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
My aunt put together a cookbook with all of the family favorites that she gives as graduation presents and I can’t imagine trying to cook without it!
My most used cookbook right now is: Savory Sweet Life by Alice Currah. Another favorite isThe Comfort Table by Katie Lee Joel.
I love ATK healthy family cookbook. It’s definitely my go-to.
I love, love, love thsoe ATK people. My current favorite cookbook is their Slow Cooker Revolution, but I could list 5 of their books that I use all the time. I would LOVE to add this one to the collection!!!
I use the web so much that I don’t rely on a lot of cookbooks, but I refer to my trusty betty crocker that I got for a wedding present for some of the basic staples.
I love Everyday Food by Martha Stewart… but honestly I use your blog the most!
Love all the ATK books – and Bon Appetit. They are my no-fail, go-to books.
I can’t believe I don’t have any America’s Test Kitchen cookbooks (yet! wink.). But probably my most used book is an old family cookbook! With such beloved recipes like my mom’s banana bread and grandmothers corn bread dressing!
My most used, most loved cookbook is The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. The weird thing is I don’t like the cake recipes very much (your chocolate cake is way better than any of the ones I made from the book) but I go to it time and again for the fabulous frosting recipes. The cheese danish are killing me–they look so good! A cheese danish is one of my favorite things on earth and I haven’t had one in…15 years???
My favorite cookbook is the original America’s Test Kitchen Family cookbook – (followed closely by their baking cookbook). I absolutely LOVE them!
I love my America’s Test Kitchen 2012 cookbook. Have loved the show for a long time and finally broke down and bought a cookbook — no regrets!!! It’s GREAT!!
The cookbook I use most is one from my mom’s church. The ladies put their favorite recipes in a book and we could buy it for really cheap. It has some great recipes. I love to watch America’s Test Kitchen on t.v., but have never bought one of their cookbooks.
Up to this point I have been a pretty big Internet recipe gal, but I am in serious NEED of this cookbook! We are building a house and in the meantime are stuck in a black hole apt with no Internet, it’s killing me to not have recipes always at my fingertips! Not to mention baby on the way, I could use some “fast food” recipes! I have to win!!!
I’ll be honest, I haven’t used my cookbook as often since you website came into my life, but the ones that I do still turn to occasionally are my Rhodes Dough cookbook, the binder of recipes that Aunt Marylin gave me and my Taste of Home cookbook. Love that magazine! A cookbook with quick, simple recipes is definitely something I could use! Thanks for the chance to win something!
My ATK Family Cookbook. I have yet to make something that we didn’t like out of ATK/Cook’s Country books. But I don’t have this one. Hoping I win!
taste of home
my favorite cookbook can’t be bought! Its a homemade compilation of generations if my family’s best loved recipes. 🙂 I love atk! We watch every saturday.
I use the cook book that the women’s group from my church at home put together. I also use this blog faithfully. I have discovered some of my husband and I’s favorite dishes on here:)
I love ATK Family Cookbook–it’s the only one that gets a spot on the counter.
Love your blog!
-Michelle
I use the cookbook our church put together for it’s filled with families’ favorites. I love the ATK and Cook’s Country recipes, too. They’re tried and true!
I would have to say the America’s Test Kitchen family cookbook. Love it!
I love watching America’s Test Kitchen on PBS! My most used, most loved cookbook is one received at our wedding reception: Mormon Country Cooking by Winnifred Jardine. There are lots of tried and true recipes in this book plus tons of reference material.
I think my favorite cookbook is my Church Family cookbook (made from family recipes from all the ladies in my church!) most of them are just down-home southern goodness!
It’s the good, old-fashioned Betty Crocker cookbook for me.
I just this very morning finished reading an ATK cookbook that my husband found at Goodwill. Yes, I read cookbooks. The one I read before that was The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipies and Stories of My Life. He is the author of some of my favorite novels, especially South of Broad. I watch/record the ATK show on the public tv channel and I listen to the ATK podcast, so I guess you could say I’m a fan. It would be very cool to get a copy of this one.
I love our family cookbook and the Better Homes and Garden cookbook.
My go-to cookbook is the Cook’s Country Cookbook. It is foolproof and it is filled with almost all of the wonderful American recipes that I grew up with. Plus, I also love my Barefoot Contessa “How Easy is That?” which is also on my counter for quick reference.
The cookbook that I use constantly was made locally by a group of women and their families tried and true recipies. It is called a Taste of Country. I also use the Sleigh Bells and Sugarplums book they put together for the holidays! I would love to add this one to my collection!
I’ve really only tested my muscle in the kitchen since the dawn of food blogs, so I can honestly say there aren’t many real “bound” cookbooks in my kitchen. I do have the good old trusted Betty Crocker bible, along with a couple Rachel Ray 30 minute meal cook books and a few church fundraiser cook books. My most cherished collection of recipes came from my mother who passed away 2 years ago. A more wonderful cook never set foot on planet earth!
The New Best Recipe cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen.
Betty Crocker is my old standby, but I tend to rely on a revolving selection of cookbooks from the library for inspiration.
My favorite is a tie between two. I have the “America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook” and I use it so frequently I had to tape the binding. The cookbook I recently fell in love with (borrowed from the library) is “Everyday Mexican” by Rick Bayless.
I love my cookbook from the Christian grade school I went to. It was very small (less than 100 kids in k-8) and they collected recipes from each family as a fund raiser…you can tell pretty much by who’s recipe it is if you will like it 🙂
I guess the cookbook I reach for the most is one of the Taste of Home Annual Recipe Cookbooks (from the year 2000). This America’s Test Kitchen cookbook looks great though!
Really my favorite cookbooks are online. I love looking at everyone’s cooking blogs. Yours being one of my fav.
My favorite cookbook, which has never steered me wrong and provides endless inspiration, is Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Now if only there were some chicken recipes, also!
Better Homes and Garden
My favorite cookbook is the Joy of Cooking! LOVE it!! It’s a cookbook and an educational book!
Currently my Taste of Home cookbook gets pulled off the shelf the most. I’m a sucker for cookbooks…love them!
I love Pioneer Woman’s first cookbook.
I find that if I’m not using the book of family/printed recipes, I use the Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking and The Joy of Cooking most frequently. TJC is a great resource, every cook should have it in their kitchen!
I love the Better Homes and Gardens red checkered cookbook that was passed to me from my grandma. Tha pages are fading and yellowing but it’s full of great stuff!
The cookbook I use the most isn’t technically a cookbook. It’s a collection of recipes and tips my grandmother typed up for me shortly after I got married. My grandma is the best cook I know!
My all time faveorite cookbook is America Cooks. 40 years of use and still going strong. It’s a great basic cookbook with amazing tricks, tips and recipies.
Can I call your website a cookbook? It’s the one place I go to plan my menus. I think I cook 80% of my meals from here. I guess the other 20% comes from a
Cookbook my mother put together for my family to have all her recipes we grew up eating.
When I was a mere 2 years old, my Grandma gave me her Mennonite Church cookbook. I treasure it to this day.
I LOVE the Our Best Bites cookbook! I use it all the time, especially if i’m entertaining!
Those Danishes look divine. If a recipe is delicious and easy, with great ingredients, I am so there. My favorite cookbook, beside pinterest and your blog, is one that was put together for my sister-in-law’s bridal shower. Everyone sent in 2 of their favorite recipes, and the cookbook was put together for everyone to have as a parting gift. So much fun to have others favorites, and they haven’t disappoint.
Oh… I have an obsession with cookbooks. I love almost all of them my shelf, at the library, the bookstore, my friends house,…you get the picture. My favorite, probably not most used, but favorite isn’t published. Its one that my son’s 2nd grade class made for a school auction. Its done scrapbook style. It is super special!
Love your website. The cookbook I use the most is Our Best Bites. I received it when my friend couldn’t find America’s Test Kitchen cookbook for me so I would love to get this one.