Berry Cream Cheese Danish

1In mixing bowl using beaters, dissolve yeast in warm water. With mixer on low speed, stir in milk, sugar, oil, salt, and eggs until combined. Slowly add 2 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Replace beater with dough hook, knead in medium low speed until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.* Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Set aside to rise in warm place until about double in size, about 2 hours.

2While dough rises, prepare the fruit filling. Place sliced strawberries and blueberries in 1 quart pot along with water, sugar and cinnamon. Heat until fruit is soft. With potato masher crush the fruit leaving some bits and pieces for texture. Bring to boil. In a separate bowl, mix cornstarch and 3 - 4 tablespoons of water. When fruit mixture is at full boil, add cornstarch mixture slowly and blend thoroughly with whisk. Mixture should thick nicely rather quickly to consistency of a loose jam type mixture. Set aside to cool.

3While fruit mixture cools, make the cream cheese filling. In a mixing bowl, mix softened cream cheese, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla extract. Scrape bowl once, mixing until smooth and well blended.

4When dough is ready, punch down dough. Cover with inverted bowl; let rest for 15 - 20 minutes.

5When dough is done resting, preheat over to 350 degrees. Divide dough into two equal portions. Roll out one portion on lightly floured counter. Roll out into a rectangular shape about 15 inches long and 8 inches wide.

6Cover large cookie sheet with cooking spray ooking sheet. Place dough on center of cookie sheet. With sharp knife or pizza cutter, place 10 - 12 evenly spaced slices along each side creating strips. Slice carefully leaving the center 1 - 2 inches of dough unsliced, creating a 'bed' for the fruit and cream cheese mixtures.

7With plastic spatula or spoon, scoop about half of the cream cheese mixture on the 'bed' of the dough allowing some to get close to the inner edge of the sliced dough. Place half of the fruit mixture on top of the cream cheese mixture. Spread fruit mixture so it covers the majority of the cream cheese mixture. Flip ends of dough over onto of the mixtures. Pick up one strip of sliced dough from each side of the pastry and pull up gently and tuck one under the other to tie. Repeat until all stripes of sliced dough have been tied. Using a second cookie sheet, repeat this entire process with the other portion of dough.

8In preheated oven, bake at 350 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes. Make sure to only place one cookie sheet at a time in oven.

9When first pastry is done, place pan on rack to cool. Then place second pastry on cookie sheet to bake. While first pastry is cooling on pan, make glaze.

10In mixing bowl, beat powdered sugar, softened butter, vanilla and hot water until smooth.

11When first pastry is cool enough to move, place on wire rack and cool completely. Follow same cooling steps for the second pastry as well. When both pastries are completely cooled, drizzle glaze over both. You can serve immediately or wait until glaze has set, about 15 minutes.

12*If dough hook is not available, turn dough out onto lightly floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic for about 5 minutes.