A Danish pastry is sweetened bread that is a very popular dish all around the globe. It is a speciality of Denmark, and is characterised as fluffy, soft and layered pastry like puff pastries, with many different toppings like chocolate, fruits, jam, nuts and many more. The shapes also vary in different regions of the world, including spirals, pretzel-like, ring-like or figure eights. Danish pastry with pecans and nut fillings are also loved by many.
A medium sized Danish pastry can contain approximately 262 calories. The nutritional breakdown is 7% protein, 44% carbohydrates and 49% fat. The medium pastry has a diameter of around 4 or 4.5 inches. A fruit enriched Danish pastry includes fruits like apple, strawberry, lemon, raisins and strawberry and is quite high in sugar. Containing 264 calories, the fat content is around 13%, which includes saturated, mono-saturated and poly-saturated fats. The medium sized pastry weighs 71 grams, out of which 33.9 grams is carbohydrate and 3.8 grams is protein content. The cheese variant of the Danish pastry is made of eggs, flour, milk, sugar and cheese. One serving of this pastry has 262 calories. The nutritional breakdown is 8% protein, 42% carbohydrates and 52% fat.
Other variants of Danish, as the pastry is popularly called in U.S.A are cinnamon pastry and nut-filled Danish pastry. Cinnamon is added to enhance the aroma of this pastry. This variety is the most widely eaten and does not contain added calories of toppings like cheese, custard or marzipan. For calorie conscious people, there have been introduced cholesterol free Danish pastries with sweetened cheese topping. It contains only 95 calories per 71 grams with only 0.2 gram fat content. The calories breakdown is 2% fat, 11% protein and 87% carbohydrates. Those who want to reduce their cholesterol level or stay healthy must not develop a penchant for this fattening dessert.
