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.
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from America’s Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook
At my house the most used cookbook is a binder with favorite family recipes from my Mom and Grandma along with new recipes that we have come to love as well! Thanks for all your great ideas.
Being from the Upper Midwest this recipe falls right into coffee time. The
possible chance to add to my love(& collection) of cookbooks in not a bad
thing at all. Thanks, have a wonderful day!
Awesome! My sister Amy gave me the giant Cook’s Illustrated cookbook for Christmas last year and I use it ALL the time now. I’m sure this one is awesome too!
Honestly, I use your blog more than any cookbook but when I need a quick reference, the Betty Crocker binder comes out.
I received a red hardcover Betty Crocker cookbook for my wedding and I’m still using it 38 years later!
I have so many favorites. It’s a toss up between the ATK, Gooseberry Patch, Southern Living, or Allrecipes cookbooks I have. None of these cookbooks ever let me down.
Love the Pioneer Woman’s cookbooks!
I use my Betty Crocker cookbook for a lot of basic recipes. 🙂
I love the hand-me-down receipes from my first Church Family (the Church I grew up in)…nothing beats those receipes.
Thank you, Jennifer Olson
Hmmm, favorite cookbook – that’s a tough one! The Better Homes and Garden cookbook is always a go to for the staple recipes, but being honest my most used are the books of bloggers Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman and Sara Wells & Kate Jones of Our Best Bites. I only have the first one for each of them, but for now that’s enough because I use them all the time and still haven’t made every recipe in them. Of course when I want to know the BEST way to make something I go to my ATK TV Show cookbook and that is always a winner! Would love to add their new one to my collection as it seems no-fail recipes for quick, yummy meals would help this soon to be mommy of 3 kiddos under 13 months save her sanity 🙂
My most used cookbook would probably be just my own that I have made. Unfortunately for my family, we eat a lot of the same foods over and over again. 🙂 Luckily for them, I also get a lot of amazing recipes from THIS website that make it into the binder!
I love your blog and since I just discovered it – it has become my newest “cookbook”! Thank you! I also love all of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks!
My favorite cookbook is a binder of family recipes my mom gave me when I got married. I’ve added recipes to it as well, many of which have come from you. Thanks for helping me figure out what to make for dinner on several occasions!
I use a lot of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks…especially my grandmas old one.
I love the ATK Family Cookbook, but this new cookbook sounds perfect! I’m always looking for quicker recipes.
My favorite cook book is one I got as a wedding present 36 years ago. It is the old orange copy of Betty Crocker’s Cookbook. It was on it’s 25th printing in 1975. It has been used, and used, and used. Still love it today!!
I love my family recipe book! My aunts and grandmothers are fabulous cooks!
I don’t use a lot of cookbooks anymore, but I do like the Our Best Bites (old) one, because of the pictures. My favorite recipes come from blogs (yours is at the top of the list!) because I like to read the entry with it, and comments on how it turned out for other people. I’ve heard the ATK cookbooks are great, but don’t own one (yet!).
I have so many favorites…Betty Crocker has probably been used the most since it was the first I owned and because my mom used it and so it’s familiar and comforting.
I love my family’s traditional recipes cookbook. They are always a hit and I feel a connection to my mom and grandma whenever I use it.
I have an old and reliable book that I helped put together many years ago with several friends…it is my go to when I need something familiar and hearty. I also have the huge spiral bound Betty Crocker along with Cooks Country.
Don’t get me wrong I love my cookbooks (which have been packed away for years since we were re-painting our kitchen) and they have yet to resurface. But, now I’m a huge fan of finding recipes via blogs like yours and others. I also rely on allrecipes.com a lot. I like to hear revisions and reviews on a recipe. Oh, and as we speak I’m at work with the crockpot cooking the Ultimate Beef Stroganoff 🙂 Can’t wait to get home!
My favorite cookbook is the binder my husband and I put together of all the recipes we like. For new recipes I usually use the internet and check sites like yours.
My most beloved cookbook is a photocopied one that all of the grandchildren got of my grandma’s hand-written recipes that she saved through the years. She’s a brilliant cook!
I love How To Cook Everything….a modern classic!
I go to the internet for most of my recipes and have very few cookbooks. One that I do own and reference is a family cookbook filled with recipes from my dad’s family.
Huge ATK fan! I have several of the cookbooks, and every issue of Cook’s Country ever published. Seriously. Those and my tattered ward cookbook are my favorites.
If I am not using your website or a family recipe, I love my Betty Crocker cookbook!
I use a 1957 Betty Crocker cookbook I got when I was a wee one from my aunt who is still alive at almost 95!!!!! She cooked from it but really she made up her own recipes and cook she could…I try to follow better calorie substitutions cause I have type 2 diabetes, but the tried and true recipes I still make my husband of nearly 40 years likes the tried and true ones..The recipe you made looks mighty tasty and I could make it up for a gift and my hubby to boot..Would love to win the book as I love AKT and watch it on pbs all the time, always learn something great about cooking and food in general..wow whee!!!!!!!!! thanks for the giveaway! Love your blog!!!!!!!!!!!
Those look yummy. I love cheese danish but don’t love the chemically taste many in the store have. My most used cookbook is my red and white check Better, Homes and Gardens cookbook that I got as wedding gift 18 years ago.
Love ATK! My most used cookbook is probably my “Cooking with Your Slow Cooker” cookbook I got for Christmas a few years ago. A new recipe for us every Sunday (at least!).
Most recently, my recipes come from various food blogs. One of my favorites is a Junior League cookbook from Colorado that I have.
I love the Williams Sonoma cookbooks, particularly their Asian cookbook. They have a chicken curry recipe in there that I make probably biweekly because my family loves it so much.
I love the Pioneer Womans first cookbook and I am a loyal subscriber to Cooks Country. My husband teases me because while he reads novels in bed, I am usually browsing my stack of Cooks Country magazines that are piled on my nightstand.
The Heyerly Family Cookbook. I just won one in a drawing at my recent Heyerly Family Reunion. In addition to all the old family recipes, there are pictures and little bits of family history. FUN!
I love my busy family favorite cookbook from taste of home.
hollymay09@gmail.com
I, like a lot of others, get probably 90% of my recipes from your website. My other recipes usually come from allrecipes- mostly with some custom adjustments. I would love a cookbook recommended by you!
I probably use the Red Family America’s Test Kitchen cookbook the most, followed by the blue baking ATK cookbook and the green healthy ATK cookbook. So, you can see that I really need the new orange one to round out my collection
I use now mostly the internet and blogs but the timeless classic that always seems to have room in my kitchen is the big red Betty Crocker cookbook.
Most of the recipes I use come from blogs, but I do use my bhg cookbook sometimes.
either Betty Crocker or The Joy of Cooking, depending on what I’m cooking!
Yum, those look delicious!! I am all about simple recipes that still taste delicious and are made from good ingredients, so this book sounds perfect. I may have to look it up even if I don’t win. 😉
One of my favourite cookbooks is actually one of those fundraiser cookbooks, you know, like from schools or churches or groups. In elementary school my school did that with all kinds of family submitted recipes. Our school was a lot of Dutch kids (my grandparents are from Holland as well), so there are so many fab recipes in there for the treats I grew up with. We’ve definitely used it over and over.
My favorite cookbook my binder that has printouts from all my favorite websites and my mom’s favorite recipes that she gave me as a wedding gift.
My go to cookbook is Ina Garten Back to Basics! However, wouldn’t mind a new one from America’s Test Kitchen!
Next to my own binder of tried and trues, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Rhee Drummonds “Recipes From an Accidental Country Girl”
The Joy of Cooking. Classic.
My favorite cookbook is a collection of cooking blogs. It is the best way to try new recipes. Also, the pictures are awesome.
I love my Joy of Cooking! My go-to cookbook hands down.
Those danish look like gourmet (and way more delicious) toaster strudel which are my kid’s favorites. We may have to try those this weekend. When I first got married 24 years ago my cousin gave me a Fannie Farmer cookbook. I still have it and whenever I need to look up how to cook something basic (like what temp to roast a turkey) i will refer to Fannie.
I often refer to my better homes and garden cookbook or else I refer to your blog! Those are my favorite sources for recipes. 🙂