The Enriched Sourdough

1. Start the Everything Protein Sourdough three days before you plan to bake these Blueberry Protein Danishes.
2. Use half of the recipe for this after the bulk fermentation and fridge time.
3. Use the other half for another recipe (like the Brioche from the base recipe, Burger buns, Marzipan Wreath or Garlic Cheese Pull Apart Bread) or make two batches of Danishes (maybe using different fruits?). They freeze really well!

Preparations

1. Line 2 sheet pans with baking parchment.
2. Grab 2 large plastic bags that will fit your sheet pans and close comfortably while being inflated a bit.
3. Flour your work surface lightly
4. Get all your tools

Divide The Dough

1. Divide your base enriched dough into 2 pieces and store one half for another use. It will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
2. Lightly flour your worktop and pat the half of the dough you are using out into a rough square or rectangle. You could also use a round shape, but I always feel dividing a rectangle into evenly sized pieces is so much easier!
3. Divide into 8 evenly sized pieces. I like using food scales for this, but you can just eyeball it. Just keep them roughly the same size, so they bake evenly.

Pre-Shaping Your Danishes

1. Aim for about 4 Danishes per sheet pan, to keep enough space between them. You can fit 6 at a push, as I did in the video, but with 8 you may as well give yourself more room.
2. To shape your Danishes, locate the smooth and less sticky side. It’s usually the side that was on top in your bowl.
3. Put that side down in the palm of your hand, then pull up the four corners and push them together, to get a little parcel/garlic bulb shape.
4. Flip it over with the “tip” down onto your work surface. Ideally in a spot without flour. It will stick a little bit, but that’s what we want to create tension here.
5. Now cup your hand over the dough and start moving it in tiny rapid circles, barely touching the top of the dough until it “rises” up a bit and is shaped into one smooth ball with good surface tension.
6. Now I like to dip the bottom of my dough ball into a little bit of flour from the worktop, so it doesn’t stick to the baking parchment, in case I need to re-arrange the pieces a bit when flattening.
7. Transfer to the parchment lined baking sheet.
8. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces.
9. Flatten each piece slightly until it’s about ¾ in/1.5cm high.

Last Rise

1. Transfer both sheet pans into the plastic bags, inflate slightly and close with a clip or a knot.
2. This step will keep the dough from drying out while staying nice and warm.
3. Allow your Danishes to rise for about 3-6 hours or until looking very large and puffy.
4. In my kitchen, which is around 70°F/21°C this took 6 hours.

Make The Cheesecake Filling

1. While the dough is rising, mix all the ingredients for the filling, except the blueberries, in a medium bowl until creamy.
2. Taste and see if you feel it needs more sugar or if you’d like to add a bit of vanilla extract. Mine was just right with the amounts given.
3. Cover and store in the fridge until needed for up to 3 days.

Crumble Topping

1. Melt your butter.
2. Using a fork or spoon, stir all the crumble ingredients together until well combined but crumbly.
3. You can determine the size of the crumbs later.
4. Cover and set aside at room temperature.
5. If you want to get ahead, you can make this up to 3 days in advance and store it in the fridge, but it’ll need 30 seconds in the microwave before using, so it’ll become soft enough to properly crumble.

Filling Your Blueberry Cheesecake Danishes

1. When the dough pieces are nice and puffy, test one by poking it with an oiled finger. It should feel puffy and leave a dent that slowly springs back. If it feels still firm or bounces back immediately, leave it for longer.
2. Get a little bowl with flour, to dip fingers or cookie scoop into for shaping.
3. You can do this simply by making a well in the middle of each piece of dough with your fingers or, as I did, use the round side of a cookie scoop.
4. I dipped the round bottom of the large scoop into flour between pieces, then pushed into the center of the dough until a nice deep well was formed, leaving a thin layer of dough intact to hold the filling.
5. The rim will now look really lovely and puffy.
6. Now whisk your egg and brush the rim with it to get that lovely dark golden, shiny exterior later and help the crumble stick.
7. Fill each Danish with about one medium cookie scoop/ two tablespoons of the creamy cheesecake protein filling.
8. Tumble a small handful of blueberries onto the filling.
9. Then, using your hands to form crumbs of your favorite size (I like a mix best), scatter mostly over the rim of each Danish with the crumble topping.

Baking The Sourdough Danishes

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350°F/175°C
2. Bake the Danishes for 20-30 minutes or until deep golden brown and baked through.
3. Rotate the sheet pan after 15 minutes by 180 degrees for even browning if your oven bakes unevenly as most do.
4. If you want to make sure the dough is baked through, you can check with an instant read thermometer inside of the rim. It should read about 190°F/88°C when it is ready.