Cream Cheese Danish

In my quest for new breakfast ideas, I came across a recipe a cream cheese danish.  I made it.  Everybody liked it (especially my mother-in-law), and it was yummy.  Seemed like it needed a little tweeking to become even yummier, so I looked around for similar recipes.  I pinned another recipe to make Christmas morning since we were spending it with my inlaws.  Horror of all horrors, Pinterest wasn't working Christmas morning, so I had to make it from memory!  (Always a scary thing with my sketchy memory.)  We LOVED how it turned out.

Here's what I did (since I couldn't remember the recipe exactly) . . . I used one package of cream cheese (on purpose - two is too much) as well as cut the sugar back to 1/2 cup in the filling.  The first recipe I made had a cinnamon sugar topping, so I did that . . . Instead of brushing with the egg white, I melted 1/4 cup (or less) of butter and brushed it on top of the uncooked danish.  Then generously sprinkled with cinnamon sugar before baking.    I'll also add that I used Pillsbury's Crescent Sheets.  SO much easier than using the rolls and having to pinch all the seams together!  (Photo from Chocolate Therapy.)

Recipe and photo from The Adventures of Kitchen Girl although the plate in the picture is the same plate I have in my kitchen.

 

Ingredients:
2 cans ready to use refrigerated crescent rolls
2 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg white

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
Preheat oven to 350* degrees and grease a 13X9-inch baking pan. Lay a pack of crescent rolls in the pan and pinch the openings together. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg together until smooth. Spread the mixture over the crescent rolls evenly and then lay the second pack of crescent rolls on top of the cheese mixture and brush with egg white. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the top is golden brown. Top with glaze after cooling for 20 minutes.

Kitchen Notes:
I have made this danish using low fat cream cheese and splenda (sugar substitute) and it was delicious! 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.

Pretzel Bread

Pretzel Bread!?!  Yes please!  I was very impressed with this bread (even considering my yeast was a little out of date, and I didn't have bread flour).  The only down side was the quantity was small.  I guess I underestimated the yield of "two small loaves".   I didn't brush the bread with butter after it came out of the oven.  I did, however, eat a ham sandwich with melted cheese and mustard with it. Mmm. Mmm!

Pretzel Bread

1 packet (2 1/4 tsps) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110 – 120 degrees)
2 Tbsp. milk, room temperature
1 Tbsp. dark brown sugar
3 Tbsps. melted butter, room temperature
1 tsp. coarse salt
3 cups bread flour (spooned and leveled)

4 quarts of water
1/2 cup baking soda

Coarse salt to taste
2 Tbsps. melted butter

Directions

• In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl, combine the yeast, water, milk, brown sugar, and butter. Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes so the yeast come alive.
• Mix in the coarse salt, then the flour, one cup at a time. The dough will be tacky.
• Spray a large bowl with cooking spray or coat with oil. Transfer the dough to the bowl, flip to coat on both sides, and cover with plastic wrap for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, knead the dough for 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Return the dough to the bowl, flip to cover both sides, and re-cover for an hour, or until roughly doubled in size.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bring 4 quarts (16 cups) of water to a boil. Gently deflate the dough and cut in half using a sharp knife or bench scraper. Shape each half into a round loaf.
• Slowly add the 1/2 cup of baking soda to the boiling water (it will bubble). Place one piece of dough onto a large slotted spoon and gently lower into the boiling water. Use the spoon to flip the dough in the boiling water for around 20 seconds, then lift the dough out of the water with the slotted spoon – allow the excess water to drip back into the pot.
• Set the dough onto a greased baking sheet. Repeat the water bath with the remaining dough. Sprinkle both rounds with coarse salt, then slash an X on the top of each with a sharp knife so the bread can expand while it bakes.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through.
• Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter.

Yield: 2 small loaves

Recipe and photo from The Apron Archives.

Grilled Mozzarella Cheese Sandwich

This is one of those instances where you say, "Why didn't I think of that?"  I came across this idea on Pinterest a while back.  The novelty has worn off a little, but the kids and I were eating it a couple times a week for lunch after we learned about it.

 

Grilled Cheese . . . using Mozzarella cheese (or provolone, which is our preference) . . . served with a side of marinara sauce.  {sigh}  HELLO!!! It's amazing!

 

Here's a side bar:  I just went on the assumption that the recipe said, "make grilled cheese sandwich the original way but use mozzarella."  Well, Martha Stewart has her own high-calorie, high-fat version of the Grilled Mozzarella Cheese sandwich.  I'm sure it tastes great if you can afford buffalo mozzarella and all the other ingredients, but the cheese we use from the local discount store works just as well also.  I've also seen recipes that include tomato and basil, pesto or spinach as a combo with the mozzarella if you want to try something a little more extravagant.