Cream Cheese Danishes

These danishes make the best breakfast. I mean, who doesn't want to eat a flaky pastry filled with sweetened cream cheese in the morning? And you will love them because they are SO easy to make. Here are a few tips to help you along:

1. Set your frozen puff pastry in the fridge to thaw overnight. It will be thawed by morning time and easy to use. Puff pastry is sticky and difficult to work with when defrosted in the microwave.
2. Set your cream cheese on the counter to soften overnight. It will not go bad, I promise ;) This was a trick I learned in cooking school where large amounts of soft cream cheese were often needed. The softer your cream cheese, the smoother it will be when blended with the other ingredients and the better it will melt in your pastry.
   

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet Frozen Puff Pastry, thawed
• 8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/3 c. Sugar
• 3/4 t. Lemon Juice
• 3/4 t. Vanilla Extract
• 1 T. Sour Cream
• 1 Egg
• 1 T. Milk

Makes 6 servings.

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place the cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and sour cream in a mixing bowl. Cream the mixture until smooth. Set aside.
2. Unfold the puff pastry and lay it on a floured cutting board. Lightly roll out the pastry until it looks more like a rectangle that a square. Roll the pastry so that the two lines left from the folds are elongated and running vertically. These lines are important for the next step.
3. Your pastry should have three even sections running vertically. The center section is where you will place the cream cheese mixture. With the other two sections, use a sharp paring knife make 1/2" slices going horizontally down the pastry.
4. Spoon the cream cheese mixture onto the middle section of pastry and evenly spread it out. It should look like you have fringe running down each side of the cream cheese. Take each strip of pastry and fold it across the top of the cream cheese to the other side of the pastry, alternating sides until you reach the bottom. Secure the last strips of pastry underneath the pastry and transfer it to a greased cookie sheet.
5. In a small bowl, beat the egg and milk until blended. Brush it onto the top of the pastry using a basting brush.
   
6. Bake your pastry for 20-25 minutes, moving to the very top rack for the last 5 minutes of cooking to help the top achieve a nice brown color. Remove, cook slightly and slice into 6 pieces.