Super EASY Apple Pie & Cheese Danishes Recipe

Hello everyone and welcome back to my kitchen! If you need an easy last-minute dessert for fall or Thanksgiving, my easy cream cheese and apple danishes are for you! These fluffy, buttery, flaky pastries are made with store-bought puff pastry so you don't have to make any dough at home! And they're filled with cream cheese and apple pie filling, and these are always the biggest hit with company! And they're super easy to make! We'll start by making an apple pie filling with apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cook that down, make a simple cream cheese filling, roll out the puff pastry, add the fillings, shape the pastries, bake them, and enjoy! It's that easy! For the full list of ingredients and the printable instructions, head on down into my video description box, follow the link over to my website where you can find all the details. And now, let me show you how to make these easy and delicious apple pastries! For today's recipe, we'll need two sheets of frozen puff pastry, and this is my favorite brand from Whole Foods, Dufour, and we need to defrost the puff pastry before using in the recipe. So, if you have the time, place them into the fridge overnight, let them defrost slowly, or if you're making these the same day, just let them sit out on the kitchen counter for about 45 minutes to an hour until they're softened, and then you can use them in the recipe. I'm going to set these aside for now and get started on the apple filling. We'll need two large apples for today's recipe, or about 14 to 15 ounces. You want to peel the apples first and then dice them into small pieces. Today, I'm using honey crisp apples, but just about any variety will work well for this recipe. And I recommend finely dicing the apples so that you have small apple bits with every bite. Drop the diced apples into a medium-sized saucepan. To the apples, we'll add in a third cup of light brown sugar, two teaspoons of ground cinnamon, a pinch of sea salt, or about an eighth of a teaspoon. And I also like to add just a touch of freshly ground nutmeg, about a quarter of a teaspoon. Pour in half a cup of water. Bring the apple and brown sugar mixture over to the stovetop. We're going to cook this over medium heat. Use a spatula to combine the apples with the brown sugar and cinnamon, and then I'm going to bring this up to a simmer and let it cook for about 18 to 22 minutes, until the apples are tender and cooked. I'm going to keep them covered with a lid and stir occasionally. With my apple filling cooking on the stovetop, it's time to get started on the cream cheese filling, and it's super easy! Just four ingredients, cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. We'll start with eight ounces of cream cheese, softened at room temperature. And if you're short on time, you can always drop your unpackaged cream cheese into a bowl and then microwave it for about 10 to 15 seconds to soften it, if it's cold, out of the refrigerator. We're going to drop this into a medium-sized mixing bowl. And before adding any other ingredients, I'm going to use my mixer to beat the cream cheese for a couple minutes, until it's smooth and clump-free. To the cream cheese, I'm going to add one cup of powdered sugar, a pinch of sea salt. I usually actually add closer to about a quarter of a teaspoon. And we're going to need two teaspoons of vanilla extract, and today I'm using this vanilla bean paste, but either one works, paste or extract. Mix this all together until it's creamy and smooth. Make sure to start on the slow speed because of that powdered sugar. Let's come back and take a look at our apples, and these are coming along nicely! There's quite a bit of liquid still left here at the bottom, so I'm going to remove the lid now and let that reduce until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Once you have the apples cooked, you want to let them cool down to room temperature. I placed mine into the refrigerator so they cool down a little bit quicker, and I also have my oven preheating to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Now we can take the time to shape our pastry! So, go ahead and take your puff pastry out of the fridge, or go ahead and unwrap it from the plastic. And we're going to roll out the dough on an unfloured surface, that way it's going to be a little bit easier to stretch the pastry into a slightly larger square. Take your rolling pin, roll the dough out just a little bit bigger. I also don't want the dough to be too thick. And then we'll take our cream cheese filling that we prepared earlier, and we're going to spread this evenly to all edges. Now it's time to add on our diced apple filling. You want to also spread this evenly across the cream cheese mixture. Now let's get started on our second sheet of puff pastry. We'll do the same thing, we'll roll it out just a little bit larger, and then we'll transfer it on top of this one. Add the second sheet of puff pastry over the first one. Just kind of stretch it into place if you need to. Next, I'm going to use a bench scraper to cut the sheet into strips. And I'm first going to score the dough. You want to go down the middle first. I'm going to keep them about an inch in thickness. And then to shape our pastries, you want to take your bench scraper, run it underneath the puff pastry because it will stick to the surface. All right, take both ends. Oops, that one's a little bit still stuck. Okay, we're going to take both ends and kind of stretch it out. And then we're going to twist from both ends. Twist, twist, and make sure that filling is sealed on the inside. And then you're going to roll everything into a little pastry, just like that. And then we'll place it onto our baking sheet. And before we get our pastries into the oven, we're going to brush them with a little bit of egg wash. So I have one egg, about a tablespoon of water, mixed together with a fork. Use a pastry brush, apply a generous amount of the egg wash on the outside. And this is going to give the rolls a beautiful, golden, glossy finish on the outside. And these cream cheese and apple pastries are ready for the oven! They're going to bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 22 to 23 minutes, until they start to turn golden brown on the top. After which, I'm going to lay a sheet of foil over the top to keep them from browning too much, and continue to bake for another 22 to 23 minutes. So, a total baking time of around 45 minutes, until they're golden brown and baked through. And just let them cool completely and enjoy! It's that easy! We're going to bake one sheet at a time. Let's take these delicious apple pastries out of the oven! These look so good! I'm going to let them chill on the parchment paper for about 10 minutes, and then we can enjoy these! And I wanted to show you the incredible texture that these have! So once they're cooled down, you can just split them open, and they're just so buttery and flaky! And the inside is just incredible! It's just so crispy! Absolutely love the filling too! And that's it for my easy cream cheese and apple danishes! I love this recipe because these come together in no time! And the aroma of these baking in the oven is simply mouth-watering! I can't wait for you to try these! Don't forget to head on down into the video description box for the recipe link. I'll have all the details up on my website for you! And now, let's begin to enjoy! I'm gonna grab one of these that's kind of cooled down a little bit. And these just pull apart so easily! They're just so crispy, and buttery, and flaky! Love, love the texture! These apple pastries are simply divine! The combination of that buttery, flaky puff pastry dough, combined with the creamy cream cheese filling, and with combined with that apple pie filling, is something else! It is so incredibly delicious! This would be so great with a cup of coffee or tea, even in the morning! Or you can enjoy it as a dessert after dinner! This this recipe is just amazing! These pastries are just way too good! I'm definitely gonna have to share these so that I don't eat them all by myself! Make sure to bookmark this recipe for that time when you need a really quick dessert to make during this fall and holiday season. This recipe is going to be a hit with everybody! Thank you so much for watching my latest episode, and I'll see you next time with a new recipe!