Easy Peasy Pastry

I’ve seen lots of recipes for danish pastry using crescent roll dough and they all look fantastic!

Since I’ve been into my air fryer lately and many readers have requested more recipes for that appliance, I am very happy to oblige.

As mentioned, these use store-bought crescent roll dough as a base. I noticed the last time I was in the store that they are now selling a solid sheet of dough in addition to the regular kind that’s already cut. This is a boon to those that wish to use crescent roll dough for other things than rolls. It eliminates having to pinch and seal the seams.

For this recipe, I used the one you have to pinch and seal. The seam doesn’t really matter with this.

Shaping Is Easy

Lots of times I’m at a loss trying to describe a technique to someone else and even to understand it myself. All I can say is I’m glad there’s video!

I’ll have a video of these coming pretty soon, but I took photos of the steps involved and they’re pretty easy to follow. The only thing I couldn’t capture in the still photos was twisting the rope you make. All you have to do is grab the rope of dough at opposite ends and twist it a few times in opposing directions. Even if you didn’t do this, I don’t think it’d matter all that much but it does make them look better.

Conventional baking instructions are in the recipe notes.

Fillings To Suit You

I’ve pretty much only seen these with the cheese filling. The cheese is very good!

However, you can use any flavor that suits your fancy or even combine cheese with fruit. I did that with half of this batch I made. I combine cheese and raspberry and they were delicious!!

You can use regular jam or pastry filling (that’s different from pie filling. The brand I see is Solo and it’s sold in the baking aisle).

Instead of the white confectioner’s icing, I dusted these with confectioner’s sugar straight. If you want the icing, use a cup of confectioner’s sugar, 2-3 tbs milk or cream and a few drops of vanilla.

Watch The Video

The Recipe

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Air Fryer Mini Danish

These Danish pastry are quick and easy made in the air fryer, but you can make them conventionally too.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time12 minutes mins

Total Time22 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: air fryer, danish pastry

Servings: 8 people

Calories: 243kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

• 2 cans crescent roll dough
• confectioner’s sugar for dusting
• seedless raspberry jam optional
• sanding sugar optional

Cheese Filling

• 3 oz cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 tsp sour cream
• 2 tbs confectioner’s sugar
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon juice

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Mix all filling ingredients in a small bowl; set aside.
• Separate crescent roll dough into 4 rectangles for each can for a total of 8 rectangles.
• Pinch the diagonal seam together so it doesn’t separate. Cut each rectangle in half lengthwise. Sprinkle with sanding sugar if using.
• Roll up each strip and pinch seam. Roll to make a rope about 8-to 10-inches. Twist each end in opposite directions about 3-4 times. Roll up in a spiral shape and pinch the end of the rope underneath to seal. Press a depression in the center for the filling.
• If you want raspberry ONLY, place about one teaspoon in each depression.
• For raspberry cheese, place about 1/2 teaspoon in each depression then about 2 teaspoons of the cheese mixture on top.
• If you want cheese ONLY then place about 1 1/2-2 tbs of the cheese mixture in the depression.
• Place a parchment sheet in the bottom of an air fryer basket; spray lightly with oil.
• You will have to cook these in shifts—so lay half the danish on the prepared basket, leaving about an inch in between.
• Air fry at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes. Repeat with second batch.
• Cool completely then dust with confectioner’s sugar.

Notes

Conventional cooking bake at 375 degrees F for 10-15 minutes. Brush with melted butter if desired (it's not necessary but nice)

Nutrition

Serving: 2rolls | Calories: 243kcal | Carbohydrates: 25g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 478mg | Potassium: 14mg | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 145IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 10mg | Iron: 0.8mg

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Caramel Apple Cheesecake Tart

 

What do you get when you combine a sweet pastry crust, apple pie filling, blobs of cheesecake, a crumb topping and caramel sauce?  Caramel apple cheesecake tart, of course!  And don’t let it’s look fool you–this is as easy as 1-2-3 and it’s not too bad calorie-wise either!

The pastry is as simple as can be–no rolling involved and entirely made in the food processor.  As to the apples, pretty simple opening a can, huh? And the cheesecake filling just has 4 ingredients, speedily mixed all together in a matter of minutes.  The most difficult things are the crumbs–kidding of course, but you do have to melt the butter and get out a small saucepan

Doesn’t break the calorie bank!

To further reduce fat and calories, you can substitute Neufchatel (now known as “low-fat cream cheese”) for the regular–but don’t use non-fat.  It just won’t set up.

Sugar-free apple filling can be used too as well as fresh apples.  Only thing I would not recommend is monkeying with ingredients in the crust nor using non-fat alternatives to the regular and reduced fat versions.  Often quite bad results occur–one day I’ll post about a “cheesecake” I made with non-fat cream cheese.  Picked it up by mistake as the packaging was almost the same as the regular.  It’s a horrid substance, but that’s another posting entirely LOL.

You can be completely decadent and serve this warmed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, or not be fancy and just serve plain and chilled.  Choice and extra calories are yours.

Just ENJOY.

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Caramel Apple Cheesecake Tart

What do you get when you combine a sweet pastry crust, apple pie filling, blobs of cheesecake, a crumb topping and caramel sauce?  Caramel apple cheesecake tart, of course!  

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course: desserts

Cuisine: American

Keyword: apples, caramel, cheesecake tarts

Servings: 8

Calories: 494kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

FRENCH PATISSERIE - real fancy, but a simple butter pastry:

• 1 1/4 cup unsifted flour
• 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 OZ stick cold unsalted butter, cut in small chunks
• 1 egg yolk reserve the white for the filling
• 1 tbs cold water

APPLE CHEESECAKE FILLING

• 1 can apple pie filling
• 1 8- oz pkg cream cheese room temp
• 1 whole egg + reserved egg white
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp sour cream

CRUMB TOPPING

• 4 tbsp butter melted
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tbsp sliced almonds reserve
• 1/4 cup caramel sauce for drizzle

Instructions

• For Pastry:
• Place flour, confectioner's sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the "S" blade (that's the standard blade). Pulse a few times to combine.
• Add butter chunks and pulse until mixture resembles small peas.
• Beat egg yolk and cold water together. With food processor running, add the egg/water mixture through the feed tube, only adding enough to make dough "ball"--depending on weather conditions, you may have to add a few more drops of water.
• Remove the dough from the food processor, wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and keep in refrigerator until ready for use. You can keep this up to 3 days.
• Press pastry into a 10-inch quiche/tart pan, bringing pastry up the sides. You may also use a springform pan of a similar size, but only bring the pastry about 1/2 to 1-inch up the sides.
• For the Crumbs:
• Mix the melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar well. Add flour, about 1/4 cup at a time until good, firm crumbs are made. You may not have to use all the flour, or you may have to use a tablespoon or so more. Your eye must be the judge of the proper consistency.
• For Filling:
• Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
• Add eggs and beat until very smooth. Stir in sour cream.
• Add apple pie filling to cream cheese mixture and just cut a knife through the mixture a few times--you don't want to mix it well, just "marble" it.
• Putting It All Together:
• Spread on top of crust in quiche pan. Top with crumbs. Sprinkle with sliced almonds.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place pan on a baking sheet, preferably lined with parchment.
• Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake an additional 30-35 minutes or until center of tart is almost set.
• Remove from oven and cool on rack. You may serve this slightly warm or well chilled. However you serve it, drizzle each serving with caramel sauce.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 494kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 18g | Cholesterol: 127mg | Sodium: 266mg | Potassium: 118mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 1047IU | Calcium: 68mg | Iron: 2mg

Caramel Apple Cheescake Tart

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