Keto Jelly Danish
Published August 12, 2022 • Updated March 1, 2026
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A soft, pillowy low carb pastry filled with homemade bakery-style jelly at 0.5g net carbs per danish. I skip the mozzarella dough entirely because cheese has no place in a sweet keto pastry.
I started making these because I got tired of every keto pastry recipe defaulting to melted mozzarella. Fathead dough works for pizza, but not here. Cheese doesn’t belong in a sweet pastry, and the moment you taste what separated eggs and cream of tartar can do, you’ll understand why I went this direction. The meringue gives the pastry a real lift, soft and pillowy with slight golden edges, not dense and eggy like most versions I’ve worked through.
The filling is where this recipe pulls ahead of everything else I’ve seen. Instead of spooning sugar-free jam from a jar, I make the jelly from scratch using konjac gum. It sets up into a slightly firm, glossy gel that holds its shape when you bite through the pastry, exactly like what you’d get from a real bakery. If you’ve made my keto jelly donuts, you’ve seen how well this technique works.
One thing I’ve learned after making these dozens of times: you can bake the pastry shells one day and fill them the next. I do this regularly when I’m prepping for weekend brunch. Bake the shells, let them cool, store in an airtight container at room temperature. The morning of, make the jelly filling fresh and spoon it into the wells. The shells hold their structure overnight without going soggy, and the jelly stays bright and firm on top.
These pair well with just about any breakfast spread. I’ve served them alongside almond flour pancakes for a full table, and they hold their own next to cream cheese danishes when I do a pastry board. My keto apple fritters and churro donut holes round out the sweet side of any morning.
Before You Start
Two things trip people up with this recipe, and both are easy to avoid. First, the fold. When you combine the yolk mixture with the meringue, go slow. I use a spatula and cut through the center, then sweep around the edge. If you stir it like regular batter, the air escapes and you end up with flat, dense pucks instead of puffy pastry. I rushed it once and the difference was obvious.
Second, the konjac gum. It has to go into boiling water or it clumps into little balls. If that happens, don’t throw it out. I just microwave the mixture at 20-second intervals, stirring between each one, until it smooths out. It recovers fine.
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Keto Pastry Dough Ingredients
3 eggs, yolks and whites separated -
2 tablespoons unflavored zero carb protein powder
-
2 tablespoons almond flour
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2 oz cream cheese, softened
-
1 tablespoon sugar free sweetener
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1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Sugar Free Jelly Filling Ingredients
-
1/2 cup boiling water
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2 1/2 tablespoons powdered sugar free sweetener
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1/2 teaspoon konjac gum powder
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1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
-
1/4 teaspoon flavor extract
-
food coloring
Sugar Free Icing Ingredients
-
3 tablespoons powdered sugar free sweetener
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1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
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1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
Step by Step Instructions
Step by Step Instructions
Separate the eggs
Separate the egg whites from the yolks and place each in a small bowl.
- Eggs
Yolk mixture
To the bowl with the egg yolks, add protein powder, almond flour, softened cream cheese and sugar free sweetener. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth. Set aside.
- Egg yolks
- Almond flour
- Cream cheese (softened)
- Sugar free sweetner
Make meringue
To the bowl with egg whites, mix with a clean and dry electric mixer at a low medium speed until the mixture turns frothy. Add in the cream of tartar and turn the speed of the mixer up to high, continue mixing until stiff peaks form.
- Egg whites
- Cream of tartar
You simply fold
Carefully fold the yolk mixture into the egg meringue until combined. 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.
Scoop, form and bake
Scoop about 1/4 cup of the pastry batter onto a parchment lined baking tray spacing about 1 ½ inches apart. Using the back of a spoon make a well in the center of each danish batter to make room for the filling. Bake at 325 degrees for 12 minutes.
Make the jelly filling
Mix the konjac gum powder with the powdered sugar free sweetener. Then pour mixture into boiling water. Immediately stir to combine to avoid clumping. Add lemon juice flavor extract and food coloring. Stir to combine. Mixture will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Konjac gum powder
- Powdered sugar free sweetener
- Water (boiling)
- Lemon juice
- Flavoring
- Food dye
Fill with jelly
Once your danish pastries have cooled, add 1-2 tablespoons of the jelly to the center well.
Top with icing
In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar free sweetener, lemon juice and heavy whipping cream. Adjust the amount of whipping cream to create a thin icing capable of drizzling. Drizzle over danishes.
- Powdered sugar free sweetener
- Lemon juice
- Heavy whipping cream
Nutrition disclaimer
The nutrition information provided is an estimate and is for informational purposes only. I am a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.); however, this content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or other qualified health provider before making any lifestyle changes or beginning a new nutrition program.
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Get My Macros + Recipes →Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make the pastry ahead of time and add the jelly the next day?
I do this all the time. Bake the pastry shells, let them cool completely, and store them in an airtight container at room temperature. The next day, make the jelly filling fresh and spoon it into the wells. The shells hold their structure overnight and the fresh jelly stays firm and glossy on top. I've kept unfilled shells for 2-3 days without any texture issues.
Why did my danish come out flat instead of puffy?
I've had this happen and it's almost always the fold. When you combine the yolk mixture with the whipped egg whites, you need to go slow and gentle. I use a spatula, cut through the center, sweep around the edges. If you stir too aggressively or use a whisk, you knock all the air out of the meringue and the pastry has nothing to rise with. My second batch was night and day compared to my first because I slowed down and was more patient with the folding.
What happens if the konjac gum clumps?
It happened to me the first time I made this. The water has to be actively boiling when you add the konjac mixture. If the water has cooled at all, the powder clumps into little balls instead of dissolving. But don't toss it. I microwave the mixture at 20-second intervals, stirring between each one, and it smooths right out. I've rescued clumpy batches multiple times this way.
Can I use xanthan gum or agar instead of konjac gum?
I haven't tested either as a direct swap yet, so I can't give exact ratios. Xanthan gum creates a more elastic gel, so the filling would have a slightly different chew. Agar sets firmer and might give you a stiffer jelly. If I were trying agar, I'd start with about half the amount of konjac and adjust from there. Konjac gum gives the closest bakery-style texture I've found for this kind of filling.
Can I substitute the almond flour with another type of flour?
I've tested coconut flour as a swap and it works, but you need much less because it absorbs so much more moisture. Use about 2 teaspoons of coconut flour in place of the 2 tablespoons of almond flour. The pastry texture stays close with that ratio. Sunflower seed flour is another option if you're nut-free, and I'd use it at the same measurement as the almond flour.
What flavor extracts work best for the jelly?
I make lemon and cherry most often because they give the brightest color and the cleanest flavor. Raspberry and strawberry are easy wins too. I've tried orange extract with a cream cheese drizzle on top and that combination works really well. Banana is an unexpected one but my family liked it. Any baking extract works as long as you stay around 1/4 teaspoon per batch. I pair each flavor with matching food coloring so the jelly looks as vivid as it tastes.
Can I freeze these?
I don't recommend it. I tried freezing a batch and the jelly filling changed texture after thawing. It lost that firm, glossy set and turned watery. The pastry shells also lost some of their puff. If you want to prep ahead, I'd bake the shells and store them unfilled at room temperature for 2-3 days, then make the jelly filling fresh the morning you want to eat them. That's my go-to approach for brunch prep.
Made these with raspberry jam the first time and the jelly spread across the whole top during baking. Second batch I doubled the konjac gum and pressed a deeper well before filling. Both problems solved. Filling sets firm enough to slice cleanly and stays put instead of running.
My daughter took one bite of the jelly filling and asked if I'd cheated on keto. Best thing she's ever said about a recipe.
I've made a lot of keto pastry attempts and the mozzarella dough versions always leave me a little let down. So when I saw this used a meringue base, I almost scrolled past it. Figured it would deflate in the oven or taste eggy, and no amount of jelly could fix that. I was wrong. The texture is soft and pillowy, and folding the yolk mixture into the meringue is not as fussy as it looks once you're actually doing it. The jelly with the konjac gum sets just right, not gummy, actually close to real jam. At 0.5g net carbs I keep double-checking because it feels like too good a deal. First keto pastry I've made where I didn't feel like I was settling for a consolation prize.
That consolation prize thing is exactly it. Mozzarella dough was always a workaround. The meringue fold looks scary until you're actually doing it, then it just clicks.
I've made probably every keto danish variation that exists. Fathead dough, ricotta, the ones that promise 'just like the real thing' and taste exactly like hot mozzarella in a pastry shape. The meringue base here is completely different. It actually bakes up pillowy in a way I didn't think was possible with keto ingredients. And the jelly (I used blackberry) has a real jam consistency from the konjac powder that no chia seed version I've tried has ever pulled off. The 0.5g net carbs is almost insulting considering how much this tastes like an actual bakery danish. This knocked my old standby out of rotation.
Blackberry was my second test flavor (lemon was first). Something about that tartness against the sweet pastry. And the 0.5g still gets me every time I look at the nutrition label.
Made these probably six or seven times and only just nailed the jelly part. I kept letting it cool all the way before adding it and it was going too thick, almost gluey in the center. Started adding it while it's still slightly warm and it settles into the pastry way differently, more like it belongs there. Also started doing a blackberry version with an extra squeeze of lemon juice and that tang against the pillowy pastry is really something. The fold is still the step I have to talk myself into doing slowly. Rushed it the first three times and they came out flat. Once I actually let the meringue do its thing and barely folded, the puff was completely different. Cold Saturday mornings this is what I want for breakfast now.
My grandmother had a standing order at a Polish bakery in town, jelly danish every Sunday, and when that bakery closed sometime in the 90s I think part of me just accepted it was gone. Four years keto and I've made my peace with a lot of things. Made these on a snow day last week and that soft meringue lift, the way the pastry actually puffs and holds around the jelly center, brought that whole Sunday morning back like a smell through a window. I wasn't ready for that. Thank you for this one.
That line, 'like a smell through a window.' Had to sit with that. The meringue gives it something most keto pastry recipes don't come close to.
I've made probably six different keto danish recipes over the past two years and this is the first one that actually came out soft and pillowy instead of dense and eggy. Separating the eggs and folding the meringue in carefully really does matter -- I rushed it the first time, it deflated, totally different result. Second batch I was patient and the texture was almost cloud-like. I've tried almond flour bases, cream cheese bases, fathead dough, none of them had this kind of lift. The konjac gum was new to me and I think that's what gives it that slight chew that makes it feel like an actual pastry instead of a baked egg puff. At 0.5g net carbs each I can have two without worrying, which I definitely couldn't say about the other recipes I was rotating through.
The konjac gum is the secret nobody talks about. It's what keeps it from just being a baked egg cloud. That slight chew is the difference between 'interesting keto thing' and actual pastry.
Didn't think cream cheese pastry could actually puff up like this. It does.
The separated eggs and cream of tartar do the work. Whip those whites stiff and fold gentle, it rises like a regular pastry.
Looking to make this and take to a luncheon. I won't have time to do all of the steps the same day.
Can I mix this and bake the next day?
Can these be frozen then baked?
I would mix up the danish dough part first and bake them. Then the next day do the jelly and add it to the danish. I haven't tried freezing them so I'm not sure how well they will hold up.