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
These look super easy!! My most used cookbook? Betty Crocker’s Big Red Cookbook- it’s got a litte bit of everything!!!
I mostly use recipes off the internet but if I HAD to pick one cookbook I used the most it would be Betty Crocker.
Why, this here blog is my go-to cook book. Does that count? Before I found this blog, I used Betty Crocker’s cookbook. I still do, on occasion.
I used to use Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics every night! Everything in it is wonderful! But now i’ve discovered blogs…. 🙂
Well I’ve used Betty Crocker alot in the past, but lately, I’m just trying to get back into cooking so I refer frequently to your blog and a family cook book I have. I love your recipes! AND…today is my son’s 3rd Birthday so I should totally win. 😉
I don’t use any all that much, mostly the internet. If I do, I use a family cook book, with all the recipes we ate growing up!
I love the Better Homes and Garden cookbook! But would love to have a new cookbook!
Honestly, my cookbooks are a few favorite food blogs including this one! But I love watching ATK and would love to have that book. Quick and easy is what I’m all about!
My go to recipe books are the neighborhood ones I have collected over the years. I love making something from friends’ collections.
I use a cookbook that my roommate put together for me when I got married of quick, no fail recipes and I love it. I would love to have another cookbook with quick meals!
I love my family cookbook with all our family favorites!
I use old church cookbooks religiously (pun intended). Those ladies know their recipes!
An Amish cookbook I bought in Ohio.
The cookbook I go to the most is The Southern Living Cookbook. It’s a great reference for anything you are trying to make.
The cookbook I use the most is a family one in a binder that I keep adding to!
My love our family cookbook my sister put together a few years ago.
The tried and true Betty Crocker for the basics and MelsKitchenCafe for everything else!
Hi Mel,
I know what it is like to live in a hotel while waiting for a house. We did that in Japan, each time we were stationed there. My husband is a retired Marine, and we had orders to Iwkauni Japan three times (for three years each time), and we had to live in the TLF (temporary lodging facility) each time for up to 3 months while waiting on base housing. They had kitchens in them, but it was so cramped and there were just 4 of us. I hope you are able to move soon.
The danish look delicious! My favorite cookbooks are the Taste of Home cookbooks and Pioneer Woman’s two cookbooks.
My favorite cookbook is one compiled by some neighborhood friends., but I would love to have this cookbook! My daughter and I love to watch America’s Test Kitchen together on Saturday morning.
Fav cook book…betty crocker, has every day basics which I needed when I started cooking for my family, but now it would be great to have a different one to expand my usual boring recipes!
Well, that would probably be the Harry Potter cookbook, it just makes cooking *magical* 🙂
I love, love, love ATK! Their Healthy Family Cookbook is one of only a few cookbooks that I go back to over and over again.
mmm…wish I had one for breakfast!…I love my trusty Better Home and Gardens cookbook- got it as a gift when we got married…I have many, but that one seems to cover the basics the best
OBTW..the cheese danish looks yummy 🙂
Honestly not trying to suck up or anything, but I absolutely love your blog – I consider it my favorite cook”book”. None of your recipes have ever let me down. 🙂 As for an actual book – I’ve got one called the Blanchard Bistro that is a compilation of favorites from my husband’s mom and sisters. Good comfort food in there.
My favorite cookbook are my amish mennonite ones. Love love love them!
I really like the food nanny rescues dinner cookbook, there’s lots of good stuff in there, but honestly I just mostly print recipes off of blogs like yours and keep them in a binder and that’s my most used “cookbook”!
This looks delicious! I don’t have a favorite really. I use all kinds and pinterest is awesome for recipes.
We use Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook quite a bit for really tasty desserts. And maybe Moosewood Simple Suppers. I don’t use it much anymore, but I used it constantly for years.
Mostly, when I need a recipe, I just come here. Duh.
Better Homes and Gardens!
These days I usually go to Food.com, but if I had to list my favorite traditional cookbook, I would have to list The Joy of Cooking. However, from your comments, I think the new ATK cookbook may be my next best friend 🙂
I use the Ivory Family Cookbook the most at my house. Lots of good stuff in there.
I love cookbooks that have pictures of the recipes. My current favorite is “The essentials of Mediterranean cooking” by Williams -Sonoma. Give me another month and I’ll move on to another one.
Oh I would love to own an America’s test kitchen cookbook! I always look and drool and then have to walk away:(. My most used cook book is one published by family. Other than that I always come here!
I search the internet for most of my recipes. Besides your site, I also search in RecipeZaar and the Food Network – mostly for the Pioneer Woman recipes.
My favorite cookbook I use is a recipe book handed down to me when my grandmother passed away. It has all of her hand written notes!
I’m not vegetarian, but my most used is Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. Amazing amazing. Clear directions, yummy food, not too weird for little kids and husbands to gobble up. LOVE IT.
But I think cookbook might give it a run!
Hi Mel…My favorite cookbook is an old church cookbook . It was used when my mother in law gave it to me over 30 years ago. It has come unbound, has stained pages, and I keep it in a large ziploc bag 🙂 This cookbook was the beginning of my culinary training as a new wife and mom and I still use it to this day. I have 4 daughters and they argue over who is gonna get moms ziploc bag cookbook. I need to figure out a way to make 4 copies of it… Any ideas readers?? Thanks
I have one of the cook books and I love it, I use it a lot. My favorite recipe is rustic white bread, I make it all the time. Thanks Mel for doing this.
Honestly, Mel’s Kitchen Cafe is my go-to recipe book! I have never made anything that we didn’t love. If I want to make something new I do a search on your site and if you’ve made it, then I know it’s going to be good. Before I “met” you I relied on family recipes.
If I ever have questions I look at The Joy of Cooking but my favorite is Chloe’s Kitchen!! She has amazing recipes!!
My favorite cookbook is “The Best 30 Minute Recipe” by ATK! LOVE IT!
I have many that I love, but with 4 small children around, hands-down America’s Teat Kitchen Family Cookbook gets the most “love.” I’m on my second copy and have convinced the other women in my extended family to get their own, too! Whenever there’s a new “winning” recipe, my husband guesses, “America’s Test”? 🙂
I love my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook
Betty Crocker (basic binder style that I have used since 1971)
Okay, you got me. I use and enjoy a number of cookbooks, but the one I go to every time if I need help is “Rodale’s Basic Natural Foods Cookbook” Charles Gerras, Editor. It has great recipes, and it ALSO explains the hows and whys of cooking. For example, what can I do if my pancake recipe calls for buttermilk, but I don’t have buttermilk? Rodale’s Cookbook has the answer. Why is my bread crumbly? Why is it heavy? Can I make my own starter? What is a leek? How do I prepare this or that? Rodale’s has the answer. I am “new-ish” to your blog so you may have already mentioned this book as one you use. I wouldn’t be surprised!
I love the Taste of Home cookbooks. I use them quite regularly.
Before I became a Mel’s kitchen cafe groupie my go to was always Taste of Home.
I hope you all find a place to call home really soon.
My favorite cookbook is one that our family compiled. It has all if the tried and true family recipes. Although I keep adding more and more from this site.
My go to is Barefoot Contessa!