One of my favorite things about cooking is "re-purposing" food. Turning leftovers into a whole different meal. Especially when it's leftovers that won't get eaten any other way. Now, I know you're looking at this recipe thinking "What?!?! How can you take leftovers and make a Danish?". Well, let me explain...
Awhile back my sister and I made ice cream sundae baskets as gifts for different people. They were totally cute and I should've gotten pictures of them, but it definitely wasn't on my mind at the time. The baskets had ice cream dishes, spoons, little cellophane baggies with toppings (sprinkles, crushed peanuts, mini chocolate chips), jar of maraschino cherries (Fun fact: maraschino cherries were invented right where I live!), bottle of whip cream, bunch of bananas, and six different sauces that we made. Do you see where this is going yet?? Well, we made a caramel sauce, toffee sauce (which was originally supposed to be caramel, but ended up tasting like toffee), chocolate sauce, strawberry grand marnier topping, pineapple rum topping, and triple berry topping. I say topping because they definitely weren't saucy consistency. Anyways, we had just enough of the caramel, toffee and chocolate sauces to fill our jars, but had an excess of all three fruit toppings. (If you hadn't guessed where this was going, you see now?).
So, what to do with all that excess?? I thought about filled cupcakes, or using it as a filling between cake layers, using it as a jam spread, doing pastry wrapped brie with some of the fruit topping inside. Nothing seemed to inspire me. Until I came across this recipe for an Easy Cheese Danish on Lauren's Latest (she has great pictures of each step). I ended up making several of these danishes over the course of a month to use up all of my excess sundae toppings and none of them lasted very long at all. Now, I won't share the recipes for the toppings because they weren't exactly what I was hoping for, but don't fear. You can use a mixtures of jam and fresh fruit (or frozen fruit that's been thawed and drained) or omit the fruit all together for just a plain cheese danish.
Easy Cheese Danish
1 tube refrigerated crescent rolls (Pillsbury also makes something called Recipe Creations, which is sheets of crescent roll dough, so no more sealing seams!)
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp flour
3/4 - 1 cup fruit (either fresh fruit or frozen fruit that's been thawed and drained)
2 - 3 Tbsp jam (same flavor as the fruit or complimentary, like crushed, drained pineapple and apricot jam)
Powdered Sugar Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 - 4 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375˚ F. Line a 15x11 jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Open the tube of crescent rolls and break them apart into rectangles of two triangles. Lay them out on your parchment paper in a row so all the long sides are touching. It should almost be the entire 15" length of your pan. Press together the seams.
In a bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and flour. Mix well. Spread down the center of the crescent rolls. Cream cheese mixture should only be a couple inches wide, leaving a couple inches of crescent roll dough on either side. In another bowl mix together fruit and jam. Spread on top of cream cheese layer.
Take a knife or kitchen scissors and starting at one corner, make diagonal cuts in the crescent roll dough approximately 1 inch apart (I get about 10 to 12 dough flaps). Repeat on the other side of the dough in the opposite direction (so that if you were to continue your cuts all the way through on either side, they would come together in a point. Confused? Check out Lauren's pictorial steps). Now, fold dough flaps over your filling, alternating between sides, creating a braided look. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until golden. Cool.
For powdered sugar glaze: In a small bowl, mix together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Stir until combined. If you desire a thicker consistency, just use less milk, or more if you like it runny :)
Source: Slightly adapted from Lauren's Latest
Awhile back my sister and I made ice cream sundae baskets as gifts for different people. They were totally cute and I should've gotten pictures of them, but it definitely wasn't on my mind at the time. The baskets had ice cream dishes, spoons, little cellophane baggies with toppings (sprinkles, crushed peanuts, mini chocolate chips), jar of maraschino cherries (Fun fact: maraschino cherries were invented right where I live!), bottle of whip cream, bunch of bananas, and six different sauces that we made. Do you see where this is going yet?? Well, we made a caramel sauce, toffee sauce (which was originally supposed to be caramel, but ended up tasting like toffee), chocolate sauce, strawberry grand marnier topping, pineapple rum topping, and triple berry topping. I say topping because they definitely weren't saucy consistency. Anyways, we had just enough of the caramel, toffee and chocolate sauces to fill our jars, but had an excess of all three fruit toppings. (If you hadn't guessed where this was going, you see now?).
So, what to do with all that excess?? I thought about filled cupcakes, or using it as a filling between cake layers, using it as a jam spread, doing pastry wrapped brie with some of the fruit topping inside. Nothing seemed to inspire me. Until I came across this recipe for an Easy Cheese Danish on Lauren's Latest (she has great pictures of each step). I ended up making several of these danishes over the course of a month to use up all of my excess sundae toppings and none of them lasted very long at all. Now, I won't share the recipes for the toppings because they weren't exactly what I was hoping for, but don't fear. You can use a mixtures of jam and fresh fruit (or frozen fruit that's been thawed and drained) or omit the fruit all together for just a plain cheese danish.
1 tube refrigerated crescent rolls (Pillsbury also makes something called Recipe Creations, which is sheets of crescent roll dough, so no more sealing seams!)
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp flour
3/4 - 1 cup fruit (either fresh fruit or frozen fruit that's been thawed and drained)
2 - 3 Tbsp jam (same flavor as the fruit or complimentary, like crushed, drained pineapple and apricot jam)
Powdered Sugar Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 - 4 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375˚ F. Line a 15x11 jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Open the tube of crescent rolls and break them apart into rectangles of two triangles. Lay them out on your parchment paper in a row so all the long sides are touching. It should almost be the entire 15" length of your pan. Press together the seams.
In a bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and flour. Mix well. Spread down the center of the crescent rolls. Cream cheese mixture should only be a couple inches wide, leaving a couple inches of crescent roll dough on either side. In another bowl mix together fruit and jam. Spread on top of cream cheese layer.
Take a knife or kitchen scissors and starting at one corner, make diagonal cuts in the crescent roll dough approximately 1 inch apart (I get about 10 to 12 dough flaps). Repeat on the other side of the dough in the opposite direction (so that if you were to continue your cuts all the way through on either side, they would come together in a point. Confused? Check out Lauren's pictorial steps). Now, fold dough flaps over your filling, alternating between sides, creating a braided look. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until golden. Cool.
For powdered sugar glaze: In a small bowl, mix together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Stir until combined. If you desire a thicker consistency, just use less milk, or more if you like it runny :)
Source: Slightly adapted from Lauren's Latest
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