Quick and Simple Cheese Danish

Make these Quick and Simple Cheese Danishes for an easy breakfast treat, with ingredients you probably have at home already!
How is it that men regress from nearly 30 to 3 as soon as the sniffles hit? It’s like the Benjamin Button of Sniffles! Is this a thing? It must be. I’m now officially taking a poll.
Along with taking care of a grown sick man-baby, I had to cook alot this weekend. Like these cheese danishes, oh darn. All that cooking was okay, because when I cook I have reruns of Downton Abbey (OMGERD who watched the season premiere last night?! Gasp, faint, die!) and girly movies that I watched on Friday nights back in college while going wrist deep into a bag of chocolate chips and peanut butter playing in the background on a continuous loop. Lucky for me, I had a captive audience in which to watch Julie and Julia, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Letters to Juliet with. Poor Ben. Yay me!
Since it was the first time for Ben to see most of these movies – he particularly identified with Julie and Julia. Or rather, he particularly identified with Julie’s husband, as he watches her meltdown on the kitchen floor over her inability to truss a bird, boil a lobster, or watch the havoc that gelatinous aspics wreak on plumbing. Yes, I too have wondered why no one makes them anymore… NOT.
And something about how I do all the cooking and I’m suppose to go make this month’s Costco run all by myself and walk the dog might have come up in our, ahem, conversation.
But after all that it made me even more thankful that we watch it and learn from it together… or so would say a therapist. Marital bliss, its a thing. He rolled his eyes, I pinched him in the ribs once or twice (fine, three times) for judging me and my hormonally driven movies choices (which I take Very personally thank you.) and he ate whatever creation I plopped down in front of him. He knows what’s good for him.
Lucky for him he sustained no further bodily injury and he rather enjoyed these quick and simple cheese danishes. And so did I. Gosh, I love being married.
And just to be nice – I let him watch a few episodes of House, and the Seahawks versus Redskins game, too. I’m not heartless.
Now onto a serious topic, carbs.
These danishes were prep to bake to face in 30 minutes. Most of the things you will probably have in your kitchen right now, save the puff pastry, but that’s widely available so it wouldn’t be hard to source. They’re crispy, flaky, golden, delicious and creamy all at the same time – and a total crowd pleaser. Perfect for Sunday football brunches. Can you have a girly football brunch? If so, I’d like to make that happen. I’m sure its a necessity to have bloody Mary’s involved somehow…
Want more danishes in your life? Try my WHOLE category of danishes , including cherry danishes, blueberry, and chocolate pear!
Print
Quick and Simple Cheese Danish
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 Danishes 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Danish
Description
A quick cheese danish made with puff pastry. Easy for brunches, desserts or just because.
Ingredients
- 1 sheet Puff Pastry dough, thawed
- 8 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
- 1 tsp Lemon Zest
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 4 Tbsp Sugar
- 1 Egg + 2 Tablespoons water, whisked for egg wash
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet.
- On a lightly floured surface roll out thawed puff pastry into a 12×9″ rectangle. Cut in half lengthwise, yielding 2 4-½” strips. Cut those two strips crosswise into thirds, to yield six 4×4 ½” pieces.
- With a knife, score ½” border around the edge of each piece of puff pastry. Use a fork to make five or six pricks into the dough within the border of each piece. This will help keep the middle of each piece from rising.
- In a bowl, stir together softened cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest. Spoon about 2-3 tablespoons of mixture into the middle of each piece of dough and spread around evenly, ensuring the mix stays within the borders.
- Bake for 20 minutes, on the middle rack and rotate the baking sheet half way through baking.
- Remove from baking sheet and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or room temperature. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.
Notes
Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Quick Cookbook Easy Danishes
I can’t believe how quick & easy these are! They look so delicious. And good on you for educating Ben in the ways of chick flicks 😉
Mmmmm danish! I love these things! I loveh ow easy they are-thanks 🙂
a) I LOVE cheese danish. Thanks for this! b) My husband is currently sick and I was just thinking that EXACT same thing to myself yesterday…why are they suddenly grown babies? Let me know if you ever figure out the answer to that one! 😉
Oh, if you only knew my love for the cheese danish. And, I’ve never EVER made them!!! The horror! I think you’ve just changed that.
PS…thank you for no spoilers on Downton Abbey. I just started Season 2 and am almost afraid to look at the internet today. 😉
oh girl… this looks AWESOME! I’m a cheese addict & this is calling out to me… 😉
Yum!! These look so delicious, not to mention simple too.
I LOVE DANISHESSSS!! Did I spell that right? I love these.
So true…men act like it’s the end of the world when they have a cold! Hope your man feels better soon 🙂
These danishes look delicious! Pretty sure I’d devour all 6!
YUM!! These look delicious! “crispy, flaky, golden, delicious and creamy all at the same time” You have me sold, I will have to try these!!
Oh this danish looks to die for! I love your movie choices – and yes wasn’t Downton epic last night!!!!!
Mary x
definitely making these this weekend. My saturday morning is planned: coffee with these cheese danishes…can’t wait.
I have a feeling that watching Julie and Julia with you would be entertaining! 😀 I’ll do anything that gives me an excuse to eat cream cheese, though!
Yes and yes! I’m seriously crushin’ on these dansihes!:)
Ha! Wait until you have a kid, then you will have two sick babies and a dog to take care of. Never mind you will probably be sick too, but that will be a low priority. Oh, BTW I’ve been wondering about Netflixing the first Downtown Abbey season, yes?
You have no idea how much I love you for posting this recipe!! I LOVE cheese danish!! My waistline might not end up loving you but my mind and taste buds sure do!!!
Goooorgeous. I want a whole plate of these!
these will slowly be the death of me. i would not be able to refuse them if you shoved them in front of me.
I love cheese Danishes! My dad use to get us donuts every Sunday growing up and I was the weirdo in the family who wanted these! Haha. Dusty totally relates to the husband in Julie and Julia. Especially the other night when I had a meltdown after smoking out the apartment cooking salmon that ended up raw in the end and I threw it in the microwave and cried! Hahaha! Oh cooking, men and food blogging! Love this post!
Who knew a homemade cheese danish was so easy! Lovely for an easy Sunday afternoon!
I couldn’t wait for your post as soon as I saw these on Instagram! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!
This is kinda genius.
oh I want to DEVOUR that! I love cream cheese danish and love that you used puff pastry for it. Such a nice saver. Love the stuff!
Your danish looks amazing! Never tried to make a danish before.
thanks
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Check out my latest post about comfort foods where I include this recipe!
http://whitneygoller.blogspot.com/2013/02/home-is-here.html
whitney goller
I’m super excited about these. They are in the oven right now, at 9 a.m. on a Thursday morning, because I couldn’t wait until the weekend to try them. I was looking for the step with the egg wash and didn’t see it. I just brushed the borders (outside the filling) with the egg before popping them in the oven. Hope I guessed right! Is that step missing from the instructions?
And now I am totally craving these!! I hope you enjoy them Kristin!! 🙂
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I made these and they did not turn out so good. I have never used pastry puff before and I am not familiar with using it. I made them and used the egg wash around the edges. They came out dry like matza crackers,
are you suppose to wet the pastry puff or do something to it before starting? Something about the crust wasn’t right.
Hi Sue – Yes, Puff pastry is drier and flakier than traditional danish dough, it doesn’t have all the butter in it that traditional danish dough has. These are meant to be faster to make, so they’re not precise to the original buttery cheese danish. Give puff pastry another chance, it’s very versatile and can be used in a lot of fun ways, like savory or other sweet recipes 🙂 Let me know if you have any other questions! ~Megan
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These look wonderful and would love to make them. Can you tell me when/where the egg wash comes in? Thanks! ~Peggy
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Yummy! I love puff pastries recipes. Love the addition of lemon zest to the filling. 🙂
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I work in a hospital kitchen and have to come up with a breakfast pastry and I tried these, they sold like hotcakes and they were super easy thanks for the recipe.
I just made these…mmm mmm good!! I followed recipe exactly! I think a great alternative and probably less calories then a real cheese danish! A Keeper!
These were so good, I’m about to make another batch and add raspberries to the filing!
Did you use the egg wash? I see it listed in the ingredients, but I don’t see it mentioned in the directions.
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Did I miss the part about putting on the egg wash? Didn’t see it there
Did I miss the instructions on egg wash? I see in the list of ingredients but not in the directions. Thank you!
Hi Becky, thanks so much for letting me know! I’ll amend the recipe!
All men are NOT whiners when they’re sick! Mine never was and he was great to me if I was sick.
Stop complaining about your husbands! My wonderful husband died suddenly 4 years ago.
The old saying you don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it applies to all the complaining wives out there.
Count your blessings instead!
You’ll both be happier.
I’m sorry for your loss Joan. I hope you read the whole of the story in that I know how hard it is to be sick, and while I might complain, I am always thankful for him and we smile through the hard times together too. We are perfectly happy, and I adore him, even when the sniffles hit.
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