This is a quick and easy recipe for cheese danish that my family simply adores. We love it best still warm from the oven, but it will keep well for a couple of days if it’s well covered and placed in the refrigerator.
It also reheats well in the microwave for a few seconds. Try this simple recipe for your own family and see if they don’t rave about it too!
How To Make it
Preheat oven to 350* degrees and grease a 13X9-inch baking pan.
Lay a pack of crescent rolls in the pan and pinch the openings together. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg together until smooth. Spread the mixture over the crescent rolls evenly and then lay the second pack of crescent rolls on top of the cheese mixture and brush with egg white. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the top is golden brown.
Top with glaze after cooling for 20 minutes.
Kitchen Notes: I have made this danish using low fat cream cheese and splenda (sugar substitute) and it was delicious! Also, the amount of filling the original recipe calls for makes a VERY heavily filled danish. I have halved the filling using 1 package of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 whole egg, and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and it was still very good. If you use the half filling method, bake for closer to 30-35 minutes.
Notes
ADD SPECIAL TOPPINGS:
To shorten the preparation of sauce toppings, you can use ready-made preserves, jams, syrups, custards and pie fillings to add more flavor and fun. Better yet, add a few pieces of the fruit itself. For example, if you use raspberry jam, add a few fresh raspberries, and even a drizzle of raspberry syrup! It’s delicious and looks like a gourmet fair.
ADD FRUIT TOPPINGS TO THE INTERIOR OPTIONS:
You can top the cream cheese mixture with your choice of fruit spread before adding the top layer of dough.
Swirl syrup into the creamy dough for traces of color and flavor.
Add flavors to your cream cheese dough, like lemon curd for a lemon cream cheese danish.
TIP 3: USE PASTRY SHEETS & TRIANGULAR CRESCENTS:
We like to use the solid sheet for the first layer and the triangular sheets for the top. Use a pizza cutter or knife to open up the perforated dough to allow the cream cheese to bubble up between the two.
LOW SUGAR OPTIONS:
Omit the frosting and it’s still delicious!
Replace the sugar in the batter with maple sugar. The color will be more beige like the sugar. We use this organic maple sugar.
Create a fruit syrup or chocolate syrup instead of icing, using maple syrup or honey to sweeten.
LOWER FAT OPTION:
Use low-fat cream cheese.
Use half the cheese/sugar mixture for a lighter, thinner batter.
KEEP DOUGH REFRIGERATED
Keep crescent dough refrigerated until ready to use to prevent it from becoming sticky and difficult to work with.