Simple Cheese Danish
These simple homemade cheese danishes are so easy, so elegant and so delicious. You’ve gotta try them right now!
I feel like I’ve been harping on quick, simple recipes and meals lately. Sorry if that offends your gourmet spirit.
I promise that fast food (I’m talking fast food like homecooked fast food, not fast food like dollar menu fast food) can taste delicious even if it is simple and quick to prepare.
Because of my latest fetish with easy recipes, I was thrilled beyond thrilled when out of the blue, America’s Test Kitchen sent me their newest cookbook, The Quick Family Cookbook, because the food in here is seriously talking my language.
No-fail is the word that comes to mind with ATK’s tested, tested, tested recipes and the wonder of this cookbook is that you get classically delicious America’s Test Kitchen recipes with minimal fuss, time and ingredients. Oh, I am in love with this book.
To show how great this book is, I should have made some stellar main course fare that will save your bacon on any given Tuesday night; however, I couldn’t resist these delicious cheese Danish pastries.
They are so easy, so elegant and so delicious, if you close your eyes while eating one, you might just believe you are smack dab on the bustling streets of Paris – oh wait, think of some city in Denmark! – eating an authentic pastry.
Not that I ever have had that experience, but take my word for it – these babies get the job done for a no-fuss pastry. Make them and love them.
Simple Cheese Danish
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese, light or regular, softened to room temperature
- 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoons grated lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed (9 1/2 by 9-inch)
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten with 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, stir together the cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla. Set aside.
- Roll the pastry into a 12 by 9-inch rectangle on a lightly floured counter, making sure it doesn’t stick to the counter while rolling. Cut the rectangle into six 4 1/2 by 4-inch rectangles (cut it in half the long way and then cut each strip into thirds). Transfer the pastry rectangles to the baking sheet, spacing about 1 inch apart. Using the tip of a paring knife, score a 1/2-inch border around the edge of each pastry, then brush the borders with the egg wash (no fear – if you don’t have a pastry brush, using your fingers works just as well!). Prick the pastry with a fork every 1 inch or so within the border (see the picture below for a visual). Place a generous 2-3 tablespoons of filling in the center of each pastry and spread it into an even layer leaving the border uncovered.
- Bake the pastries until fully puffed and golden about 12-14 minutes (watching carefully so they don’t overbrown). Serve the pastries warm or at room temperature.
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Recipe Source: adapted slightly from America’s Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook
It used to be my tried and true cut and paste recipe binder, now it’s becoming recipe blogs and Pinterest.
Hi Mel!!! Love your blog…I have to say my favorite cookbook was one my church was selling. All tried and true recipes from our members. I’ve used this book over and over and adapted some of the recipes to our taste but I can always find whatever I’m looking for in there.
Hmmm… I would say my Thai-Southeast Asian Cookbook that I’ve learned sooo much from. I now create my own stir frys because every asian ingredient (like the vinegars used and chinese wines are all explained). But, I do love all of my cookbooks because they’re all geared towards different styles of cooking!
I had a recipe box with my favorites that I copies from my mom’s recipe box, but in the last 2 years, I don’t know if I’ve even opened a cookbook. Now I get most of my recipes from blogs and access them on my phone rather than even printing them out. But I love to READ cookbooks.
America’s Test Kitchen!
Oh! Such a great cookbook! I want!
My favorite cookbook is Rebecca Rather’s ‘Rather Sweet Desserts.’ She owns a bakery in Texas and I adore everything she makes. Especially because she’s a skinny mini like me but bakes desserts all day long! 🙂
Hi Mel! I always seem to rediscover my handed down Betty Crocker’s Cookbook that my mother passed to me when I went out on my own. It has all of the basics that we still love after all of these years.
The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook is one that I use a lot, but a lot of times I get my best recipes from blogs like yours!
Wish I could give a real answer for this. But honestly, my most used cookbook is a homemade one my mom gave me upon leaving for college, which I have added to, mostly from blogs like yours. Love it. Don’t have any ATK ones, but would love to! I always trust their advice!
These look delicious. On a random side note, I had a taco party last week and nearly everything I made was from your blog! That balsamic black bean salsa is out of this world. My friends loved it!
My favorite cookbook if I had to choose is a collection recipes I put together from various places…some are family, others are printed off of websites like Food Network, Taste of Home, etc. I also always keep my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook nearby, more for cook times and things like that which are at the end of every chapter. But honestly mainly come to your website and a few other favorite food blogs for my recipes!
My go-to cookbook is a binder full of magazine clippings, printed recipies (some of them yours!) And handwritten family recipies scribbled on notebook paper and index cards.
I mostly use the Internet and pinterest these days, but a few of my go to recipes are from the Betty Crocker cookbook. The apple crisp from there is perfection!
I search the web for recipes. My favorite sites are yours :), Pioneer Woman, This Mommy Cooks, and AllRecipes.
Hey Mel! So my very first go to cookbook was a spiral bound one from my Grandma’s church. Then, I met you and it became this fantastic website! Now that school is in session, sports, scouts, and other activities have started and I found some other favorites in the Taste of Home – Busy Family Favorites (30 minute meals) and TOH Slow Cooker and One Dish Meals. But my spur of the moment go-to is still melskitchencafe!!
Either my cooks country annuals or my BGH Cookbook. I go there for the basics all the time and if I’m looking for something different or special I head online.
The dog eared cookbook on my shelf is the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. Nowadays, recipes are more likely to be found on the internet, but I still keep this older, but still solid and basic cookbook that taught me how to cook as a new wife. Having seen you reference America’s Test Kitchen on your site, I have taken a few out of the library and made copies of recipes that looked like must try recipes. Would of course love to win one of their cookbooks for my own 🙂
When I got married, my aunt made me a scrapbook of recipes and every woman in my family contributed one of their favorite family recipes to it….it is wonderful and fun to have our favorite family recipes all in one place, especially some of Grandma’s classics!
Thanks for all your great posts, I have used quite a lot of them!
While I have “name brand” cookbooks, the ones I use most are a church cookbook given to me early in my teaching career by a student (fav cake in this one) and a cookbook put together by the Junior Woman’s Club in my town probably thirty years ago when we were all young cooks.
I love your website! We’ve had your Grilled Island Chicken twice this week. 🙂
My favorite “recipe book” these days is not really a book at all, but Pinterest. I’ve made over 150 recipes from there in the last 9 months.
I don’t really use cookbooks much anymore but I look at your website everyday! America’s Test Kitchen has some great books though.
P.S. Made your Succulent Grilled Pork Tenderloin last night. It was a hit–VERY GOOD.
I love any America’s Test Kitchen cookbook!
I use my Southern Living cookbooks the most. The recipes (especially desserts) are always tasty. However, I recently checked out the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook from my library and discovered some really wonderful recipes in it.
I treasure my church cookbook from when I was a kid. My mom was a great cook and has her greatest recipes in there. She is no longer here on earth to share cooking advice, so it is extra special to me.
I really like the ivory family cookbooks… But honestly, your blog is where I get most of my recipes. We had the San Francisco chops just last night (& @ least twice a month)!
Mel, as by as I love my ward cookbook, the one place that I always turn for yummy recipes is your site! You are a lifesaver in our home.
I’m from whidbey island, WA. I have yummy cookbook, “simply whidbey” that I use often. Also, “breakfast in bed” cookbook, I use so many recipes from this book.
My favorite cookbook is the one that I put together with all the family recipes that have been passed down. I find that I get most of my recipes from your blog or allrecipes especially when I want to try something new.
these danish look seriously good! when i was little, my mom used to take me out on sundays as for a treat. every time i got to the counter, i told myself i was going to try something new. but i never did. cheese danish. every. single. time.
my most used cookbook to this day is still Dorie Greenspan’s baking from my home to yours. its gold.
My fave cookbook? It’s a very thick cookbook compiled by women in my congregation at church. I’ve had it for years. It’s my first go-to cookbook.
We have a Betty Crocker cookbook that my mom got when she was in college…it’s older, but it has some of the best, most consistent recipes in it!
While I generally find recipes on food blogs & pinterest these days, I do LOVE my Josh Besh “My Family Table” cookbook. And when it comes to baking, “Baking Illustrated” is the best and most reliable!
None of my cookbooks came to Switzerland with me- luckily there is the internet, and of course I did NOT leave behind my own recipe box, which includes almost all my mom’s recipes. 🙂
Hi Mel! On my nonstick pan I swear I don’t have a favorite cookbook, I have a favorite website, it’s called melskitchencafe.com and it’s my go to for making anything and everything! My family and friends all must really think we are friends because I seriously just say “oh this is mels recipe” 🙂 I don’t know what I’d do without interent so a cookbook would be awesome!!!
I usually find recipes on blogs like yours, but one cookbook I do like is Our Best Bites. Just throwing this out there. . . I think you should put together a cookbook!!
My favorite cookbook is ATK’s Blue Ribbon Desserts. 🙂 I love ATK and Cook’s Country, too — they never let me down! 😀 Thanks for the fantastic giveaway!
I uses to love my Paula Dean cookbooks but now I’m all about searching the web for recipes. But when I don’t know what I want to cook or I need inspiration, I use my Paula dean cookbook for ideas
Right now I’m living my canning books!
I love America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country, too. They made my Thanksgiving AMAZING last year with their Old Fashioned Pecan Pie recipe (hint, hint, in case you haven’t tried it 😉 ) These danishes look fabulous, too!
The New Betty Crocker is about the only published cookbook I pull out. Usually, I am looking for basic information when I blow the dust off. What I really use is my black binder with page protectors that is my collection of family favorites, Pinterest and other internet discovered recipes.
Ooooh, pretty Danish! The most-used cookbook I have is a toss up between a “make your own” cookbook loaded with some of my mom’s recipes, my favorites taken from a few websites, friends, Cooking Light magazine, PBS cooking shows, and the basic Betty Crocker cookbook, spiral bound, with the pages sometimes sticking. I’ve used it since college and is a great “go to” basic.
My favorites when I am entertaining are “Foster’s Market”and Pam Anderson’s “Perfect Recipes for Having People Over”. My favorites on “any regular day” are “Weeknights with Giada” and ATK’s “Simple Weeknight Favorites”
Does your blog count as a cookbook? If not, then betty crocker for me….she’s always there when I need her!
The cookbook I use most is comprised of recipes from our neighborhood. My friend and I collected recipes, organized them, and put it together about 7 years ago
Next to the one I have that’s handwritten by my Grandma, I love “The Joy of Cooking.”
Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, hands down. Those danish look delicious, by the way…
I have an old Sicilian cookbook that I absolutely love…the pages are falling out and I’m doing my best to keep it all together!
I use the America’s Test Kitchen Healthy cookbook the most! I would love to add this to my collection!
Hey Mel! One of the cookbooks I use the most often is the original (as in her first one) Barefoot Contessa. Love her food!
Those Danish look great! I honestly don’t use my cookbooks nearly enough since Pinterest came into my life, but one that I love is my 30 Years of the Best of Southern Living. It has the best manicotti recipe!