For a fancy dessert (or breakfast), these blueberry-lemon cream cheese danish rings are so yummy!  Lately the grocery stores have stocked some delicious blueberries, and since these are best made with fresh berries, it's a perfect treat!  They're similarly made to my raspberry-lemon cream cheese danish that I posted years ago.  This recipe makes TWO large danish rings, but you can use half the dough to make something else, filling and baking cinnamon rolls or orange rolls.  Enjoy!

A fresh slice of blueberry-lemon cream cheese danish, gluten free! SO yummy!

Blueberry-Lemon Cream Cheese Danish!

Makes 2 Danish rings

The dough in this recipe is the same used for my cinnamon rolls. If you like, you can make one Danish and one 8x8 pan of cinnamon rolls, which is what I like to do!  Just use a half recipe for filling/frosting as in the cinnamon roll recipe for your cinnamon rolls, and use half the filling called for here.

Prepare filling:

Mix thoroughly in a bowl, then set aside:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp ricotta

Zest of 2 lemons OR 4-6 drops lemon essential oil (I like DoTerra oils best)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

Rinse and set aside to dry:
3 cups fresh blueberries

Prepare dough:

Preheat oven to 350F.  (I do this so I can sit things on to top of a warm oven to rise)

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper (Or line 1 cookie sheet and grease an 8x8 pan if you're making cinnamon rolls)

Place in a cereal bowl:

3 eggs (still in shells)

Pour warm/hot water over eggs.  This will bring them to room temperature.

In a 2 cup measuring cup, heat until just scalding (90 seconds in the microwave should do it):

¾ cup milk

Immediately add to hot milk (and stir occasionally to help butter melt):

½ cup butter, chopped into smaller pieces

½ cup sugar

1 ½ tsp salt

In a small measuring cup or bowl combine:

1/3 cup warm water (110-115F)

4 tsp rapid rise yeast or active dry yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

Let yeast rest 5 minutes to foam and allow milk mixture to cool a bit. 

Meanwhile, mix in a large bowl:

4 ½ cups Kristin’s Gluten-Free Flour Mix * (see note at bottom of recipe for measurement amounts for just this recipe)

2 tsp xanthan gum (this is in addition to the xanthan gum in the flour mix)

Add to the flour mixture:

3 warmed eggs (you can add these to the milk)

Milk mixture

Yeast mixture

Mix well with a spoon, using the back of the spoon to help make the mixture nice and smooth.  Let this sit just a moment while you prepare the filling.

It should look like this once mixed.

Line two large sheets of plastic wrap side by side on the counter, overlapping a bit.   2-3 foot long pieces work well. 

Spoon out half of the dough and place along the middle of the plastic wrap.

Pull out another two large sheets of slightly overlapping plastic wrap to cover the dough.  You’ll then flatten out the dough between the sheets until you have – more or less – a 10”x20” piece of dough. 

Flattened dough between plastic wrap.

Try to make it nice and even.  (You can try to make the middle a bit thicker than the top and bottom since you’ll be folding it over, so then you’ll effectively double the amount of dough where it joins together. But don’t worry too much!)

You have to slightly adjust the plastic wrap as you’re flattening the dough, since it sometimes gets caught underneath the dough.  But, you’ll find the dough doesn’t stick to the cling wrap, which is fantastic!  Carefully remove the top layer of plastic wrap.

The plastic wrap pulls off cleanly and easily. 

Spread half of the cream cheese mixture over the dough, leaving a good 1-2 inches at the top and bottom.  
Sprinkle with half the fresh blueberries.

Carefully fold the dough in half, using the plastic wrap to help you lift it up and over itself.   Pull the plastic wrap back and use the other side of the plastic wrap to help lift and fold the bottom back onto itself, as shown in the picture. 

Fold the dough in half long-wise, using the plastic wrap to help

Fold back the edge onto the top of the dough, to form a log

You’ll have to carefully lift the plastic-wrapped log over to your cookie sheet.  You’ll want to roll the middle of your log onto the cookie sheet and wrap the others around to form a circle.  This is a little tricky the first time you try it, but you can use the plastic wrap to help you adjust the circle and stick the ends together.  Don’t touch the dough with your hands, use plastic wrap.  You can use the plastic wrap to help you widen the center of your circle once it’s on the pan.  (you can also use wet hands to smooth the dough and adjust slightly.  Remember, it will rise, bake AND have powdered sugar on top to hide any lumps and bumps).

I used the plastic wrap to help widen the center hole, and make a nice circular shape

If desired, you can use a serrated knife, gently cut slices around the Danish, widening the sliced areas a tiny bit using the knife to help you.  It is optional to make slices in the Danish.

You can smooth your dough with wet hands to help you shape and adjust your Danish ring!

Cover your cookie sheet with an upside-down cookie sheet and set in a warm location to rise 30-45 minutes.  (alternatively, you can butter some plastic wrap and set that over the dough).  I have also left it uncovered to rise, and it works out very well, too.  The dough won’t double in size, but should look like it’s puffed up a bit.  

Repeat with other ½ of dough, OR flatten dough and fill like cinnamon rolls.

Bake each Danish at 350F for ~30 minutes, until nicely browned on top.   Set cookie sheet on wire rack to cool.

No worries if there's any drips.  They peel right off the parchment and you can hide any mishaps with powdered sugar. 

Slice and sprinkle with powdered sugar to serve!

It's so pretty and yummy!

Slices freeze really well and heat up quickly in the microwave!  We slice and pop them into tupperwares once cooled and pull out and reheat on a plate for snacks/breakfast/treats.  Enjoy!

* If you don’t want to make up the flour mix since you’d have to make it twice for this recipe, just use the following: 

2 cups brown rice flour

1 cup sorghum flour

¾ cup + 1 Tbsp cornstarch OR 2/3 cup arrowroot starch

¼ cup + 1 Tbsp potato starch

¼ cup + 1 Tbsp tapioca starch

1 ½ tsp xanthan gum (ideally measure 1 1/3 tsp)

Blueberry-Lemon Cream Cheese Danish Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free!

Basic Brioche - Gluten-Free Style

Brioche bread is a versatile dough that can be baked into smaller forms or larger loaves.  It's enriched with eggs, butter, and a little extra sugar than ordinary bread recipes.  It's best eaten fresh - but you can slice it, freeze it, and use later, too.  Make sure to reheat before eating.  It's SO good as baked french toast style bread pudding or in a bread pudding recipe.  This dough spreads.  I made the mistake one time of putting a double batch in 3 loaf tins instead of 4, and ended up with it rising up and over the sides of my pans while baking.  Whoops!  

Brioche Bread - the dough below baked into two loaf tins

Brioche danishes filled with homemade vanilla pudding and sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar before baking.  (These spread when made on a flat sheet).

Brioche dough made into rolls.

Basic Brioche - Gluten Free Style

In a mixer, combine dry ingredients: 

1 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup sorghum flour (or extra 1/2 cup brown rice flour)

1/2 cup white rice flour

1/4 cup tapioca starch

1/4 cup potato starch

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp salt

2 tsp rapid-rise yeast

Add and mix in 1 minute: 

1 1/4 cup milk, warmed (not hot)

4 egg whites + 2 eggs OR 4 eggs

Add, beating in 1 Tbsp at a time: 

6 Tbsp butter, softened (not melted)

Beat dough 5-6 minutes, until nice and smooth. 

Place dough in a buttered bowl (3-4 quart bowl works well).  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until dough has doubled.  I find if I make this with cold milk, I can let it rise overnight.  If I use warm milk (as listed), it takes 2-4 hours to rise.  **NOTE: I've also completely skipped this step, and while I like the texture just a bit more when it has a double-rise, I've also risen and baked the bread immediately and it was still delicious.**

Remove dough from bowl and shape in desired pans - making sure your pans are well-buttered or lined with parchment paper.  For loaves, line two bread pans with parchment paper.  Fill halfway with batter.   After re-shaping, let dough rise in a warm location until doubled.   It's fine to leave uncovered during the rise, but you can also cover loosely with plastic wrap - but make sure the dough does NOT touch the surface of the dough.  

 I have made this dough both covered and uncovered during rising - do yourself a favor and don't bother covering the bread. It'll turn out great either way - and you won't have to worry about the plastic touching the top of the bread and pulling off the top when you remove it. 

Once dough has doubled in size, bake at 350 F for 1 hour for loaf pans.  The crust will be a dark brown, but not burnt.  The loaves tend to sink a bit in the center during baking or end up with a flat top.  

Brioche loaves fresh from the oven.  The tops of the loaves tend to be either slightly rounded, flat, or a bit sunken in the middle - it tends to vary depending on the day, but most loaves look flat on top.  And the taste is the same for all.

For smaller danishes, scoop into desired tins (whoopie pie tins or just parchment-lined cookie sheet).  The dough does spread during baking, so it's helpful to have something with some form.  You can fill it with custard (make homemade vanilla pudding, leave out 1/2 cup of the milk), jam, or leave them plain.   The smaller brioche bakes tend to bake more like 20-25 minutes at 350 F.   

Small rolls made in whoopie-pie tins (with a mini loaf made from some extra batter).  Baked ~20 minutes.

Batter in larger whoopie-pie tins, spread to make a hollow in the center for homemade vanilla pudding or jam.

Honestly, add more pudding than this and spread it around a bit more before you let it rise, then bake.

You can make the danishes on a flat cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, but they'll spread a bit during baking.  These were delicious topped with homemade vanilla pudding and cinnamon-sugar before baking.  It's also great with pudding and jam together, or just jam. 

We ate these warm and cold.  I really liked them with a bit of jam alongside the pudding, too.  

For brioche loaves, remove from tin and parchment paper and cool on wire racks.  I prefer this bread fresh - within the day it's made.  However, you can slice and freeze if you aren't going to be using it immediately, especially if you're wanting to use it in something like baked french toast.  It's absolutely amazing as a baked french toast - like a delicious bread pudding.  Yum! Enjoy!

Mmm... look at that flaky dough.

Basic Brioche Dough - Gluten Free Style by Successfully Gluten Free!

Raspberry-Lemon Cream Cheese Danish

These are amazing! Don't be intimidated by the shape and size. This Danish isn't any more difficult to make than cinnamon rolls.  In fact, once you get the hang of it, I'd wager it's easier than cinnamon rolls.  The lemon cream cheese filling contrasting with the tasty raspberries is one of those amazing flavor combinations that will leave you wanting more... and more. Enjoy!

Raspberry-Lemon Cream Cheese Danish - Fresh out of the oven!

Served with powdered sugar

Raspberry-Lemon Cream Cheese Danish

Makes 2 Danish rings

The dough in this recipe is the same used in the cinnamon rolls. If you like, you can make one Danish and one 8x8 pan of cinnamon rolls, which is what I like to do!  Just use a half recipe for filling/frosting as in the cinnamon roll recipe for your cinnamon rolls, and use half the filling called for here.

Prepare filling:

Mix thoroughly in a bowl, then set aside:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp ricotta

Zest of 2 lemons

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

Rinse and set to dry:

2 cups fresh raspberries

This is filling for half a recipe (since I made cinnamon rolls, too!)

Prepare dough:

Preheat oven to 350F.  (I do this so I can sit things on to top of a warm oven to rise)

Place in a cereal bowl:

3 eggs (still in shells)

Pour warm/hot water over eggs.  This will bring them to room temperature.

In a 2 cup measuring cup, heat until just scalding (90 seconds in the microwave should do it):

¾ cup milk

Immediately add to hot milk (and stir occasionally to help butter melt):

½ cup butter, chopped into smaller pieces

½ cup sugar

1 ½ tsp salt

In a small measuring cup or bowl combine:

1/3 cup warm water (110-115F)

4 tsp rapid rise yeast or active dry yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

Let yeast rest 5 minutes to foam and allow milk mixture to cool a bit. 

Meanwhile, mix in a large bowl:

4 ½ cups Kristin’s Gluten-Free Flour Mix * (see note at bottom of recipe for measurement amounts for just this recipe)

2 tsp xanthan gum (this is in addition to the xanthan gum in the flour mix)

Add to the flour mixture:

3 warmed eggs (you can add these to the milk)

Milk mixture

Yeast mixture

Mix well with a spoon, using the back of the spoon to help make the mixture nice and smooth.  Let this sit just a moment while you prepare the filling.

Line two large sheets of plastic wrap side by side on the counter, overlapping a bit.   2-3 foot long pieces work well. 

Spoon out half of the dough and place along the middle of the plastic wrap.

Pull out another two large sheets of slightly overlapping plastic wrap to cover the dough.  You’ll then flatten out the dough between the sheets until you have – more or less – a 10”x20” piece of dough. 

Try to make it nice and even.  (You can try to make the middle a bit thicker than the top and bottom since you’ll be folding it over, so then you’ll effectively double the amount of dough where it joins together. But don’t worry too much!)

You have to slightly adjust the plastic wrap as you’re flattening the dough, since it sometimes gets caught underneath the dough.  But, you’ll find the dough doesn’t stick to the cling wrap, which is fantastic!  Carefully remove the top layer of plastic wrap.

Spread half of the cream cheese mixture over the dough, leaving a good 1-2 inches at the top and bottom.  Sprinkle with half of the fresh raspberries.

Carefully fold the dough in half, using the plastic wrap to help you lift it up and over itself.   Pull the plastic wrap back and use the other side of the plastic wrap to help lift and fold the bottom back onto itself, as shown in the picture. 

Fold the dough in half long-wise, using the plastic wrap to help

Fold back the edge onto the top of the dough, to form a log

You’ll have to carefully lift the plastic-wrapped log over to your cookie sheet.  You’ll want to roll the middle of your log onto the cookie sheet and wrap the others around to form a circle.  This is a little tricky the first time you try it, but you can use the plastic wrap to help you adjust the circle and stick the ends together.  Don’t touch the dough with your hands, use plastic wrap.  You can use the plastic wrap to help you widen the center of your circle once it’s on the pan.

I used the plastic wrap to help widen the center hole, and make a nice circular shape

Using a serrated knife, gently cut slices around the Danish, widening the sliced areas a tiny bit using the knife to help you.   

Carefully sliced Danish

Cover your cookie sheet with an upside-down cookie sheet and set in a warm location to rise 30-45 minutes.  (alternatively, you can butter some plastic wrap and set that over the dough). The dough won’t double in size, but should look like it’s puffed up a bit.

It looks very similar when risen, and will just look like it's puffed up a bit, not doubled.

Repeat with other ½ of dough, OR flatten dough and fill like cinnamon rolls.

Bake each Danish at 350F for 25-30 minutes, until nicely browned on top.   Set cookie sheet on wire rack to cool.

Slice and sprinkle with powdered sugar to serve!

Ahhh! Look at those raspberries!

These freeze really well and heat up quickly in the microwave!  We slice and pop them into tupperwares once cooled and pull out and reheat on a plate for snacks/breakfast/treats.  Enjoy!

* If you don’t want to make up the flour mix since you’d have to make it twice for this recipe, just use the following: 

2 cups brown rice flour

1 cup sorghum flour

¾ cup + 1 Tbsp cornstarch OR 2/3 cup arrowroot starch

¼ cup + 1 Tbsp potato starch

¼ cup + 1 Tbsp tapioca starch

1 ½ tsp xanthan gum (ideally measure 1 1/3 tsp)