Apple Cheese Danish

Ingredients

• Servings: 18
• 1 (24 ounce) carton cottage cheese
• 3 apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (17.5 ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 3 tablespoons white sugar for decoration

Recipe

Preparation Time: 55 mins Cook Time: 20 mins Ready Time: 1 hr 15 mins


• place the cottage cheese in a strainer lined with cheesecloth or heavy-duty paper towels. pat dry with paper towels and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes.
• place apples in a bowl, and sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent browning.
• combine the cream cheese, drained cottage cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, egg, and vanilla extract in the bowl of an electric mixer, and mix 1 to 2 minutes on high speed, until almost smooth.
• preheat an oven to 400 degrees f (200 degrees c). line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• cut each of the puff pastry sheets into 9 pieces; you should have 18 total. roll the pieces out, one at a time, to make 5 x 5-inch squares. to ensure the pastries puff up, avoid using too much pressure or rolling over the edges of the dough.
• place a square in front of you so that it looks like a diamond. spoon a generous amount of cheese filling down the middle of each square, leaving 1/4 inch of room at the top and bottom edges. fan out 4-5 slices of apple down the center of each cheese-filled square. bring the left and right corners together to meet in the center and pinch to seal.
• transfer the danish to a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining pastries. sprinkle sugar over each bundle and bake in the preheated oven until the pastry is golden brown, about 20 minutes.