Brioche Danish With Goat Cheese and Pistachios

Brioche Danish with Goat Cheese and Pistachios | Bread in 5

If you have whole wheat brioche dough or other enriched dough (see below) in the fridge; and you want something sweet that isn’t a lot of work, this is the recipe for you. See below for links to other enriched dough recipes here on the website that would also work, but this one gives some whole grains. You’ll also need almond paste, goat cheese, and pistachios. If you’re not a goat cheese fan, swap in cream cheese, lemon curd, or orange curd.

Brioche Danish with Goat Cheese and Pistachios | Bread in 5

Brioche Danish with Goat Cheese and Pistachios | Bread in 5

Brioche Danish with Goat Cheese and Pistachios | Bread in 5

Brioche Danish with Goat Cheese and Pistachios

1 pound whole wheat brioche from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes A Day –The Challah recipe from Artisan Bread in Five (page 296), Healthy Bread in Five (page 258), or Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five (page 251) can also be used.  So can the white brioche recipe.  

Preheat the oven to 350. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a small ball, and place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat (4 to 6 on each sheet, any more and they will bake too close together). Let rise, loosely covered, for 40 minutes. Use the back of a measuring cup or a small drinking glass to press a small circle into each ball. Fill each circle with the almond-goat cheese filling (recipe follows) and then use a pastry brush to apply egg wash to each danish (recipe follows) avoiding the filling. Bake until light golden brown, 22-26 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Drizzle each danish with icing (recipe follows) and then sprinkle with chopped pistachios.

Note: the filling does spill out a bit, but ends up covering a lot of the bread, and makes a lovely pocket for the pistachios to fit in. You could cut back on the filling if you want your danish to look a little ‘neater’, but I didn’t mind the leaking.

Almond-Goat Cheese Filling

7 ounces almond paste

1/2 cup powdered sugar

5 ounces goat cheese, soft [cream cheese can replace all or some of the goat cheese, if desired. Lemon curd also works (see recipe)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

In a stand mixer, mix the almond paste, goat cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.

Egg Wash

Whisk 1 egg, 1 tablespoon water, and a  pinch of salt together.

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3-4 tablespoons whole milk

1/2 cup pistachios, chopped

Put powdered sugar in a bowl. Starting with 1 tablespoon at a time, mix in milk until icing is desired consistency. Add vanilla and combine.

Brioche Danish with Goat Cheese and Pistachios

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35 thoughts to “Brioche Danish With Goat Cheese and Pistachios”

  1. Perfect timing. I’ve finally really gotten into ABinFive and just made up a batch of Brioche – we had the first loaf as overnight overbaked French toast (!) and I froze the rest, but seeing this…and knowing I have some great cherry pie filling (from Door Cnty), as well as frozen blueberries from last summer and now I’m thinking…..Thanks!

      1. Tried them and they turned out fantastic – substituted a regular Danish pastry cheese filling (cream cheese, ricotta, vanilla, etc.) but they were wonderful. Had a little difficulty with creating the space for the filling – it kept springing back – I dusted the glass with a little flour each time and that worked well. Thanks again! BTW – yes, the Door County cherries were woohoo!

      2. Hi Sally,

        If you let them rest for about 10 minutes, and then try to make the space for the filling they won’t fight you quite so much. The 10 minutes is included in the overall resting time, so you don’t have to wait any longer.

        Thanks, Zoë

  2. I saw this and immediately invited people over for breakfast. We’ll see how it turns out but even if it doesn’t look the same it will be divine!

  3. bonjour , j’adore votre site et votre facon de faire le pain , je fais mon pain maison tous les jours , et j’aimerai adopter votre facon de faire la pate a pain mais ne trouve pas la recette ( celle que l’on met au frigo apres avoir lever !) pain en 5mn pourriez vous m’envoyer sa traduction je ne comprend pas l’anglais et pas facile de vous suivre même sur les vidéo ! dommage pour moi ca j’aimerai bien suivre vos recette !
    bonne journée a bientot

    1. Hi Cathy,

      Thank you for the note, unfortunately, my French is not very strong. Despite my last name, I do not speak French. 😉 I’m afraid my translation would be much worse than putting the recipe into google translate.

      Cheers! Zoë

  4. I notice you have linked to some products on Amazon that you endorse for your method (like food storage buckets, Danish dough hooks, etc.) I was wondering, is there anywhere on your site or on Amazon where all those links are collected in one place? Thanks so much.

    By the way, and I don’t say this lightly … your recipes have changed my life. Well, my diet, anyway. Best home-baked bread I’ve tasted anywhere — I can hardly believe it comes from my own oven. I haven’t bought bread in several months now.

    1. Hi Nathan,

      On the left sidebar there is an Amazon Store link, it has many of the tools we recommend. Thanks for the great note, so glad you’re baking all your own bread.

      Enjoy! Zoë

  5. Well, I’m just going to come right out and say it: these little brioche danish are so very tasty. They came about after a lazy Sunday morning; I had some whole wheat brioche dough in the fridge, and wanted something sweet that didn’t involve a lot of work. I also happened to have a tube of almond paste, goat cheese, and pistachios, and so the great experiment began. It was delicious from the start, but after a few tries and a little tweaking, a perfect weekend treat was born.

  6. These look incredible! Do you guys have any recommendations for where to source almond paste?

      1. Jeff,

        What supermarket is that? I live in the Twin Cities too (I was in your class on Sunday), so a name would be useful 🙂

        Thanks!
        Benjamin

  7. How about mixing the icing with tahini instead of milk OR maybe a honey-tahini-pistachio icing for a sort of halva brioche?

    Sharon

  8. You mention trying lemon or orange curd in these danishes–would orange curd be the same as the lemon curd in AB5M except substituting the same amount of orange juice and zest for the lemon counterparts? I have to tell you, I LOVE lemon, and your lemon curd recipe is the most incredibly delicious stuff out there (like, eat-it-with-a-spoon-all-on-its-own delicious!!!)

  9. It took me forever to figure out how to post a comment. I hope I can find the answer.
    What is vital wheat gluten? Where can I buy it? Is it the same as dough enhancer?

  10. Cream cheese would be our top choice, any recipe ideas for that filling? Or just substitute in for the goat cheese? Brioche dough is raising and these look amaziing to try with it !!

    1. Hi Jeanne,

      There is a cream cheese filling recipe in the HBin5 book, which is essentially just cream cheese sweetened with honey or sugar and a bit of lemon zest. It is terrific and really easy.

      Cheers, Zoë

      1. Ok, thanks for the help. Which book should I buy? Looking on line is hard for me to decide. Which book is the newer, if you don’t mind telling me. I gave one to my daughter in law for Christmas , and now I’m hooked.
        Thanks for your inpiut.

      2. Hi Jeanne,

        The newest book is “The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.” It is the most up to date and has all of our classic recipes.

        Enjoy! Zoë

  11. I love the idea of individual danishes, and would like to do something more traditional, like you show with your “Danish Braid” on this website. If I go with the more traditional cream cheese/jam filling, do you think that would work? If so, any tips on the order of what to put in the “hole”? Cheese then jam or the opposite or side by side?

    I’m looking for a recipe that makes individual servings, transports well, and can be served room temperature (for a work pot luck). I think this will do the trick…what do you think?

    1. Sure, we have that recipe in our books (though not individual ones, just make them smaller). Type “Raspberry braid” into our Search Bar…

      1. Thank you for the reply and sorry if I wasn’t clear…I was just trying to see if, when making the round, individual danishes, as above, does it matter if the cheese or the jam is put down first. I thought the jam, if it were on top and “uncovered” might just melt all over the danish. Any tips would be appreciated and otherwise I’ll just test it out and see how it goes!

      2. Interesting, we always put the cheese first, then the jam… and then the jam sometimes runs (not always). My guess it that your way might help, though the result might look different.

  12. Haven’t made your pistachio twist due to preparing for a move. We finally moved, and my kitchen is set up.

    I finally made it, after craving it for so long!

    It’s still the “totally awesome” (I’m back in the Valley, in CA, LOL) bread I remember. We had guests for Sukkot all week, and I served a loaf twice. Everyone loved it. My sis in law almost ate a 1 pound loaf!

    Haven’t made it since the baking group that baked thru HB5 in 2009. It’s just as fabulous as I remember it.

    Thank you, you guys are awesome!

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