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 love the New Best Recipe Cookbook from Cook’s Illustrated. I heart them 🙂
I always check your site first when looking for a certain recipe, then it’s my recipe boxes, and then I would have to say my Better Homes and Garden old version cookbook is my old faithful.
My best loved/most used cookbook is one my mom and her friend compiled of their favorite recipes. When I find another keeper recipe (like the millions I have from here), I print it off and throw it in too.
My Betty Crocker cookbook, she hardly ever lets me down.
Oooh, this book is one I would definitely use a bunch. I love my Eating for Life book that goes along with the Body for Life program. And the only other cookbook I regularly use would be the printed binder I have full of Mel’s Kitchen Cafe recipes. How’s that for a suck-up? But it’s true. I’ve never really had any other cookbooks. I keep hearing about Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen ones, but I haven’t ever gotten around to buying them.
I don’t use any cookbooks really, mostly the internet (and your one of the first sites I refer too!)
I take my trusty iPad in the kitchen and almost always have your site pulled up, I honestly do so much of my cooking from your site, thank you! As far as a real book, I love the one armed cook, it was a baby shower gift and such a great resource for a new mom.
I love the Cooks Illustrated cookbook. Not only does it have great recipes and step by step illustrations, it explains the “whys”.
My favorite cookbook is Extending the Table or More-with-Less. But I’d love to test drive ATK cookbooks!
It would be a toss up between a church cookbook and my mom’s recipes. No one cooks as good as my mom!!
This cookbook sounds like just what I need. Thanks for the chance to win! My favorite and most used cookbook is our family cookbook. My mom started the first edition almost 25 years ago (using a typewriter to type every recipe for every copy!) and we now have a 4th!
I LOVE America’s Test Kitchen with my whole soul.
I have two favorites………both of them by Marjorie Standish. She had recipes published in a newspaper for years in Maine.
Oh yum. Love cheese danish!
My favorite cookbook is yours. 🙂 When you someday come out with your own cookbook!!!
But until then, I love the Our Best Bites Cookbook from Kate and Sara
No snarky remarks here about the lack of giveaways or sponsors! Just good honest food- that’s why I love your blog and send so many people here too! I LOVE ATK recipes for the same reasons you listed. But the books I go to most often are the ones I compiled on my own, a lot like your own beloved binders! Thanks for all your hard work!
The one I made myself 🙂 I took out my favorites from all and everywhere and put them in a photo album. I just slide them into the 4X6 picture areas. Easy keeping and no mess – plastic protected recipes!
My most used cookbook is a family cookbook from my husband’s side. I use it weekly to cook something from my hubby’s childhood. I hope you get out of that hotel room soon!
My most loved cookbook is one I received when my aunt-in-law died. In it are recipes her mother used to make, mostly of Assyrian origin. They are all handwritten and wonderful!
My most loved cookbook is one I have compiled consisting of favorite recipes from the internet- mostly from this website!! I began with the Better Homes and Garden cookbook for the basics from before the internet… what did we ever do without the internet!?!? Thanks Mel for your wonderful recipes and photos!!
I adore The New Best Recipe. I go to them first for pretty much anything. I’ve only had 1-2 Cook’s Illustrated recipes NOT become our favorite version of something!
My fav is the Bride and Groom cookbook from William Sonoma.
Recently, besides your blog of course, I love the Best Bites cookbook I received for Christmas last year! But seriously, I had to buy another binder just last week to make my own Mels Kitchen Cafe Cookbook because I have printed off so many of your recipes.
A little taste of France:)
I love my Our Best Bites cookbook. (And I love the simple recipes you’ve been posting. I have two little ones, so long gourmet recipes aren’t even an option for me).
Good ol’ Better Homes and Gardens is my favorite cookbook. Well, that … and your blog!
Yay for ATK! I LOVE every recipe I have tried from them! Thanks for this opportunity!
I come by your blog a lot, but I’m so glad I did today! I would have been sad to miss this giveaway. We have no TV, but I have checked out all the ATK dvds the library owns and watched them many, many times. I love them! They don’t have any of their cookbooks, sadly. My family’s #1 favorite dessert is their creme brulee. The cookbook I use the most is a Family Collection cookbook by Taste of Homes.
I don’t use cookbooks like I used to with the internet these days…But the one I pull out for basic recipes like muffins, waffles, meatloaf is The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Solid recipes everytime.
The Ultimate Southern Living cookbook…. tried and true 😉
mine would probably be a family recipe book i got when i was married. awesome giveaway! hope you are doing well and that you get out of that hotel room soon!
I have a Ward Cookbook from Kaysville that my MIL gave me a few years ago. There are some GOOD cooks in that ward 🙂
But most of the recipes I use are the printouts from YOUR website. Thanks Mel!
My number one “cookbook” is a collection of recipes from a variety of sources (friends & family, magazines & the internet) that I keep in looseleaf binders. Each recipe is in a page protector to make wiping up spills a cinch. I continually update the collection, writing comments on the recipes we love and tossing the ones that dissapoint. When I need a “second opinion” I consult Joy of Cooking (my number two favorite).
My fave is the classic Better Homes & Gardens red checkered one. My mom used it, I use it, kind of a staple when I have really dumb questions to answer like how long to boil eggs. My kitchen safety blanket. 🙂
I have a ‘Pumpkin’ cookbook I was given years ago that I absolutely love. Thick and full of all things pumpkin – my favorite.
Hmmmm your recipes never fail to elicit belly cravings!! (Making your White Bean and Sausage Ragout tonight!! A total fav from last fall, I can’t wait … and now this Cheese Danish might need to be Saturday’s adventure!) Can’t go wrong with Nigella Express! Thanks for everything Mel
My most favorite cookbook is one a friend and her family put together. I think I use a recipe from it every week.
My sister-in-law made a cookbook of all the recipes my husband’s mother made while they were growing up. I love to make him those recipes to make up for the fact that we live far away from his family. Even things out a little since we are surrounded by my family.
My cookbook is a binder full of internet print-offs, most of which come from your site! No joke on this one or trying to butter you up to win- I’ve shared your site with so many friends when they tell me “oh my gosh this is so good where did you get the recipe??” Thanks for all the deliciousness!
I used to use Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book (the famous one with a red cover) when I was first married and I liked it a lot. But now that I have been cooking and cooking for what seems like neverending years, I have been using my 4×6 notecards of the recipes that I have tried and like. And some of your recipes are their too. In fact, I recently bought a ton of broccoli and have no idea what to do with it, so I thought, “I’ll go search Mel’s blog”.
Honestly, I mostly find recipes online now, but my go-to cookbook is America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook…so I’d love to check out the quick version! Thanks for the giveaway, and those Danishes look amazing!
I have two that are equally torn up–The Barefoot Contessa Parties Cookbook and The Pioneer Woman’s first cookbook. Both have equally gross and stuck together pages from lots and lots of use!
Mostly I use the web for recipes now and recently I’ve been using the cookbook from Our Best Bites.
Who needs a cookbook with great bloggers like you and my food network magazine subscription!!!
I have a HUGE cookbook collection from which I cook on a regular basis – we rarely eat the same thing twice unless I find a truly stellar recipe. But, my most used cookbook is probably “Fix, Freeze, Feast” followed very closely by Stephanie O’Dea’s “Make it Fast, Cook it Slow.”
I love ATK and I use their baking book a lot!!
Hands-down, Pam Anderson’s “The Perfect Recipe – Getting It Right The First Time.” I’d be lost without it. 🙂
I love to try new recipes but when I need something that I know will not fail and my family will love I use the I Do Cookbook. It is simple, has pictures with every recipe and I do their whole wheat pancakes regularly. Love your blog and your recipes too!
I used Taste of Home cookbooks before I discovered your website now that is what I check first. Your recipes are easy and delicious! Thank you.
My absolutely favorite cookbook is The New Best Recipe cookbook from Cook’s Illustrated. It is by the same people at ATK so they have the same kind of step-by-step testing to make sure the recipe turns out perfect. It’s great!
My go-to recipe books are Fix-it and Forget-it (crock-pot recipes) and a collection of recipes from ladies at church that are tried and true… and of course the internet & your blog. Love all the yummy recipes you share! I’m thinking we need to move to MN to be neighbors! 🙂