Keto Cream Cheese Danish

If you thought sweet and flaky pastries were a thing of the past now that you’re following a low carb or keto diet, I’ve got great news for you. You can make this danish, along with a keto mocha and keto donuts for a specialty low-carb coffeeshop that rivals Starbucks, right in your own kitchen! 

This cream cheese danish has zero sugar, the light and airy pastry texture you love, and a sweet creamy filling that tastes like cheesecake! It’s even drizzled with a sweet lemon icing, making it true bakery-quality. And we didn’t have to make fathead dough with mozzarella cheese – which shouldn’t be part of a sweet pastry in my opinion. 

While my favorite time to enjoy this danish is in the morning with a hot cup of coffee, they’re the perfect treat for any time of day. Make a double batch and bring to your friend coffee date, work potluck, or holiday brunch. Or, save them all for yourself– with only 1 gram of net carbs, you can easily enjoy more than one or top your keto cheese danish with butter! 

1. Make the cream cheese filling. Add egg yolk, cream cheese, sweetener, lemon juice and vanilla to a medium bowl and mix!
2. Make the danish pastry. Separate the whites from the yolks and place each in small bowls. Add keto pastry ingredients to each as discussed below. Then fold together to form a fluffy, airy pastry batter.
   PRO TIP: Don’t aggressively fold or mix, the goal is to keep the airiness of the batter in order to get the danish pastry to rise.
3. Scoop about ¼ cup of batter on a parchment lined baking tray spacing each scoop about 1 ½ inches apart.
4. Make a well in the center of each danish batter to make room for the filling. Scoop the cream cheese filling into the center of the well. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes.
5. Make the lemon icing and drizzle over danishes.

Key ingredients

• Eggs – Used for the cream cheese filling and the pastry dough. The egg yolk helps to thicken the cream cheese filling and adds richness to the pastry dough. Whipping the egg whites into a meringue creates a delicate and airy flakiness within the dough.
• Cream cheese – The base for the filling. Cream cheese adds a rich cheesecake-like flavor to each danish. Also helps to neutralize the eggy flavor from the pastry.
• Powdered Sugar Free Sweetener – Acts like powdered sugar, but without all the sugar! Sweetens the cream cheese filling while keeping the texture smooth.
• Unflavored Zero Carb Protein Powder – Used to replace some of the flour in the pastry dough. Zero carb whey protein powder helps to cut down on carbohydrates and adds extra protein to the danishes- perfect for the keto diet. It also helps to puff up our dough with adding too many eggs.
• Almond Flour – Helps create a base for the pastry dough with more nutrients and less carbs than regular flour.
• Sugar Free Sweetener – Sweetens the danish pastry dough. I like using monk fruit blend sweeteners, which is zero carb and has a pleasant taste in baked goods. Can use any 1:1 sugar free baking sweetener.