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Easy Cheese Danishes (+Video)

These Easy Cheese Danishes use a shortcut (crescent roll dough) to make your favorite bakery pastry at home. So simple and delicious!

A SIMPLIFIED WAY TO MAKE CHEESE DANISHES

Do you remember a short while back I posted a recipe for Easy Apple Danishes? Well, I got such great feedback from that recipe that I had to try my hand at some cream cheese ones. So I decided on a yummy cream cheese filling – and butter my butt and call me a biscuit – I was surprised at how good these turned out. So this one is for all you cheese danish lovers!

Easy Cheese Danishes made with crescent rolls and layered on a white platter.

TIPS FOR MAKING CRESCENT ROLL CHEESE DANISHES:

  • If you don’t need so many danishes, just use one tube of crescent rolls and save the leftover cream cheese filling for another time. Just put it in a container with an airtight lid and store in the fridge for up to a week.
  • Try adding strawberry or raspberry jam along with the cream cheese. It adds amazing flavor!
Crescent Roll Cheese Danish recipe from The Country Cook, layered on a white plate.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST)

  • crescent rolls
  • cream cheese
  • granulated white sugar
  • vanilla extract
  • butter
  • light brown sugar
  • powdered sugar
  • milk
crescent roll dough, cream cheese, brown sugar, vanilla extract, sugar, butter, powdered sugar.

HOW TO MAKE EASY CHEESE DANISHES:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. In a medium bowl, combine softened cream cheese with white sugar and vanilla extract. Mixture should be creamy and smooth when finished (like cheesecake batter.)

cheesecake cream cheese filling batter in a clear bowl.

Separate crescent roll dough into eight rectangles. Seal perforations to make a rectangle.

sealing perforations of crescent roll dough.

Using a brush or spoon, spread melted butter all over crescent rolls. Sprinkle each rectangle with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.

light brown sugar sprinkled on crescent roll dough.

Roll up from long side; pinch edges to seal.

rolled up crescent roll dough.

Holding one end, loosely coil each one.

coiled crescent roll dough to make a danish shape.

Now you want to get in there with your fingers and spread out the dough some to make room for the filling. Just pull and stretch and make a nice dent in the middle. Place on cookie sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Top each coil with about 2 tablespoons of cream cheese filling.

prepared crescent roll cheese danish on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350(F) for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown. For the glaze, in a bowl, combine powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Stir until smooth and drizzle over each warm danishes.

stack of cheese danishes on a round white plate.

Cook’s Note: If you don’t need so many danishes, just use one tube of crescent rolls and save the leftover cream cheese filling for another time. Just put it in a container with an airtight lid and store in the fridge for up to a week. Makes 8 danishes.

a hand holding up a cheese danish.

CRAVING MORE RECIPES?

Crescent Roll Cheese Danishes recipe

Easy Cheese Danishes (+Video)

These Easy Cheese Danishes use a shortcut (crescent roll dough) to make your favorite bakery pastry at home. So simple and delicious!
4.90 from 96 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 18 minutes
Total Time: 28 minutes
Servings: 8

Ingredients

For the danishes:

For the glaze:

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F) In a medium bowl, combine softened cream cheese with white sugar and vanilla extract until smooth.
  • Separate crescent dough into eight rectangles (there will be two crescent rolls to each rectangle.) Seal perforations.
  • Using a brush or spoon, spread melted butter all over crescent rolls.
  • Sprinkle each rectangle with about 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar.
  • Roll up from long side of the crescent rectangle; pinch edges to seal.
  • Holding one end, loosely coil each.
  • Spread out the dough in the middle some to make room for the filling.
  • Place on cookie sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Top each coil with about 2 tablespoons of cream cheese filling.
  • Bake at 350(F) for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown.
  • For the glaze, in a bowl, combine powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Stir until smooth and drizzle over each warm danish.

Video

YouTube video

Notes

  • It’s important that the cream cheese is fully softened to room temperature. If it isn’t, it will end up lumpy. 
  • Salted or unsalted butter can be used. I prefer salted. 
Course: Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Calories: 337kcal | Carbohydrates: 39g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 19g | Sodium: 448mg | Sugar: 25g

Nutritional Disclaimer

“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

Did you make this recipe?Share it on Instagram @thecountrycook and mention us #thecountrycook!

Originally published: June 2011
Updated & republished: July 2020

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Recipe Rating




162 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    I definitely will make these – these look like a keeper – we love cream cheese danish but i am going to mix the cream cheese with seedless blackberry jam – thank you for an easy and delish recipe

  2. 5 stars
    I just made these, and they turned out amazing!!! Such an easy recipe, and you can add fruit or jam to make it a fruity danish. This is definitely my new favorite! Thank you for sharing this recipe

  3. 5 stars
    Made these for breakfast and my husband loved them (so did I). Easy to do and delicious. I put a few drops of orange flavoring in the icing for a flavor kick.

  4. 5 stars
    Awesome danishes! I have never made them before and these came out heavenly! I skipped the icing because it was already sweet enough without it

  5. 5 stars
    Oh my goodness these were FANTASTIC!! Definitely a keeper. Had crescent rolls that were about to expire and wanted to try something different with them. Very simple to follow too with ingredients I usually have on hand. Thank you for this recipe!!

  6. 5 stars
    I can’t believe how easy these are to make!! I added a teaspoon of raspberry jam alongside the cream cheese. They were AMAZING!!!

  7. 5 stars
    Thank you. Thank you. These are wonderful and You have given me Some great ideas. Going to use your base with orange or lemon flavoring plus zest of which ever I choose Going to a add cream cheese mixture inside before rolling But will David a tablespoon for each roll. Will have to make 11/2 recipe. Thank you

  8. 5 stars
    We loved making this last weekend. We are going to make it again soon. So yummy. I am pregnant right now and craving all kinds of things. This is great.

  9. 5 stars
    Made these this past weekend. Did half cream cheese and half cream cheese with homemade strawberry jam. Used less sugar in cream cheese mixture and needed to cook for almost 30 minutes to get done but other than that it was an easy simple weekend breakfast! Will be making again!

  10. 5 stars
    Made these this morning. I added a dollop of raspberry jam to half of them before baking. They were all delicious. Thanks for one of my new favorite recipes!

  11. 5 stars
    Where have these been my whole life?! OHH EMM GEE!! AMAZING! These will be a new staple in our home. Can’t wait to make them again. May have to do 3 cans next time! Thank you for the recipe!
    Tinna

  12. 5 stars
    So I’m 57 years old and NEVER have baked or made much from basically scratch, even though these are packaged crescent rolls so not technically scratch I have one suggestion and I hope I don’t sound stupid here, but maybe you should separate the ingredients for the glaze? I was making this and of course in this day and age, didn’t read the entire recipe trying to cut corners and speed things up lol just went direction by direction. When it says to add the white sugar, duh I just added ALL the white sugar, powdered and granulated hahaha then I get to the end and read about a glaze?? Huh? Nobody told me there was a glaze hahaha So yeah, I’m hoping that I’m not the only goofball that doesn’t know the difference of white sugar vs powdered sugar and thought that separating the ingredients to show that there are two uses for each vanilla measurement etc might help people such as myself 🙂 Can’t wait to sink my teeth into these but I know my cream cheese will be EXTRA sweet with the added powder sugar lol