Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Make the Cream cheese filling: In a medium size mixing bowl, combine the room temperature cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and sour cream. Use a fork to mash it all together at first, then stir the mixture until it is really smooth and well combined. Place the filling in a piping bag, or a zip top bag with the corner cut off.

Place the very cold puff pastry on your well floured work surface. Roll it out into a large square about 12"x12". Use a sharp chef's knife or a bench scraper to cut the pastry into 9 squares.

If the pastry gets warm and starts to stick at any point, put it back into the fridge or freezer for 5-10 minutes to let it firm back up.

Place the squares of pastry onto the prepared parchment-lined baking sheet. Fold and shape the squares into your desired shape. See the notes above about shaping Danish, and check out my video tutorial on Instagram. Put the pastries in the fridge or freezer for 10 minutes to firm up.

Brush the pastries with the beaten egg. Then pipe a generous tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture into the center of each pastry.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown, puffy, and flakey. It's ok if the tops of the cream cheese brown slightly.

Remove the pastries from the oven. Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Then arange the fresh berries and fruit on top of the cream cheese filling in the center. To make your Danish look like they just came out of a French pastry case, brush the top of the fruit with the pure maple syrup or thinned apricot jam for extra shine.