Healthy Cream Cheese Danish - High Protein, Low Fat

Perfect Healthy Cream Cheese Danish recipe that's flaky and cheesy! Low calorie and low fat cheese danish pastry uses reduced fat cream cheese, Greek yogurt and protein powder for the filling!

Not gonna lie, I was very intimidated by the thought of making my own healthy homemade cheese danish, but these protein cheese danishes were really super easy. Very worth the 15 minutes it took me to put together.

And definitely a lot healthier than the regular ones at Costco or Starbucks.

What is a cream cheese danish?

The classic cream cheese danish is a breakfast pastry made with puff pastry and a filling of cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice. Flaky with a cheesy center and super tasty, but not very healthy - unless you make this one! 🙂

Ingredients for Healthy Cream Cheese Danish Recipe

These cream cheese danishes are made with reduced fat cream cheese, Greek yogurt and protein powder instead of sweetener. An actual clean recipe that you don't have to have so much guilt over. Here's everything you need:

• Frozen Puff Pastry Sheets; I used the one from Jus-Rol
• Reduced Fat Cream Cheese for a low fat and low calorie cream cheese danish recipe
• Non-fat Greek Yogurt for extra protein
• Vanilla Protein Powder - this makes for a sugar free cream cheese danish since it serves as the sweetener in place of sugar. I used the vanilla protein powder from Quest for this recipe.
• Liquid Egg Substitute to reduce the fat from egg yolk, but get the same purpose in baking, and flavor.
  Use a normal egg if needed.

How to make Low Calorie Cream Cheese Danish with Protein Powder

This cream cheese danish recipe with protein powder is super easy to make, but here's some pointers to make them perfect:

• Beat the cream cheese well at low speed on the hand mixer
  For a light and fluffy texture, but also prevent too much air from getting inside

• Beat in yogurt, then protein powder and liquid egg until smooth

• Cut puff pastry into equal squares of 3x3" size, then roll out a little using rolling pin.
  This smoothens out any creases and also gives you little more surface area 🙂 

• Fold in the corners about 1" in to make octagon shapes, so the protein cream cheese filling remains inside and bounded; Gives a nice aesthetic to these danishes too.

• Place these on a parchment-lined baking pan - use 2 if needed, but leave about 1-2" in between each one. 

• Spoon the filling onto the puff pastry dough - about 1½-2 tablespoons each. Don't spread the mixture.

• Bake for about 18 minutes at 350°F until the cream cheese danish pastry is flaky.

To store High Protein Cream Cheese Danish Recipe

These protein cream cheese danishes are best eaten fresh, or within a couple of hours.

Store healthy cream cheese danish pastry in an airtight container on the countertop for about 1-2 days and in the fridge for 4-5 days.

I would recommend re-heating the healthy cheese danish pastry in the oven at 350°F for 5 min-ish or 330°F in the air fryer to get the flakiness back.

Alternate ingredients for Healthy Low Fat Cheese Danish

I made these high protein and low fat healthy cheese danish with the particular list of ingredients for the perfect texture and molten chocolate effect, but here's some alternatives you can try:

• Reduced Fat Cream Cheese: Regular cream cheese
• Greek Yogurt: Coconut Yogurt
• Liquid Egg Substitute: A whole egg, whisked
• Store-bought Puff Pastry: Homemade puff pastry

More High Protein Desserts with Cream Cheese

• Pumpkin Protein Cheesecake Jar
• Protein Cheesecake Dip
• Blueberry Protein Cheesecake Bars
• Protein Red Velvet Cheesecake
• Healthy Protein Powder Cream Cheese Frosting