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
Lately, I have been using the internet almost exclusively for finding recipes. I find things I think I will make and pin them.
Great looking danish!
I love ATK and Cook’s Country cookbooks best, but I also have an old church cookbook that I’ve used so much the pages are falling out.
My America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook is my most trusted book. Quick cooking is right up my alley so this one looks awesome.
Maryana Vollstedt’s big book of potluck is my most used cookbook.
I honestly don’t use cookbooks that much…as a 20-something year old experimenting in the kitchen I tend to use people’s blogs more than any cookbook 🙂
I love my betty crocker cookbook. I took a cooking class in college and that was my textbook!! I think my most used cookbook, though, is a big white binder that I put together using all the random recipes I have collected. (LOTS from you, thanks!!!)
This may sound silly but my favorite cookbook is Mels Kitchen Cafe. Seriously though. I get most of my recipes from here and I love them all! Every time somebody asks me for ideas I always tell them to go to this site. Love it!
I really don’t have a cookbook. LOL Unless you count Southern living magazines, and the Kraft ones I get at the grocery store. But please consider me for your give away.
I have several favorites as I collect cookbooks, but my favorites are the local church cookbooks I have. Down home cooking at its best!
Hi Mel! Anything with cream cheese is amazing to me! My husband and I always joke about our lack of using a cookbook…never have had a great one so we just use google!
I have lots of “favorite” cookbooks…but the one that I always go back to is the BETTER HOMES & GARDENS COOKBOOK…with the red and white checkered cover that my Dad gave me for a wedding shower gift, in 1967!! It is tattered..scribbled in by my babies (now both in their 40’s!) and still brings me joy…with good recipes and good memories! Thank’s for this great drawing!!
I enjoy cookbooks put out by different groups of their favorite recipes. One of my favorites is Food for Thought from Dallas Theological Seminary Ladies.
If you had a cook book, that would be my favorite and most used, as I’m on your blog almost daily using another favorite recipe. If it has to be an actual recipe book, I’d say Our Best Bites is my most used.
Mel, the cookbook I use the most is the one my mom put together of all her favorite recipes she’s collected over the years- from ATK to homemade or passed down from other family and friends. My 3 sisters and I were always asking mom for the same recipes. iInstead of writing out individually for all 4 of us, one Christmas she presented us the cookbook along with an apron. One of our favorites (cornmeal crepe enchiladas) is used regularly.
I mostly use the internet for recipes, but I also have a Taste of Home cookbook that I really like. P.S. – I want a danish now.
I love my moms ward cookbook from the 80’s
Cooking A to Z by the California Culinary something or other. Not so much a cookbook per se but chock full of food info to satisfy my inner cooking nerd.
I use BHG a fair amt, but at this point, use the internet ALOT!
My favorite cookbook (and this is slightly embarrassing) is Martha Stewart’s Cupcake Book! I’ve made at least half of all the cupcakes in that fantastic book! I’ve been trying to branch out to actual meals since I’ve been married, since cupcakes are apparently not a well-rounded dinner. : )
Cookbook? I definitely refer to my favorite food blog, melskitchencafe.com, for almost all my recipe ideas 😉 I do have a few cookbooks that I adore – family cookbooks & old ward cookbooks, but probably the most referred to is my “Lion House Lite” recipe book I’ve been hanging on too forever for our family favorite muffin recipe. We love Sunday morning muffins and I should have long ago memorized it, but enjoy pulling out the book. I’ve been discovered ATK more and more and would LOVE one of their creations.
My favorite cookbooks are by the Barefoot Contessa!
Sadly I don’t own a cookbook:( Fortunately, There are great food blogs I’ve been using, yours being my favorite one!
Thanks for your recipes, they are outstanding! My favorite book is The Best Recipe, by Cook’s Illustrated.
Aside from the one my mom made me, I think it’s an old school Betty Crocker one. I reference it all the time!
Good ol’ Betty Crocker cookbooks. They’re what I grew up on and how I learned to cook the basics.
My favorite cookbooks are:
Culinary Institute of America cookbook from the 50’s I bought at a thrift store. so many great recipes in there.
and
my Better Homes and Garden ‘family’ cookbook. It has blank pages where you write in your family recipes and is 3 hole punched. I got it 30+ years ago and is filled with my favorite recipes.
I love our best bites! Cant wait to pick up the new one
My go-to cookbook is ATK’s Family Cookbook (third edition). Can’t wait to see the newest ATK cookbook! 🙂
Although I have quite a cookbook collection, these days I seem to rely on food blogs more than anything, or pinterest. Love ATK though!
Don’t be mad about it cause I cook something from your blog every night, but I also like our best bites book!
My mom gave me The Southern Living Cookbook when I was out of college. I have used is so much that the cover is very worn. But it was nice to go to when I could not call mom for help. Your blog is also a great help in “whats for dinner”. Thanks for a lovely blog and wonderful recipes and stories.
My favorite cookbook is Mad Hungry from Lucinda Scala Quinn. But really, I have two portable file boxes with file folders FILLED with recipes from magazines, the internet and my grandmother :o) that I go to daily. You can tell that appetizers are my fav because that folder is 3x the size of all the others!! Thanks for taking the time to post so regularly. I LOVE this site!!
I love Rachael Ray’s 365 No Repeats. There’s a ton of great recipes in there
I have a cookbook from my aunt’s grandma that I love. Every recipe is tried and true because she developed almost every one. If love this cookbook. Take care!
For basics – I use Joy of Cooking alot. BHG too. Thanks for the giveaway!
A tough question-there are so many good ones. But I do love & use my ATK “Best Make-Ahead” cookbook a lot!
My most used cook book is the Cake Mix Dr Returns.
I guess it would be an old church one that I have had for years.
Your blog would be one of my recipe books, you are the go to. Thanks for all your hard work!
I actually get most of my recipes from your blog! I have a Betty Crocker cookbook that I use for a general reference, but it is not my favorite. I borrowed a Joy of Cooking from the library and loved it!
Oh my goodness…I have been looking for a simple cheese danish recipe and this is perfect. Cannot wait to try.
I don’t often use a cookbook any more other than the one I am making with my recipe cards I use to write down recipes I find on the internet… I do have Joy of Cooking and I adore looking through it and finding a new recipe…so much fun!
My favorite cookbook right now is Pinterest! I have so many recipes pinned that I doubt I’ll ever get to them all, but I make it a point to try something new every week! And now I’ll be trying these danishes! Thank you!
My go-to cookbook is my Mothers’ Betty Crocker Cookbook. It has all her hand written notes, on almost every recipe, and when I need a hand in the kitchen, I “feel” Mom, as well as Betty! standing right behind me! And your yummy easy EASY! Cream Cheese Pastry’s are delish!! I had the recipe from a few years ago, and lost it!! Thank goodness YOU found it!! Thank you!
I have an obsession with cookbooks but the two that I use the most are The Best 30-Minute Recipe as well the The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. By the way, I love your blog and have added many of your recipes to our rotation.
These look amazing. I love ATK. I have numerous cookbooks. Way too many. I am with cookbooks like some women are with shoes. I think my favorite would be the baking illustrated cookbook. I have multiple binders like you do with printed off recipes and hand written recipes in plastic sleeves and I probably use those more than any one single cookbook.
I use a crockpot recipe book my sister gave me.
If your website doesn’t count as a cookbook I guess it would be a family one that I have and have used for the 10 years we have been married. Would love to have this one though. I can’t believe you have time to be doing this with all you have going on. Thanks for all you do!!
My most loved cookbook isn’t one that could be shared, unfortunately. It’s one my mom made me and my sisters several years back from all of our old family recipes. I’ve been adding to it myself ever since and use it all the time!
My most used are definitely my church cookbooks – they always have the best recipes!
Hope Mel’s Kitchen Cafe counts as a cookbook, because it’s my go-to to find recipes I can count on being good and that my family will love!!! Thank you for constantly adding more and more wonderful recipes 🙂