Easy Cheese Danish

This easy recipe from holiday casserole dishes for cheese danish comes from Ina Garten. I adapted this in two ways– I made the cheese filling the night before so that it would not be runny.

I also used one lemon, instead of two and I think the balance of lemon to cream cheese was perfect.

I have been so excited to share this healthy recipes free with you for an Easy Cheese Danish. It is a Starbucks copycat recipe and I know you are going to love it. I had never tried this kind of danish before, but one day when we were at Starbucks my husband made me take a bite of his. I actually liked it. A lot. I get cravings for them now. We are out of town right now at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville and I might have had one already. I mean there is a Starbucks right here in the lobby. How convenient is that??!!

Ingredients:

For Danish:

• 2 cans of ready to use refrigerated crescent rolls.
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract.
• 1 egg.
• 2 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese.
• 1 cup of sugar.
• 1 egg white.

For the Glaze:

• ½ cup of powdered sugar.
• 2 tbsps of milk.
• ½ tsp of vanilla extract.

Instructions:

1. In a greased 13×9 baking pan, lay a package of crescent rolls and pinch the openings together.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and egg until smooth then spread over the crescent rolls. Lay the second package of crescent rolls and brush with the egg white.
3. In a preheated oven to 350°, bake for 35 to 45 minutes.
4. Let cool for 20 minutes then glaze.
5. Simple, easy and yummy! This cheese danish is very heavily filled! I personally used half of the filling using 1 package of cream cheese, ½ cup of sugar, 1 egg and ½ tps of vanilla extract and I baked it for 30 to 35 minutes, it was great!

NOTES:

• You can use low fat cream cheese and stevia (sugar substitute). 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.