Category Archives: Pastries

Easy Cream Cheese Danishes

Posted by Lindsey @ Baking Bytes in Baking, Breakfast, Pastries and tagged with

[Here from Pinterest? Welcome! After you make these danishes, make sure to check out my other Pillsbury recipe: Easy Cinnamon Roll Wreath]

For those of us that are doomed to work in an office lucky enough to have a stable job, we know that the best days often involve surprise homemade treats that a coworker decided to bring in. You, too, can be that coworker. While muffins, cookies or donuts are always a welcome option, this super easy Danish recipe is a great way to switch it up a little. Better yet, they can easily be made the night before, letting you keep to your normal sleeping schedule.

Easy Cream Cheese Danishes {{Baking Bytes}}

Although I don’t typically work from recipes that call for “pre-fab” food, the ones I do like generally involve a Pillsbury product. Pillsbury crescent rolls are incredibly versatile and can be used for everything from breakfast to dessert, or my favorite, a dessert-y breakfast. These Danishes are super easy, super delicious, and make enough to feed a crowd. I brought mine to work and had no trouble giving them all away.

I made mine with cherry pie filling (my favorite), but feel free to substitute any pie filling, preserves or thick jam that you prefer, or leave the fruity part out completely. If you’re a Nutella person (I am not, bleh), I’m sure that would also work nicely alongside the cream cheese filling. If you’re feeling inspired, a quick sauce from fresh fruit would be even more amazing.

Easy Cream Cheese Danishes {{Baking Bytes}}

So next time you want to surprise your coworkers, skip the muffins and pick up some cream cheese and crescent rolls; you’ll be the new office favorite in no time.

If you’re struggling to print this recipe, a PDF copy is available here:  Easy Cream Cheese Danishes | Baking Bytes

Easy Cream Cheese Danishes

Makes 24 pastries

Ingredients

2 cans Pillsbury Grands Crescent Rolls (big & flaky)
1 can pie filling (I like cherry)

8 oz cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup sugar

powdered sugar
milk

Directions

  1. IMG_1594Place crescent roll cans in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line baking sheets with silicon mats or parchment paper.
  3. Beat cream cheese, vanilla and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy.
  4. Open the cans and slice each into 12 pieces, approximately 1/2″ slices. (Don’t unroll them, pretend they’re slice and bake cookies.)
  5. Easy Cream Cheese DanishesPlace six slices on a cookie sheet, flattening the centers to create an indent. (I used a large spice container dipped in flour, plus my fingers for a little extra flattening in the middle.)2
  6. Fill the indent half with the cream cheese mixture and half with the pie filling.
  7. Bake until edges are golden brown, about 15 minutes.
  8. Cool completely on a wire rack.
  9. In a small bowl, mix a large spoonful of powdered sugar with a little milk until liquid but still thick. Spoon into a pastry bag or Ziploc, cut off the tip, and drizzle over the pastries.
  10. Enjoy one (or three, I don’t judge) with a cup of coffee or a tall glass of milk.

Notes

1 I actually think these are best the next day. Bake, cool, frost, and put in airtight containers overnight. For me, they’re always more moist and pastry-like the next morning. (Although they are also fabulous straight out of the oven… but don’t burn your mouth.)
2 These spread a lot during baking, so don’t try to squeeze too many on a pan. Start with 6 and see if you have room for more after the first batch is baked.

Cinnamon Sugar Scones

Posted by Lindsey @ Baking Bytes in Baking, Breakfast, Pastries, Quickbread and tagged with

For my first post, I decided to use a recipe I make all the time, a very delicious diet staple. This is somewhat odd because growing up, I never liked scones. They were always hard and dry and far too crumbly to be able to eat properly.

Then I went on exchange to Scotland and was opened to the wonderful world of properly prepared scones. Light, moist, delicious scones.

Also castles. Castles are awesome.

Although I probably sampled two dozen flavors, I usually liked the simple flavors best. So when I was perusing the fabulous blog of Baked Perfection and found these cinnamon sugar scones, I knew they’d be perfect. I almost never make a recipe immediately after reading it because I’m usually missing at least one ingredient, but with these I had them all on hand already. These scones contain only common ingredients (unless for some reason you don’t always have heavy cream on hand…), and are incredibly easy, fast, and delicious.

Assuming you have everything, you can be eating these, in all their cinnamon sugar glory, in a mere half hour. The original recipe includes a drizzled glaze, which I use when I want a sweeter treat, but they are also excellent plain, or spread with melted butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.

Below is the recipe with basically no modifications because I think it’s perfect as is. Enjoy!

Miniature Cinnamon Sugar Scones

Recipe adapted from Baked Perfection 

Ingredients

2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/4 cups whipping cream (heavy cream)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon mats.
  2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until completely combined.
  3. Pour in whipping cream. Mix or knead by hand, just until combined. Mix will be sticky.
  4. Flour surface. With floured hands, divide dough into two sections and pat into two rounds, each approximately four inches.
  5. Cut each round into 8ths and place on prepared baking sheet sheet.
  6. Bake 9 to 11 minutes. Let cool at least five minutes, then glaze, butter, or enjoy plain.