cherry almond danishes

After receiving last month's Bon Appetit magazine, I experimented with puff pastry for the first time. I made some bite sized apple cheddar turnovers for a party I went to. Unfortunately, I never snapped a picture and I was on the fence about their taste so they never made their way into the blog. BUT, the puff pastry was fun and I definitely wanted to work with it again. Puff pastry is quick, relatively inexpensive and you can do so many different things with it. For my next puff pastry experiment, I decided to make Cherry Almond Cream Cheese Danishes.





Total Recipe cost: $8.48
Servings Per Recipe: 8
Cost per serving: $1.06
Prep time: 15 min. Cook time: 20 min. Total: 35 min.

INGREDIENTS		COST
1 box (2 sheets)	frozen puff pastry	$3.68
8 oz. block	neufchatel or cream cheese	$1.44
21 oz. can	cherry pie filling	$2.33
4 Tbsp	sliced almonds	$0.56
1 tsp	lemon juice	$0.10
2 Tbsp	sugar	$0.10
1/8 tsp	almond extract	$0.27
TOTAL		$8.48

STEP 1: Thaw the puff pastry sheets according to the directions on the box (room temperature for about 40 min.) Let the cream cheese (or neufchatel) come to room temperature then mix with the lemon juice and sugar.

STEP 2: In a separate bowl, mix the almond extract with the cherry pie filling.

STEP 3: When the pastry sheets have thawed, roll them out slightly on a floured surface. Cut each sheet into four squares. Evenly divide the cream cheese mixture, cherry pie filling and sliced almonds between the 8 squares (putting all of the filling in the center of the squares, staying at least an inch from the edges).

STEP 4: Carefully fold the pastry squares, corner to corner to make triangles. Using a fork, crimp the seams together.



STEP 5: Bake pastries on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven until golden brown (approximately 15 minutes). Enjoy!

NOTES: For some reason when I made these large danishes, the puff pastry did not "puff" as much as when I made the small appetizer sized pastries a few weeks ago. Because my experimentation with puff pastry is still very new, I do not know the cause of this. If any well seasoned puff pastry users out there can give me (and the rest of the readers) a tip, please share!