Easy Fruit & Cheese Danish

I think my youngest son had to be the pickiest eater ever born.   The youngest of five he took on, not only all of his own food dislikes, but also the food dislikes of his older brothers and sisters.  Getting him to eat was somewhat of a nightmare. He went through periods of time where he would only eat hot dogs . . .  and then mashed potatoes . . .  peanut butter sandwiches . . .  corn and rice.  I used to really despair of him ever growing up to be healthy . . . thankfully my fears were for naught and he is now a pretty healthy eater and normal in every way!



He used to love pizza pockets and those Pillsbury Toaster Strudels.  I think he practically lived off them for a time.  I do confess that I kinda liked them too . . .  but only in a lazy, "I can't be asked to cook  and yet I am starving" kind of a way.   I only mention this because these delicious Easy Cheese Danishes I am showing you here today almost remind me of those toaster strudels, except  . . .  of course they are better.  Because you make them yourself.



And oh how very easy they are to make.  With just a bit of ready roll puff pastry, some cream cheese, a few store cupboard essentials and some jam . . .  and less than half an hour later you can be munching on one of these very delicious pastries.



You can use whatever kind of jam you want . . .  I have a penchant for  strawberry and cherry . . .  today I used blueberry because I didn't have any cherry . . .  apricot would be very tasty as well.   Just pick your favourite flavour!  mmmmm ..... plum preserves would be gorgeous.



It's as simple as cutting your puff pastry into rectangles, dolloping on a simple to make cream cheese filling . . .  swirling it with a bit of jam and baking.  Oh . . .  there are a few other little steps in there as well, but nothing too complicated.  I hope you'll give them a go and that you enjoy them as much as we do!  I do like to pull out the stops at the weekend and make us a breakfast treat now and again!  I haven't had any complaints yet!

 

*Easy Fruit and Cheese Danish*
Makes eight

Printable Recipe  

These are so lovely and so easy and simple to make.  Delicious.  

1 sheet of ready roll puff pastry, all butter

115g of cream cheese (4 ounces)

50g of sugar (1/4 cup)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 TBS heavy cream

2 TBS jam (I used strawberry on half and blueberry on the other half)

1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tsp water

demerara sugar to sprinkle (turbinado)  

To ice:

130g of icing sugar, sifted (1 cup)

1 to 2 TBS of lemon juice  

Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.  Line several baking sheets with baking paper. 

Whisk the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and cream together.   Set aside.  Unroll your puff pastry.  Cut it into 8 rectangles.  Place four on each baking sheet, leaving lots of space in between.  Using a sharp knife, and taking care not to cut all the way through, score a border all the way around each, about 1/2 inch deep.  This will help the edges to rise and create an edge to help keep the filling in.  Place 1/8 of the cream cheese mixture in the centre of each.   Spread it out almost to the border on each.  Top each with a few dots of jam and swirl it a bit with the end of a toothpick.  Brush the border of each with the beaten egg yolk mixture and sprinkle with some sugar.



Bake for 13 to 14 minutes, until golden brown on the edges and nicely risen.   Remove from the oven and lift off carefully onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the pastries are cold, whisk together the icing sugar and enough lemon juice to make a thickish drizzle.  Using a spoon, drizzle some of this decoratively over each pastry.  Allow to set and then serve.