Clean College Cooking : Apricot Cream Cheese Danishes

Everyone needs to treat themselves every once in a while, and what better way to do that then with a flaky cream cheese danish? These danishes are delicious, easy, and you can use whatever type of fruit preserves that you want! Bring these to share the morning of thanksgiving, or bring them to a midnight study session.

These should definitely be enjoyed as a treat though, if you're not careful, you may end up eating all 9 by yourself!

Here's what you'll need:

1 Puff Pastry Sheet $2.50
4 oz Reduced Fat Cream Cheese $1.00
1/4 cup sugar $0.25
3 Tablespoons preserves $0.10

(You can use whatever preserves you'd like, I chose apricot and raspberry)

Serving Size: 1 danish

Total Servings: 9

Price Per Serving: $0.42

Nutrition (per serving):

Calories: 174

Carbs: 21 g

Fat: 9 g

Protein: 3 g

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

Set your puff pastry on the counter to begin to thaw, this should take about 10-15 minutes

In a bowl, combine the cream cheese and sugar. If needed, add 1 tablespoon of milk to thin it out a bit. stir until the sugar is completely incorporated in the cream cheese.

Unroll your puff pastry sheet, if it breaks at the creases its okay, you're going to cut there anyways. Cut the pastry into 9 squares and then lay them on a baking sheet.

Using a toothpick, or carefully with your knife, mark a square in the middle of each section. Be careful not to cut all the way through though. This will help the puff pastry to expand around the filling, making a nice little pocket.

Then top each section with a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture and then one teaspoon of apricot preserves.

Place the whole sheet in the freezer for 15 minutes to allow the cream cheese to freeze a little bit. This will keep it from running off the sides before the pastry puffs up.