A light and flaky danish pastry, filled with sweet cheese and drizzled with icing. This easy Cream Cheese Danish recipe is made with crescent roll dough right at home.
Cheese is one of them foods that I would probably never been able to give up. It is just so versatile and delicious in meals and desserts. In fact, I probably fail on my diets more often than not because I just cannot part with cheese.
Fact: Cheese is my favorite food ever!
Cream cheese is one of my favorite subtle cheeses because it can easily be enjoyed in a sweet or savory dish.
Whenever I visit our local bakery I can never leave without a cream cheese danish. The only issue with that is I hate waiting in line forever (and a day), so I decided I would make them at home!
These Cream Cheese Danish are made easy thanks to my new favorite baking ingredient… Crescent roll dough!
Why did I never experiment with this genius little tube of goodness years ago? Crescent roll dough is perfect for people like me who are no-fuss, and love convenience.
I’ve made so many delicious Crescent Roll Recipes since discovering it’s endless versatility!
Cream Cheese Filling
This cream cheese danish filling is similar to a cheesecake batter, but without the eggs.
To ensure a smooth and consistent filling, your cream cheese should be warmed to room temperature. This makes mixing the ingredients easier too.
If you can’t wait for your cream cheese to reach room temperature, it’s okay. Your filling will be slightly lumpy, but will still taste GREAT!
How to make Crescent Roll Cream Cheese Danish:
Makes 8 servings, but recipe can be easily doubled to 16…
Ingredients:
- 1 tube of crescent dough rolls
- 4 ounce of room temp cream cheese *see note above
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- 1 tsp of lemon juice *I squeezed the juice of one small wedge in
- 1 tablespoon of butter, and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar melted, and mixed
Icing Ingredients:
- 1 cup of powdered sugar
- 1-1/2 tablespoon(s) of whole milk
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 F.
Lined one large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Add cream cheese, lemon, vanilla, and white sugar to a bowl, and whip until light and fluffy.
On a cutting board, unwrap your crescent dough tube and slice the dough into 8 equal discs.
Add each disk to your baking sheet, and gently form a well in the middle of each for the filling.
Brush each dough circle with the butter/sugar mixture.
Fill each with a healthy dollop of cream cheese and spread neatly using the back of a clean spoon.
Bake for 15 minutes at 350.
Icing Directions:
Combine the powdered sugar and milk. Whisk until thick and creamy.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes, and then glaze them with the icing. If you are super hungry or impatient, do this step right away and enjoy!
These do not store well so eat them right away for the best taste.
Want more crescent roll dough recipes? Check these out:
Cream Cheese Danish made with Crescent Rolls
Ingredients
- 8 ounces crescent rolls XL Grands! Crescents work best because they are a larger size.
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened to room temperature
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon butter melted
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons milk or water Add more sugar if the consistency is too thin!
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add room temperature cream cheese, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and white sugar to a mixing bowl, and whip until light and fluffy; set aside.
- Add powdered sugar and milk/water to a small bowl and whisk; set aside to thicken. (optional and only if you want iced Danish).
- On a cutting board, unwrap your crescent dough tube and slice the dough into 8 equal discs.
- Add each disk to your baking sheet. Stretch out each portion to create a larger disc and create a depression in the center for the filling.
- Add the melted butter and brown sugar to a small dish, and mix. Brush each dough circle with the melted butter/sugar mixture.
- Fill each crescent center with a healthy dollop of cream cheese and spread neatly using the back of a clean spoon.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 350°F. Crescents will be golden brown, and feel slightly firm to the touch.
- Cool for 10 minutes before swizzling icing onto each Danish (optional).
I ate these with about a 1/2 teaspoon of seedless raspberry jam in the middle and baked them for 17 mins.
When you say “slice the dough into 8 equal discs” do you mean while the dough is still rolled up? When you said to unroll the tube, I didn’t know if you meant the paper tube it comes in or the dough itself.
Hello Monica! Unwrap the outer packaging. Leave the dough as a tube, and then slice into 8 discs.
I cut my rolls in 10 slices, used half fat free cream cheese. Put a tablespoon of cream cheese and added as teaspoon of strawberry jam. Husband said..save this recipe! These are very rich, adding the jam helped.
Easy and awesome!
Do you use the crescent rolls with the perforations or the crescent roll sheet for this recipe?
Hi Carole, you can use either one. Keep it rolled up and just slice it in 8 equal disks while it’s rolled up.
Omg so smart, That’ll make it a lil thicker as well! Great tip!
Cream cheese mixture was great but ran all over my baking sheet. Yes, I made a well in the middle of crescent but when it began to rise caused my cream cheese to run wverywhere…what did I donwrong
Hi, I noticed from experience lately, that if I do not use Philly cream cheese this happens!
Ruth, you might have made the same mistake as me. I was whipping this recipe up and then got to the part about butter/sugar mixture too late. I had beaten all the ingredients together, and so perhaps this is why the cream cheese mix was WAY too much for the 8 dough disks, and ran all over the place. Author needs to fix the directions to show that you melt the brown sugar and butter together, first, and that way no one will get confused re what goes into the mixer. They did taste good, though.
The taste is awesome….but my cream cheese ran all over my baking sheet…..I did a well in center as directed…what did I do wrong?
I didn’t need all of the cream cheese mixture, maybe i didn’t flatten them enough? They are still in the oven!
“Brush with butter/sugar mixture” which I assume is what the Tbls of butter and brown sugar is for in your recipe but left it entirely out of your steps for the recipe. Might be confusing for novice bakers drawn in by this easy recipe.
Yes, it WAS very confusing, and easily could be fixed in this recipe to be clearer.
Easy and great tasting. Tips on storing fresh until they are gone are appreciated.
Hello Karen, my best suggestion is to freeze them after baking to keep them fresh!
Hi Amy! Regarding the glaze, in the content before the recipe card you call for 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk, but in the recipe card you call for 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons milk or water? Which one is correct?
1 cup of powdered sugar + milk! Sorry about that!
I just made these I omitted the brown sugar and butter.. I put the icing on them when they cooled but too sweet. They would be fine just with the dollop of cream cheese in the middle of each crescent.
Trying with vegan cream cheese.
Made these several times&they’re always gone within an hour! So easy&delicious!