We all have a few guilty pleasures; things we enjoy even though we know they're not good for us.
One of mine is Pillsbury crescent rolls.
I just love 'em. Couldn't really tell you why, but I do.
Fortunately, as guilty pleasures go, crescent rolls are not a particularly expensive indulgence. I often find coupons for them and, when I pair the coupons with sale pricing, I can buy them for less than a dollar a tube. (I tell myself I could scarcely make them from scratch for so little. ;)
A while ago, I picked up four of those alluring blue tubes from the dairy case, and also found cream cheese on sale for a very good price.
I brought my bounty home and then pondered what to make from it. Clearly a visit to Pinterest was in order.
(Don't you just love Pinterest? It's become as much an oracle for me as Google is.)
Pinterest did not fail me. It yielded up many enticing recipes, including a simple cheese danish from The Adventures of a Kitchen Girl.
I love cheese danish! A cheese danish made with crescent rolls was right up my alley.
Because I can't leave a recipe un-messed-around-with, I decided this one needed some fruit and, because I'm big on shopping my pantry, I decided to add in some home canned peach slices.
Oh-my-goodness-the-results-were-amazing! I will definitely be serving this to company sometime soon.
To make Peaches and Cream Crescent Squares, you'll need:
- 2 eight-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 2 pints of peach slices (or 2 tins, if you don't have home canned)
- 2 tubes of crescent rolls (I used the jumbo ones because there are fewer seams to press closed but the regular ones will work just fine too.)
- 1 egg white
Put the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of your mixer and beat them until well combined. Add in the vanilla extract and egg and continue mixing until the batter is very smooth.
Open one of the tubes of crescent rolls and press the dough into a 9 x 13-inch pan. The dough should come part way up the sides of the pan like this:
Spread the cream cheese mixture over the crescent roll dough.
Drain the peach slices and arrange them on top of the cream cheese mixture.
Open the second tin of crescent rolls and use the dough to make a top crust, pressing it together along the seams and joining the outside edges with the dough used to line the bottom of the pan.
Add a little bit of cold water to the egg white (I used about 1/2 teaspoon) and then beat it with a fork until it becomes frothy.
Brush the egg white over the top crust.
Bake the assembled pastry in a 350F oven for 35 - 45 minutes, until it's golden-brown.
Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool.
When the pastry has cooled, combine
- 1/2 cup icing (powdered) sugar
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
beating until the mixture is very smooth.
Pour the glaze over the cooled pastry in the pan and allow it to set.
I cut the pastry into 12 squares. It's quite rich, though, so you could easily get away with serving smaller portions.
Store any leftover squares in the refrigerator.
Are you on Pinterest? You can find my boards at http://pinterest.com/AuntBsKitchen/
You can find me on Twitter too, at @AuntBsKitchen.
