This has to be the easiest, yet most impressive idea for a quick breakfast danish. There are just 3 primary ingredients – frozen puff pastry, canned cherry pie filling, and a quick mixture of cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg. Once assembled, this makes 2 strudels that bake in just 30 min. I had them glazed and on the table in 1 hour! It looked like I ran out to a local bakery to pick up these beautiful strudels! Make one for now, and one for later!

Ingredients:

1 pkg frozen puff pastry sheets (contains 2 sheets) – thawed
1 can cherry pie filling (with extra cherries, if you can find it)
1 egg and 1 tsp water – blended for egg wash

Cream cheese filling:

1 – 8oz pkg cream cheese – room temp
1/4 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg, beaten

Beat the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla til very smooth. Add the beaten egg, and beat til just blended, and mixture is smooth. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll out thawed puff pastry sheets, 1 at a time, on a floured surface, to about 10″ x 12″. Placed rolled dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Cut dough using a sharp knife, using the pattern below. DON’T cut through the center of the dough.

Cut off the corner pieces. Line the center of 1 strip with 1/2 of the cherry pie filling.

Next, add spoonfuls of the cream cheese filling randomly.

Now for the fun part! Think of making a “braid”. Fold over the end pieces, to seal the end of the strudel. Then begin folding each side piece of dough over the fillings, slightly on a diagonal, rotating right, left, right, etc. Sort of resembles a mummy when you’re done!

Brush with egg and water mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 min. I placed my 2 strudels on 2 separate pans, and switched shelves at 15 min. (for even baking). The finished strudel will be lightly browned, and puffy! And did I say BEAUTIFUL?
Don’t worry if some of the cherry escapes – I think that makes them even more “homemade” looking.

You can dig into these right away if you like. But for maximum appeal, try letting them cool a bit, then drizzle with a little powdered sugar with a few tsp of milk.