Cheese Danish with Strawberry Compote

Apparently, humans can go into hibernation in winter. For example, I am hibernating right now. I did a fair amount of cooking during the Christmas holidays, but just didn't have the energy left afterwards to post about it. All those recipes are stored away for later, but right now...I don't really want to type, talk, move or blink too much. I just want to sit in a comfortable chair with my several extra pounds and be warm.

But since I'm here...

Over the holidays, I was looking for breakfast ideas (I'm kinda tired of bacon, y'all, which I didn't think was a Thing That Could Happen), and found this recipe featured on Tasty Kitchen:

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EASY CHEESE DANISH

(unapologetically ripped from the above link)

* 1 package (8 Oz. Package) Cream Cheese, Softened
* ½ cups Granulated Sugar
* 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
* 1 can (8 Oz. Tube) Refrigerated Crescent Rolls (we are hibernating, not working here)

For the icing:

* 1 cup Powdered Sugar
* 4 Tablespoons Cream (heavy cream - how did I ever live without this stuff before?)
* ¼ teaspoons Vanilla Extract


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Set aside.

Pop open crescent roll dough and unroll, leaving crescents in rectangles. On an ungreased baking sheet, lay the crescent roll rectangles together, with the long sides touching. Dough should be almost the entire length of a half sheet pan.

Press edges together to even out the sides and seal any holes. Carefully spread the cream cheese filling down the center of the dough to be about 2-3 inches wide.

Cut 1/2-inch diagonal strips up each side of the dough. Fold the 1/2-inch dough pieces up over the filling, alternating sides over each other and pressing down lightly to seal. It should look like a braided pattern. You may have excess dough once you reach the end of the danish, so fold them in as best as you can.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until filling is set and crescent dough is golden in color. Cool before removing from the baking sheet.

In a small bowl, mix together powdered sugar, vanilla and cream to create the icing. You may need to add more cream to get the desired consistency. Drizzle icing over the danish. - Seriously, let the Danish cool first...it tastes better cooled, and the icing will not melt off and puddle all over the place!

Cut into pieces and serve.

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Well! After a nice long nap, I went right out and bought some cream cheese. I followed the recipe exactly, but I did find it a little difficult translating the text instructions into real-world, hands-on Danish making. So I took the liberty of creating an instructional blueprint of the assembly process:

CLICK TO VIEW

Theeerre we go. It turned out to be quite tasty. The crescent rolls are more flaky/buttery and less pastry-like than you'd expect from a Danish, so the taste was not exactly right, but in the grand scheme of things: meh. Still yummy!

Because I was feeling fancy - I was wearing my very best flannel plaid robe and slippers - I whipped up a quick strawberry compote to spoon on top:

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STRAWBERRY COMPOTE

I'm sorry, I didn't measure any of this (SURPRISE) but, uh...it kinda goes like...

• A cup or so of frozen strawberries (since fresh is not an option this time of year)
• 2-6 tbs water (somewhere in that range)
• 1/2 - 1 tsp cornstarch (thicken it to your taste)
• 1/3 cup sugar (start there, and work your way up if you need it sweeter)


Throw everything in a saucepan and heat it up (over medium heat, I guess) - stirring and tasting/adjusting frequently - until you are happy. There's probably a much better method to this. Please tell me what it is.

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