Cheese Danish.

As a kid, one of the things I always loved most about holidays was all the special yummy treats we got.  It wasn't an everyday occurrence for us to have homemade sweet breads, so when my mom made pumpkin bread at Christmas, it was always a happy treat.  Thanksgiving brought us mud pie- still my favorite dessert of all time!- and Easter gave us rice crispy treats or cookies and often both.

As an adult, one of the things I love most about holidays are all the special yummy treats we get.

But it's different when you're the one who has to actually make said treats.

Now I want something simple that has a big payoff.

This year, Easter is bringing us pastries.

Because yummy.

And easy.

This recipe took me a total of 23 minutes from start to finish, and with only a few ingredients, it really is a perfect Easter morning dessert...I mean...breakfast...

Here's what you'll need:

2 tubes of crescent rolls

8 oz cream cheese

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg yolk

I do want to start off by saying that if you are a pastry purist, feel free to substitute the crescent rolls for puff pastry you find in the freezer section of the grocery store.  (Or make it yourself if you're really ambitious...)  I made this recipe with both, and I opted to go with the crescent rolls for a few reasons.  Crescent rolls are so much easier to work with.  The puff pastry needs to thaw overnight in the fridge, and it required water to seal the edges and an egg wash to brown up all pretty like.  The puff pastry just required much more time and energy.  In the end, Bird genuinely loved both, so I opted to go with the easier option.

Start off with room temp cream cheese.  I microwaved mine for 20-30 seconds, but feel free to pull it out of the fridge the night before.  Cream it together with the sugar, vanilla, and egg yolk.

Be tempted to eat this without cooking it.

But don't do that because eggs aren't supposed to be consumed raw.

But I licked the spatula anyway.

Next, lay out the crescent rolls.  You'll actually connect two of the triangles to make a rectangle.  You'll get 8 total from the two tubes of dough.  Once the seams are closed up, spoon a good dollop of the cream cheese mixture on top.

Fold the ends up together and press to seal.  

What a yummy looking boat.

Bake at 400 for 12-14 minutes, just until browned.

You can dust these with powdered sugar, make a quick glaze from powdered sugar and milk, or eat plain.

If you're feeling a little plain Jane with these, before you bake them, spoon a bit of jam or chocolate on top of the cream cheese mixture.

Or nutella.

I used the Hershey's spread from the peanut butter isle, and my girls went nuts over them.

Ultimately, these are a great canvas to be creative.

Enjoy, and happy Easter!