Apple Pie Danish

Last night I created some tasty goodness.

Think apple pie

Think cream cheese Bearclaw

Put them together in a tasty dessert fusion.

Wait.

I did not just use the word *fusion*
Gack!

I meant ...mixture, ensemble,

Whirling Cyclone of Apple Cheescake Pie Goodness!

Here is what I did ---this would make 2 round pies, or one 8 x 11 casserole (which is what I did)

#1-Make a double pie crust recipe.

I think puff pastry would also be good, but I would make individual servings or a long bear claw, not 1 big pie if I used Puff Pastry. Moving On

This is my favorite Crust recipe
*********************************
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup butter
1 tsp orange peel zest
6 Tablespoons cold water or orange juice

Cut the butter into the flour and orange zest. Mix in water with a fork until the dough sticks together.
Divide the pastry into 2 disks, wrap in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator
*******************************

Next is the apple pie filling. If you can your own at home, that is a great filling to use.

I had some apples that needed to be used up (the impetus for this whole project). I just cut them up, tossed them with cinnamon and sugar and lemon juice.

A few of them didn't seem cooked through after the whole thing was done, so I think this is one where you want to cook the apple pie filling first. But don't use canned filling from the store. If you do, I will cry.

Cooked Apple Pie Filling:
****************************
Put in a sauce pan
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup water
6-8 small apples (mine were a mix of golden delicious and honeycrisps)
peeled and sliced thinly

Stir and cook on medium heat until the mixture gets thick and bubbly and the apples are softish.
Remove from heat.

Cream Cheese Filling from my friend's Cream Cheese Bear Claw recipe (HEAVEN!)
**********************
16 oz cream cheese
2/3 cups sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp butter flavor
1 tsp almond flavor (this is what I did--next time I would use less almond flavor. The filling tasted exactly like it was from a
bakery. But my personal preference is vanilla and I felt like it was overpowered by the almond flavor)
************************

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

Get out your pie crusts and roll them out into 2 rectangles--about 2 " bigger all around than your 8x11 casserole pan.

Put 1 crust in the bottom of the pan, and add the cream cheese filling



Layer on the apple pie filling

Cover with the second crust. Seal the edges and cut steam vents in the top.

Brush the top with an egg wash of
1 egg
1 Tablespoon water

Sprinkle with pearl sugar

Bake 45 minutes -until crust is golden

Let the pie cool as long as you can stand it before you eat. It was good warm and good cold the next morning for breakfast. (Shhh--hey! apples, cream cheese, an egg, whole wheat--that makes healthy breakfast for sure!)