VMBURNS: When I'm working on my Baker Street Mystery series, I find myself baking a LOT. A couple of months ago, I turned in the 6th Baker Street Mystery, tentative title, A ZEST FOR MURDER. Don't get attached to the title. My publisher changes almost all of them. I'll keep you posted. Maddy needed a simple pastry recipe, so I decided a Cheese Danish would be easy enough for someone with Maddy's skills to manage.
The recipe below is a conglomeration of a variety of recipes. Below, I did not include lemon juice. But, if you want, you can add 1 Teaspoon. I'm watching my blood pressure, so I skipped the salt, but you can add 1/8 Teaspoon of salt. I'm also a diabetic. So, I used less than 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons of sugar). However, you can add as much sugar and salt as you want. I also increased the vanilla. You can cut it back to 1 Teaspoon or try almond extract for a slightly different flavor. I enjoyed these and will make them again. Next time, I might even try adding a powdered sugar glaze.
EASY CHEESE DANISH
INGREDIENTS
- 1 Sheet Puff Pastry
- 4 oz Cream Cheese
- 1/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 Egg
- 1 Tablespoon water
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Spread out the puff pastry and cut into 6 rectangles. Take a knife and score a line around the inside of the pastry, approximately 1/2 inch from edge. Be careful not to cut all the way through the pastry dough. Then, place on the prepared baking sheet.
- Beat the egg and water to create an egg wash. Then, brush the egg wash around the edges of the pastries.
- Mix the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Then, spoon inside the middle of each rectangle.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastries are golden brown.
- READERS: What's your favorite danish? Have you tried making them at home? Let me know in the comments below.
MURDER AT FIRST SLICE
As Maddy’s wedding day approaches, friends and family descend on the little town of New Bison, Michigan, to celebrate—so much so that Maddy wonders if there might be another happily-ever-after in store for her widowed father and innkeeper Mrs. Law. Unfortunately, she also has to deal with an unhappy couple: feuding cousins Hannah and Dorothy, who haven’t spoken in decades. Maddy can only hope the spectacular wedding cake crafted by her head baker doesn’t wind up as ammunition in a food fight.
But she doesn’t have to wait long for a wedding disaster to strike. When the imperious Dorothy crashes the rehearsal dinner—with several uninvited guests in tow—and starts battering everyone with constant complaints, the drama reaches reality-show levels. And the next day, Dorothy is dead . . . with Hannah standing over the body, bloody rolling pin in hand.
Nobody in town believes Miss Hannah could commit murder. But a detective newly relocated from New York doesn’t know the sweet, memory-challenged Hannah the way the locals do—and the evidence seems open-and-shut as an oven. Now, with her sous-sleuths the Baker Street Irregulars, the bride-to-be is busy digging into Dorothy’s past to catch a killer before she cuts the cake . . .
