Easy Cheese Danish

I go through phases with cookbooks, sometimes I am using them like mad, other times not so much. Sometimes I will buy a bunch all at once, and then go months and months without even opening another one at a bookstore or book fair or wherever.


Right now I'm in the former state on both accounts. I recently received my Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook by Ina Garten. She isn't the most exciting Food Network chef to watch by any account, but I find I always get great tips from her and her recipes do always sound delicious so I bought the book.


I just tried the first recipe out of it the other night for Easy Cheese Danish. This really was easy and they came out tasty. Next time though I think I would reduce the lemon zest since the filling came out a little more lemony tasting than I would normally expect from a cheese danish, all in all though, this recipe is definitely a keeper!



Easy Cheese Danish
(from Barefoot Contessa at Home)





8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 extra large egg yolks, at room temperature
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
2 sheets (1 box) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.


Place the cream cheese & sugar in bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment and cream together on low speed until smooth. With the mixer still on low, add the egg yolks, ricotta, vanilla, salt, and lemon zest and mix until just combined. Don't whip!


Unfold one sheet of pastry onto a lightly floured board and roll it slightly with a floured rolling pin until it's a 10x10 inch square. Cut tthe sheet into quarters. Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese filling into the middle of each of the 4 squares. Brush the border of each pastry with egg wash and fold two opposite corners to the center, brushing and overlapping the corners of each pastry so they firmly stick together. Brush the top of the pastries with egg wash. Place the pastries on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry and refrigerate the filled Danish for 15 minutes.


Bake the puff pastries for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan once during baking, until puffed and brown. Serve warm.