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’d have to say my most used cookbook would probably be Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I’m not vegan, but I love baking delicious, moist cupcakes so this is a big winner in my kitchen!
I have the “Best Recipe” collection, and I use them constantly….same publisher I believe….
I keep a binder full of recipes I’ve printed from different websites! For an actual cookbook, Giada’s Family Dinners is frequently taken off the shelf. 🙂
My favorite cookbook is one my cousin made several years back, a collection of family recipes many from my grandmother.
I have lots of cookbooks, but probably my favorite is my Betty Crocker cookbook. Either that or my Lionhouse Cook Book. : )
My “go-to” is Sunset’s Easy Basics for Good Cooking.
I have to have this cookbook. I find I have less and less time to cook the way I used to, so this sounds perfect! My favorite cookbook is one we had made as a fundraiser for my daughter’s dance team. It has some of the most yummy recipes and ones I use over and over.
Old school Betty Crocker!
I love Americas Test Kitchen Cookbook, and also my family cookbook!!! Ok, its a toss up, I love them both!!! Pick me!!! You’ll make my husbands & kids belly very happy!! 🙂
I continually reach for my Betty Crocker cb for simple recipes and love to read the Alton Brown books for the science behind the food….I love to know the “why” behind my interests.
These look easy and delish. Thanks for the contest!
Yum! My go to favorite cookbook is the red plaid… Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. But, I’m!looking to add some new ones… any suggestions?
my favorite cookbooks are
the best make ahead recipe – cooks illustrated
the best international recipe-cooks illustrated
Its a tie between the original Americas Test Kitchen and the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Would love to win this new cookbook- thanks for the giveaway!
Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa At Home. It is wonderful, full of classics, and always right.
The most used cookbook in our house is the little spiral bound index cards that my MIL made for my husband when he went off to college.
My favorite and most used cookbook is our family cookbook which is a compilation of tried and true family recipes!
I absolutely cannot live without my Marcy Goldman cookbooks!!!
my most used cookbook as of late is Our Best Bites
I don’t think that I can call myself a cook…but hope that I’m getting there for my family’s sake! I usually look online for recipes, but do use a cook book called Honey Do, written by my mother and sister-in-law! Thanks for all your awesome recipes. My family is loving it!
There are some amazing cooks in my extended family! So for the past year I have been taking the “homemade” family cookbook to bed with me. I just can’t seem to put it down!
My go to cookbook is the St. Bridget’s Nolan Settlement cookbook. It was published by church members at the church I went to while growing up. It has a lot of family recipes submitted by relatives. They are the best when they have been handed down and used over and over.
I love a cookbook published by the children of a neighbor of mine called “Favorites of the Ivory Family”. She is a wonderful cook but too humble to embark on a project like this herself. She only agreed if the proceeds were donated to Make-A-Wish foundation. It is a great cookbook, especially for salads. If I have to make a salad to take somewhere I always use one from this book. They never fail to impress. I can’t wait until you publish a cookbook, Mel!
my fav cookbook is from my grandma.
Cooking has always been hard for me. Trying out new recipes is scary to me because it may not be appreciated (and then for some reason I get down on myself). So needless to say, I don’t have a large collection of cookbooks. That’s why I LOVE your blog!!! Everything I make from your blog I know will be a hit with my family! Sooooo, I don’t cook from my cookbooks (because it is hit and miss). I cook from your blog! I would LOVE to have a recipe book that You recommend because I trust your judgement with recipes!! Thanks for sharing!
My most used love cookbook is Slow Cooker Revolution (by America’s Test Kitchen). I’ve never had anything that wasn’t a total success. Awesome.
My fav cookbook is one my bible study made up…no link for it, but our bible study is called Side By Side and a great ministry for medical spouses here in Rochester, MN.
I love the Taste of Home cookbooks!!
I have a cookbook our church put together that I use tons.
The Morton Cookbook. A collection from people who live in Morton, IL where my parents live. I am sure i use this site more, but if you’re looking for a book title, I do own this one and use it.
I hardly ever use cookbooks now with the internet but when I do I pull out my moms bunco group cookbook. The girls put together all their favorite recipes for one of the ladies in their group who lost her home (and all her recipes) in a fire. It’s a great one. Those women sure can cook!
I love Test Kitchen recipes and which busy mom wouldn’t mind a book from them with QUICK recipes!! My favorite cookbook is one I started to write when I was 13 years old with all the things I used to help my mom with. It looks really ragged now…but it has travelled with me everywhere!
My ex mother-in-law’s old hospital workers charity cookbook!
I LOVE America’s test kitchen.
I have a handful of cookbooks I go to regularly. But my Mom’s recipes are the best!
Those look tasty!! I don’t have a favorite, but lately I’ve been reading both Pioneer Woman’s newest and the Silver Spoon. The Silver Spoon is THE original Italian Cook book. It’s great because the recipes are ordered by main ingredient, so if you have a bunch of broccoli you want to use up, you just look up that section and away you go!
Hey Mel!
I love Southern Living’s Cookbook. The Danish look delish!!
My most used cookbook would have to be the one I created myself, full of recipes that I’ve found on the web or that have been passed down to me by my mother.
My favorite cookbook – Dorie Greenspan’s Baking – from My Home to Yours.
I love my Better Homes and Gardens cook book!
My favorite “cookbook” is Mel’s Kitchen Cafe’s recipe index… if my internet ever goes down around dinnertime we are in trouble!
I love America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook and would put in to good use 🙂
Mel, I have fallen in love with your blog! Your writing and descriptions are phenominal. But anyway, I most often use my homemade cook book filled with recipes from friends and family—the tried and true ones. This looks like one that I would love to try!
My favorite cookbook is the one my mom compiled for me with all of our favorite childhood recipes (and it’s in her handwriting). So many memories–and I use it all of the time, as well as adding my own recipes to the book.
Shar
I love America’s Test Kitchen cookbooks also! Some of my other favorite are Better Homes and Gardens and a cookbook my hometown church put together in 1983!
You know, since so many people started food/cooking blogs I don’t really use a cookbook anymore, I just pull recipes from the different sites. Maybe I am missing out; this one sounds like it could be a good one.
My favorite cookbook isn’t a cookbook, but a group of magazines. I love, love my ATK’s 30 minute suppers magazines.
Oh I hope I’m not too late to enter! My {current} favorite cookbook is Recipe Hall of Fame Quick & Easy Cookbook. My husband brought this into our marriage 7 years ago, and for 6 of those years I let it collect dust in the corner because it didn’t have any pictures. But when I finally opened it up, I realized it had all of the stand-by recipes I grew up with but never learned how to make!
Betty Crocker was my parents ‘go to’ growing up and honestly I don’t go to it that often anymore, my cookbook of choice is the internet and I love being able to search blogs to get all sorts of recipes.
It’s hard to choose, I love my America’s Test Kitchen and Our Best Bites books but I probably use you blog equally as much! 🙂
I learned a lot from the Joy of Cooking cookbook when I was still learning my way around the kitchen.
Hi Mel! I love danish pastries and yours look so amazing! =) I wanna try this. Wish me luck! I also like the recipes from the test kitchen. I hope I get to have a copy of that book! =)