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
I have lots that I love but the most used is probably OUR BEST BITES!
Cookbook on my counter constantly in my life right now… Baby love. With 9 month old twins, I’m cooking a lot of baby food!! Loving the fresh quick meal ideas!
Shamelessly the Lion House cookbook….zucchini bread, mac and beef bake, banana bread, rolls, angel food cake…I could go on. It is just been a staple for years!
My most used cookbook is actually one that my husbands grandmother church put together. Talk about tried and true recipes!
I absolutely love my Our Best Bites cookbook. I’ve cooked at least half the recipes in it so far, and I’ve always been astonished by how delicious each recipe has been. Thanks for the chance to win!
My favorite cookbook is my old standby–Betty Crocker, have had it for years.
One that I have been using a lot is called The Good Neighbor Cookbook. It has a great Peanut Butter Chocolate cookie recipe too! I also enjoy ATK and would love their new cookbook!!!
Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything is my most used cookbook!
I didn’t realize Cook’s Illustrated had a new cookbook out – love their stuff! I actually don’t own many cookbooks that I use but I LOVE my monthly subscriptions to Everyday Food and Cook’s Illustrated!
Hi Mel — I enjoy your blog and truly cannot resist a giveaway! These days I typically use my iPad and the internet for recipes but if I have to choose a most used book it would be Southern Living 1997 collection. Thanks and have a great day! 🙂
I love these cookbooks too! This looks like another winner!
I love my Betty Crocker cook book. I can always find useful tips in there.
My favorite cookbook: the one I have compiled myself over a lifetime of great baking and cooking!! Each recipe has a past, a story… they make me who I am and the family I am raising today.
I love ATK’s The New Best Recipe and the Cooks Country cookbook! I haven’t seen this “quick” cookbook. If I dont win, I’ll have to head out to Costco soon to see if they have it yet!
My VitaMix cookbook is definitely the most used.
Mel, I totally appreciate that you don’t do promotions that you don’t believe in! And I love ATK too! I have a couple of their cookbooks, but my most used is their Family Baking Book.
If I use a cookbook it is probably the OBB cookbook. More often than not, though, I use the internet.
my favorite cookbook is my last ward cookbook, use it all the time. Your blog I use TONS and love it. Would love if you came out with a cookbook
Better Homes and Gardens
I love my aunt’s family cookbook!
better homes and gardens cookbook
I love my cooks country cookbook also put out by america’s test kitchen. They are awesome!
my mother in laws. She made a binder of all her families favorite recipes before she passed away.
Oh those look sooo good! Can’t wait to whip these up for a weekend treat! My “cook book” of choice is an accumulation of recipe cards from my mom of my favorite meals she made when I was growing up. Would love to have some quick easy meal ideas like in this book!
I use my classic Betty Crocker with the red cover the most. Anything I make from it always turns out and tastes great.
I have never purchased a cookbook. I mostly cook things of your blog or family favorites I just know and a few recipes I have collected from friends over the years. I guess I don’t cook anything without a good recommendation.
My mom made me a cookbook of all the recipes she makes that I love. I used it the most when I was first married, now that I know all the recipes by heart I add to it.
I don’t use cookbooks a lot…I’m always checking online for recipes instead 🙂 But I do love my Taste of Home magazines that I get each month!
I love my Taste of Home cookbook!
My favorite cookbook is Paul Prudhomme’s Always Cooking! It is a wonderful cookbook with lots of delicious Cajun recipes! Thanks for the giveaway! 🙂
Most often I use the Internet and recipes that I’ve gotten from friends (things that I’ve been able to try and liked enough to ask for the recipe), but I do turn to the America’s Test Kitchen Best Recipes cookbook quite regularly as well.
I love my Cook’s Illustrated New Best Recipes cook book and I love my Southern Living cookbooks too!
My most loved and used cookbook is the one I am making on my own with all my favorite recipes from my favorite bloggers’ sites.
I love easy, fast recipes, those are the best!!! These look great, just like all your recipes!
It’s a toss up between Ina Garten’s first Barefoot Contessa cookbook and Pam Anderson’s “Perfect Recipes for Having People Over”.
The cookbook I use the most is the one of my family’s tried and true recipes. I also love anything Ina Garten and Nigella Lawson. As for online recipes…it’s America’s Test Kitchen all the way. This is a giveaway that’s got my name written all over it. Thanks for the chance!
I love getting the Cooks Illustrated Magazines and would also really enjoy getting an ATK cookbook! Their recipes are fabulous!
I turn to The Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook for everything (after your site, of course!)
I have a large binder full of a hodge-podge of recipes from magazines, family, and friends. I also love Ellie Krieger’s cookbook, “The Food You Crave” – I really do crave some of her recipes and don’t have to feel guilty eating them! I also use my own recipe blog.
I really like my American Test Kitchen skillet cook book
I have a LOT of cookbooks, but I think my favorites would have to be any of Barefoot Contessa’s.
My favorite cookbook is one my grandmother made of family recipes and her recipes she has made throughout the years. I cherish it!!
When I need basics or have a question about cooking times, I always go to my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I have a couple from ATK, and I love them, but most of the recipes are too intensive for this momma of little kids. This new one sounds perfect! Definitely on my wish list now!
My Mom’s Old Cookbook that I have bound together with shelf paper in order to keep the binding from falling apart. I cherish this book, as it was hers, and the recipes are written in language from another era. Thanks for the opportunity.
I love the America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book…it is AWESOME and has so many no-fail recipes 🙂
America’s Test Kitchen all the way! Any of their books is a go-to!
My most used and abused cookbook is my Mom’s Neighborhood collection. Love those tried and true recipes!
And this is not a lie. My most loved and used cookbook is the America’s Test Kitchen 10 year compilation cookbook. We lovingly refer to it as ATK. However, I gots me some kids as of late, so I don’t refer to it as much as I would like.
Oh wow…that cookbook would be so awesome to have! Right now I use blogs far more frequently than cookbooks, but I would say that the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook is the one I use the most.
A recipe book compiled by a former neighborhood and
a recipe book compiled by my Nana who was a fantastic cook!