Influenced by Northern East Coast Bakeries
"This Cheese Danish is an easy recipe to make for breakfast this weekend! Grab a can of refrigerated crescent rolls, cream cheese and your favorite fruit filling and let's make some tummies happy!"
These pastries are semi-homemade (no puff pastry here!), taste like they came straight from one of the fancy north east bakeries, and are even easier than you’d think. The topping possibilities are endless; choose from cream cheese, fruit, chocolate, lemon curd, or a combination of those! A perfect baking project for overnight guests or special breakfast or brunch like Mother's Day! My personal favorite is Raspberry & Cream Cheese, or Lemon and Cherry combinations with the delicious sugary drizzle.
I know you might be intimidated by trying homemade pastries, but believe me when I tell you that they are SO doable and super easy to make, you will be absolutely thrilled when you get to sink your teeth into the final product. I’m going to walk you through the simple semi-homemade process below. So stay a minute to make these wonderful little pastries. ☺️
Cheese Danish
Servings – 8 Prep Time – 10 Min Chill Time: 20 Min
Cook Time – 15-18 Min
Ingredients:
Danish:
1 can of refrigerated crescent rolls.
1/4 cup your favorite jam or preserves or 1 cup of your favorite pie filling, optional - you can make these as plain cheese, or check out the other filling options I have listed below.
8 ounces cream cheese; softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 -4 teaspoons milk
Directions:
Danish:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchemnt paper; set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together until smooth. Set aside while you prepare the crescent rolls.
Open the package of crescent rolls, but do not separate or unroll them. Keep them as a long cylinder or roll.
Using a serrated knife, to slice the long cylinder of dough into 8 equal pieces.
Using your thumb or the back of a scoop/spoon, gently indent the middle of each circle so there is a space for the cream cheese mixture to be placed inside.
Place a tablespoonful of the cream cheese mixture into the center of each crescent circle. Slightly pressing down and indenting the center for the fruit filling or jam.
Place 2 teaspoonfuls of the jam or pie filling on top.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15-18 minutes.
Remove from oven, let sit for 5 minutes and place danish on a cooling rack. Place your cooling rack back in your pan to catch the drizzle and make clean up easier!
Glaze:
While the danish are baking prepare the glaze.
In a bowl mix powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons of milk. Mix until smooth. Add each additional teaspoon of milk to reach the consistancy you would like. I prefer a thicker glaze for the line drizzle. It will run off less and give a sweetness to your danish.
Once your danish are completely cooled, drizzle with the glaze using a fork in a sweeping motion letting it "spill" over the danish. This is where putting the rack back on the pan helps with clean up!
Let your danish drizzle dry for about 20 minutes or until solid.
Place in a pretty cake dish to serve, or airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Notes:
Flavor Options:
You can leave out the cream cheese filling and just use fruit.
Canned pie fillings - Strawberry, blueberry, apple, lemon, cherry, raspberry, peach, Any homemade pie filling would work as well.
Jam/Preserves - Orange, peach, boysenberry, raspberry, apple, strawberry, apricot, plum and many more.
Curds - Lemon, key-lime, grapefruit, orange, blackcurrant, toffee apple, ginger, and passion fruit.
Ganache/Frostings - Chocolate, orange chocolate, white chocolate and or caramel, Nutella, buttercream, whipped cream or Bavarian cream.
Savory - Rosemary, feta and caramelized onions, sage and lemon.
You can also mix and match many of the combinations above, the possibilities are endless!
Have left over fillings? You can store your leftover pie filling in the freezer for up to 3 months. It also makes a great topping for homemade pancakes or.... just make more danish! 😉💜🤣
Nutrition:
Calories: 181 | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 142mg | Sugar: 11g
"These look so good and I'm surprised at how easy these are to make. Pinned, saved and printed!"
CWT is not a certified dietician or nutritionist. Any nutritional information shared on this site is an estimate counted through measurements and package nutritional information used in each recipe. If calorie, macro counting and other nutritional values are important to you, I recommend running the ingredients through your choice of nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary depending on national brands used per recipe.