Lemon-Raspberry Danish With Mascarpone Recipe (2024)

If you want a visual of the braiding technique--including tips for enclosing the ends of the loaf--the King Arthur Flour website has a very clear video on how to make a filled braid: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/videos/how-to-make-a-filled-braid.

Okay, figured it out - sort of. My ends are a little wonky, but okay. I found that working with the filling was easier if it was refrigerated for an hour or so - stiffened it up, less runny as you work with it.

Beat in the egg white TO THE MASCARPONE/CREAM CHEESE/CONFECTIONERS SUGAR MIXTURE on low speed, then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the lemon curd, lemon zest (if using) and vanilla and mix well to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

The dough recipe and instructions are great but this filling recipe is a joke. It’s so funny, even after being in the fridge for over an hour, it’s unusable. Oozed everywhere when I tried to spread it out over my dough, came out of every crevice as I braided the dough, and I didn’t even get to use all of it (it would have all ended up on my cookie sheet anyway). I don’t understand how this was ever supposed to work with a filling the consistency of pudding. What a waste of my ingredients.

This doesn’t look like a danish. It looks like sloppy bread. This danish dough has zero butter it in. The filling is a good idea but what a waste of time to even read this recipe. Gross. Butter is life!

Yes, the filling does ooze, but it is a fabulous baseline recipe and starting point for all manner of sweet and savory fillings. For savory try pesto with prosciutto; gruyere and ham, spinach; feta, onions and artichoke hearts; pork with caramelized onions and blue cheese. For sweet try a variation on this with a stiffer sweetened ricotta with cherries - no oozing; or caramel and walnuts with cinnamon; or sweetened cream cheese or ricotta with apricot or golden plum. Sky's the limit!

I found the dough, without butter (as one poster noted) a bit tough. When I make it again, I will add 3 tablespoons butter to the milk as it cools. I think this will make the dough a bit more tender. Don't get overly wedded to this filling. Use any fruit mixed with sugar, set over heat until it juices up a bit, then extract the juice and mix with a thickener such as potato starch or rice flour, then reintroduce to hot fruit, then mix in some cream cheese or mascarpone. Refrigerate till use.

I feel like the pastry to filling ratio was off. The consistency made it hard to build up a decent layer of filling. Nice taste though, would just prefer a denser filling.

Agree. Filling too runny and too much. Made two braids yesterday though, one with peaches, one with blackberries. Have yet to try them and looking forward to it today.

would a thicker home-cooked lemon curd make the filling more substantial?

Would love to try how you thickened, I think there might be some autocorrect in your guidance though and I couldn't figure out. Let me know what 228 wives is! Thanks!

Make 1 as directed. Fantastic flavor. Filling was a little thinner than I liked. Made two more this morning for the filling update 228 wives and 1 cup of confectioner's sugar. Definitely a thicker filling. The Staff meeting of 8 thought this was great and they devoured both.Thank you for a great recipe!!

To make filling thicker, did you add 2 egg whites? Looks like it auto corrected.

I ended up topping it with the glaze they have in the recipe minus the lemon juice. I didn’t add lemon at all just personal preference. But I also heated up about 5 oz of cream cheese for about 30 seconds in the microwave and added about a third cup powdered sugar and I spread it on top like a cinnamon roll icing almost. It definitely added a lot of what this needed. I’m going to make this pastry again but with a cinnamon roll type filling and some apples.

This was a big hit. I used 1 cup icing sugar and chilled the filling before using. Highly recommend! The filling was perfect and didn’t ooze out at all.

The filling was a bit runny when assembling but I was able to make it work by not using the entire bowl. I used about 3/4 of it. Some leaked (as listed in the recipe) but not too much. Very delicious and not overly sweet! Great dessert for a dinner party. Advice:when braiding be sure to securely tuck the loose ends under the “loaf”. Mine lifted during baking, and although it didn’t effect the final result in flavor or containing the filling, it was unattractive for sure. Hahaha.

Spoiler Alert - I modified the recipe and it turned out delicious. As I was making the dough, I felt like there should be butter in it, so I put a few tablespoons of cold butter into the mixer while it was kneading. It turned out golden brown and flaky (but not pastry flaky). The texture reminded me of an Entenmann's cheese/fruit danish (the version I remember eating while I was younger). No raspberries on hand, so I used frozen cherries. I'll make this again.

I had no problem with the filling at all. It spread nicely, held its shape while I braided the dough and was substantial enough to be very balanced. I made my bread in the bread maker, using the dough setting and found it wonderfully rich and soft. Not sure what the difference was (I'm in Denver, so maybe the altitude?? I made no adjustments) but it was delightful!

Turned out great. If you don't have lemon curd available, be sure to make it ahead of time before starting this. Wish I had more filling, but that was in part to having too much dough after letting rise for longer than recommended. But all in all, dough turned out great, and the filling was a perfect combo of sweet & tart. I will gladly make this again.

I used whipped cream cheese and marscapone, both cold. Made the filling first, put it in the fridge, and then the dough. My dough needed more flour than called for. Made sure that my slits weren’t too close to the filling and that they were wide enough. Loaf came out beautifully, can’t wait to eat it!

Turned out perfect! I had no trouble with the filling or the braiding. It is a beautiful bread and tastes delish. My only problem is there is just 2 of us and it's a huge loaf!

My family, friends and I found this scrumptious! To avoid the runny filling issue I did as someone suggested and added more cream cheese. There were a couple leaks, which I think were due to my imperfect scarring of the dough, pre-braid, but they were not critical. Thanks for a yummy recipe!

Delicious flavor, next time I will try adding cold butter to the flour, thickening the filling, and cooking for 25 minutes instead of 30.

I'm confused- you don't proof the yeast, milk and sugar first???

Updated URL for the braiding example- https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/videos/baking-skills/how-to-make-a-filled-braid

Not an experienced baker really but came out in retry good - a few small leaks but nothing like what others described. I did refrigerate the cheese mixture while the dough finished rising. It baked for only 22 minutes before being fully brown, almost about to be too brown, so that was a surprise. Looks beautiful!

This was delicious. I got a bit freaked out by all the negative comments about the filling, so I only used about 2/3rds. Next time, I would make the same amount of filling right after the dough and chill it during the rise. When assembling the danish, you can then pile on the filling without worrying about it spreading too much. I also skipped the glaze because it was sweet enough already.

I am new to baking. This was a test of my skills and gladly, I came out fine. Actually I had fun doing it. Directions for braiding was a little bit hard to understand but once I got it, it was OK. I put my filling in the freezer for 20 minutes and it may have helped the process. I also cut down sugar; too much! And, if I made it again, I will up the cheese and cream cheese to have more filling. Overall, a good recipe. My danish tasted so good. Warning- it's a huge danish loaf!