cherry jam. Finished off with a sweet drizzle of icing, and it is perfection!
This is a Cozy Mystery Cooking Club recipe, inspired by our December book, Yeast of Eden by Sarah Fox.
How to Make Cherry + Cream Cheese Puff Pastry Braid
It may seem like it takes a bunch of steps, but if you read through the recipe first, it’s really not too bad! First you’ll make your cream cheese filling, and then set up your puff pastry sheet for filling.
Fill it up with the cream cheese mixture, top with jam, and move onto folding it up. The folding part of it is probably the most tricky, but honestly, it doesn’t need to be perfect- it’ll taste good just the same!
Here’s a little step by step image tutorial for the filling and folding:
Now that that’s done, brush your pastry with an egg wash, let it rest in the fridge for a bit, and bake that baby up! After it’s done baking, drizzle it with a simple icing and let it cool down some.
Then it’s the fun part- slice it up and serve! Yum.
A Few Notes For This Cherry Cream Cheese Puff Pastry
-Make sure you use regular cream cheese-not reduced fat. With reduced fat, you have a much greater chance of the filling leaking out of the pastry while it bakes. Go ahead and ask me how I know that- lol!
-If you really wanted to, you could make your own puff pastry, but I suggest using a good quality one from the frozen section of your grocery. Thaw it and use right away for best puffing.
-When you make the filling, make sure you beat it together to form a smooth filling. If it’s bumpy or lumpy (which can happen sometimes with cream cheese if it’s not fully softened), you might end up with a weird texture when you bake the pastry.
Of course! You can use any kind of jam or preserves for this puff pastry braid. Blueberry or blackberry would be really great, strawberry or cranberry…whatever you like.
You can make this the night before and gently warm it in the oven the next morning. After baking it the night before, don’t drizzle it with icing yet. Let it cool completely, then cover it and place it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, warm it in the oven just until warm – make sure not to burn!- and then drizzle the icing on while it’s warm.
Well, that depends exactly on how big you make the slices. I like to slice it in about 2 inch sections, which gives me about 5-6 slices per braid. This recipe is written for two pastries, but you can easily halve it if you want just one.
Hmm, I think that’s it! You now know all about how to make this cherry cream cheese puff pastry braid- so what are you waiting for?
Try it out and let me know what you think. Enjoy!
xoxo
Easy Cherry + Cream Cheese Puff Pastry Braid
Ingredients
Filling
- 8 oz. cream cheese softened to room temperature (regular, not lower fat)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 sheets of puff pastry thawed (about 17-18 oz. total)
- ½ cup cherry preserves or jam
- 1 egg white
- 1 tbsp water
Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 tbsp of milk
Instructions
**Read through the recipe fully before starting and refer to images in the post for visuals on folding the pastry for help**
- In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, granulated sugar, egg yolk, and ½ tsp vanilla extract together until smooth. Set aside.
- Unfold your thawed puff pastry sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll each sheet out until they are about 9×12 inches.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and move the puff pastries onto it (if you can fit two, or use two sheet pans).
- Taking one sheet, cut off the corners of one short side, about an inch in. On the long edges of the sheet, cut slanted strips about ½ inch wide, going towards the middle of the pastry- leaving a 3 inch area uncut in the center. (see image in the post for a visual)
- Repeat step 4 with the other pastry sheet.
- Spread the cream cheese filling down the middle sections of the pastries, leaving about 1 inch clear on both ends. Spread the jam/preserves on top of the filling.
- On one pastry, fold up the flaps at each end, towards the center to cover the ends of the filling. Starting at one end, fold the strips of pastry over the center filling, alternating each side to create a criss cross pattern, until all the strips are folded over. Repeat with the other pastry. (see image in post for a visual)
- Combine the egg white and 1 tbsp of water together to form an egg wash. Brush the egg wash lightly over the tops of the pastries.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. While preheating, place the pastries into the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
- Bake the pastries in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes, until the pastries are golden brown and cooked.
- While they are baking, mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk to form an icing. When the pastries are done baking, remove them from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Drizzle the icing over the pastries and cool for another 10 minutes or so to set up.
- Cut the pastries into your desired size sections, and serve!
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