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
I’m trying to remember when I last used a cookbook other than the binders I’ve compiled with recipes from family, friends and the Internet
(Don’t tell my husband–I don’t want to need to justify my collection of cookbooks. I love cookbooks–I just don’t have a favorite, apparently.)
Yum!! I love the precision of ATK; would love to see some of their recipes 🙂
I use my bettey crocker one almost every day!
I love my Betty Crocker cookbook,
Thank you so much for your give away – I am a Taste of Home gal all the way. Keep up the amazing work – you truly inspire us!
I still rely on Desperation Dinners & Cheap. Fast. Good! for quick meals with ingredients I usually have on hand. I also use Southern Living & Cooking Light cookbooks, especially the ones with quick recipe suggestions.
Don’t use my actual cookbooks much anymore – my binder of recipe printouts is my go-to these days! Do love our Wooden Spoon Bread Book for baking, though!
Sounds like I better check out an ATK book from the library (or win one :))! Everybody seems to love them! My most used “cookbooks” are the ones I have compiled from online recipes and recipes from collected from my mom and mother in law.
An old church cookbook of my mother-in-laws is my go-to cookbook!!
My favorite is Pioneer Woman: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl! I love it, and so does the hubby 🙂
The cookbook I use the most is probably my old checkered Better Homes & Garden that my mom gave me, ohhhh, 22 years ago? LOL…its my favorite 🙂
I’ve been using the Now Eat This cookbook a lot after having my last baby. The weight did not just “melt off” like it does for some, so good old grandma bought me the book for my birthday. It took some thick skin to receive with a smile, but I’ve actually enjoyed the healthy recipes & I’m back to my old weight. I think I should celebrate with a cheese danish!
Honestly, my favorite cookbook is my America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook…so I’m sure I would love this one!
I have an ancient cookbook passed on to me by my mother-in-law. It has some recipes that I would never try but were popular 70 years ago. The cover and many of the introductory pages are gone. The tried and true recipes rescued my newlywed self many years ago and continue to be my go-to recipes. Flaky pie crust, jam, breads, roast turkey and some interesting side dishes show up on the table week after week. Some things are timeless. And some of those recipes have come around into popularity again. Clean eating dieters are rediscovering how food used to be prepared.
Uh, does a laptop on the counter with your website count? That’s the go-to lately, but if it is a hard copy book, then I have a cookbook from my hometown’s centennial (from the mid-1980’s), that has all the recipes I grew up with and is always what I fall back to.
My favorite cookbook is a collection cookbook from a local church.
My favorite cookbook that haunts my kitchen is the original Americas Test Kitchen Family cookbook!
My favorite cookbook is the Woman’s Day collector’s edition cookbook. It was printed in 1970, and my mom used it for recipes when I was growing up. She’s gone now, but I still have this wonderful old book to remember her by and make the foods she made for us as kids.
This is a great give-a-way! Thanks! I love my Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and use them all the time.
My favorite cookbook is my own family cookbook that I’ve been creating over the years with my daughters! It’s has all our family favorites.
My favorite cookbook is the one I put together. I frequent 3 cooking blogs and once I try a recipe if my family gives it thumbs up, I put it in my cookbook 🙂
I have so many cook books it’s ridiculous. My husband makes fun of me about the fact that the cook books are taking over the kitchen, but one of my favorites is “The Recipe Hall of Fame Cookbook” So many yummy recipes. Every one that I have tried in there has been excellent!
I really don’t use a cookbook much–love the internet 🙂 But I do have a lot of recipes that are handed down from ward cookbooks, the best of the best–usually! And thank you too for all of your AMAZING recipes. They honestly make up over half of my recipe binder now!
My favorite cookbook is a family book that I have compiled. I have recipes from my mother,grandmother,mother-in-law, and you!! These are recipes I use all the time!
I misquoted the name of my favorite cookbook above, sorry, it’s called DOG BITES
and here’s a picture of it:
http://inlinethumb37.webshots.com/50468/2467004520025560968S200x200Q85.jpg
Sorry about that!
I’d have to say my mom’s really old (like orange old) Betty Crocker Cookbook. The one in the 3-ring binder.
My favorite cookbook, my ‘bible’, is the ‘New’ Good Housekeeping Cookbook (1986 edition), which my sister bought for me in the late 80’s when I wasn’t eating right and was severely under-weight. Other than some blog recipes that catch my eye, this is my go-to recipe book. Even my ex- mother-in-law had praised meals I’d made from recipes in this cookbook.
I love the Pioneer Woman cookbook, plus I follow several blogs and who can forget Pinterest! 🙂
I’d love to give this cookbook a try. This is the first time I ever heard of it.
Um, I’m really, honestly not trying to be a brown noser, but I’d have to say YOUR BLOG is my most used cookbook! Between you and random Pinterest recipes I’ve pinned, I tend to have my laptop open on the counter while I’m cooking rather than referring to a book for a recipe 🙂
My most used cookbooks are the pioneer woman’s and my own binders stuffed full of favorite recipes and ones that ate asking to be tried!
My most used cookbook is G. Garvin’s Turn up the Heat.
I have a collection from my mom that I use most often. I also like the Ivory Family Favorites Cookbook.
Mine most loved cookbook is definitely Giada’s Everyday Pasta. Pages are ripped and food splattered, but definitely still readable!!!
Love your recipes and I actually have everything to try this one today, so I am excited!
I have twin girls who turned two this past Monday, and so for me time saving is HUGE! For me, my favorite cookbook is not one you can get on a shelf…it is one that my family, church family, and friends put together for me as a shower/new mom gift. Some of the recipes are those I grew up on, others are things I had never heard of, but the fact that it was put together with love for my growing family makes it one of my favorites (And I have lots!)
Love their recipes! My favorite cookbook is the one I put together many years ago for my son’s school using all the mom’s recipes. The children were so proud to see their names and their mom’s names under each recipe submitted.
America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Illustrated are definitely my favorite/stand-by cookbooks! Great giveaway – thanks 🙂
Most used AND most loved cookbook? The tried and true collection of extended family favorites-the Nelson Family cookbook.
I am an ATK fanatic-and I get a little giddy whenever I see you reference Cooks Country or ATK in your recipes-as I know they’ll be winners. Thank you for the opportunity to win! If I don’t win at least I know what to add to my birthday wish list!
The book I use most is actually a notebook I put together myself from recipes I’ve found online, in magazines, and in cookbooks. Many of the reciepes came from this site.
My most loved cook books are the set of Meta Givens’ Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking that I got from my grandmother when she passed away. My most used one is my Betty Crocker cookbook.
My most used and loved cookbook is one that my grandmother’s church published. Tried and true recipes collected from all the wonderful Southern cooks in our community. Pure gold.
My mom gave me a copy of our church’s cookbook, with wonderful recipies from all the “old church ladies”. It’s become my go to book for those tried and true recipes!
I’m a big “Barefoot” fan – that is how my daughters and I refer to Ina Garten. We often discuss new recipes we’ve tried or dinners that went over really well and 9 times out of 10 one of us will say: “it’s a “Barefoot” thing.” I have several of her cookbooks, but my favorite is “Back to Basics.” She includes a blurb about how she makes a grocery list…such a small thing, but it was life changing for me!
I love cookbooks. I read cookbooks for fun. Ever since I was introduced to your website, I’ve used your methods to organize my recipes into my own cookbooks. I do have two favorites–one if The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner and the other is my mom’s. My mother has put together a cookbook with favorites from her 6 daughters, two daughters-in-law, three sisters, Church friends, and neighbors. The third edition came out this past summer. Any time I need a recipe, I look in my mom’s cookbook, your website, then consult the Food Nanny!
I just subscribed online to Cook’s Illustrated and I would love to have this cookbook. It would be so useful in Rwanda, as we don’t have TV here and would love new recipe ideas!
My mother-in-law made a cookbook for my husband when he left for college of all their family favorites. I use it all the time. It is the best!
Years ago , my son wanted me to cook from a Star Trek cookbook! I guess he thought that would be so cool! His dinners actually came from the Betty Crocker book!
I have so many cookbooks, I don’t think I can narrow it down to just one!… I probably most refer to a cookbook that I put together with many of my own favorite recipes (some of which came from YOU!)
I read cookbooks like novels. My husband and kids will often find me with a pile of cookbooks spread around me, just looking at them for fun. My favorite has to be a Hershey’s cookbook I got over 20 years ago! I know it is only desserts, but I love it! My daughters and I love your blog! Thanks!
Believe it or not, besides my Cook Country cookbook and my trusty Joy of Cooking, the most well-worn cookbook I own is a cookbook for dog treats/biscuits called Good Bites. I make them biscuits every 10 days or so and for some reason, even after all those treats, I can’t seem to remember the recipe in my head.