I love to visit bakeries when I travel. I think it is so interesting, not to mention delicious, to look through the glass display case at the vast assortment of baked goods, and then sample as many as I can, ideally with family or friends and a rich cup of café con leche. From different textures of bread crusts, various shapes of loaves, tiny little seeds, unique flavor combinations and sometimes flavored fillings from fruits I’ve never even heard of before, bakeries in foreign countries can be an adventure all of their own.
It would be wonderful to duplicate many of these recipes in my own kitchen. And while I do enjoy baking, and have made many of my favorite desserts from countries around the world, some recipes are just too time consuming to make it on my top ten list of recipes to try.
This Danish recipe that I adapted, however, was not a major time sucker at all. It was as also, as my husband put it, dangerously good, not to mention sizeable enough to serve for breakfast while we had guests this past weekend. This is what it looked like fresh out of the oven…
Cherry Cheesecake Danish fresh out of the oven
Ingredients
2 (8 oz) cans refrigerated crescent rolls
1 large egg, separated
2 (8oz) packages of softened cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 (15 oz) can red tart pitted cherries, drained
1/2 cup slivered almonds
Sifted powdered sugar
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375°. Unroll one can of rolls and press the dough into a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch Pyrex dish or pan. Beat the egg yolk, cream cheese and next three ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended.
2. Spread the mixture over the dough. Place cherries on top of mixture so they are pretty evenly spread out.
3. Unroll the second can of dough and place it on top of the mixture and cherries. You may have to pinch some of the dough back together if it separates a bit.
4. Lightly beat the egg white and brush it over the dough. Sprinkle with slivered almonds.
5. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and place pan on a wire rack to cool. Cut into squares when you are ready to dig in!
Variations
You can experiment with the fruit in this recipe. You can leave it out altogether for a plain cheese danish. Or you could add some apple pie filling in place of the cherries. You could also substitute pecans for the almonds. My family really liked this recipe so I look forward to trying out different fruit combinations to make it more seasonally appropriate based on the time of year and holidays.
What fruit combinations would you like to try? Leave me a comment to let me know. And as the Danish would say Velbekomme! Enjoy your meal!
Recipe adapted from Cream Cheese Danish over at My Recipes.
[…] Mommy Maleta walks you through the process of making these mouthwatering Danish that harness the same flavours as most classic recipes, but somehow a little more tasty. We almost feel guilty about how many of these we could eat in one sitting! […]