CROISSANT DOUGH WITH CREAM CHEESE FILLING

CROISSANT DOUGH W/CREAM CHEESE FILLING Dough: 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup half and half 1/3 cup sugar 1/2 tsp. salt 1.5 tsp. almond extract 2 eggs, beaten 3 cup bread flour 1 packet yeast (1.5 tsp)

Egg wash (very important): 1 egg 2 tsp. water

Filling: 1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese (1/3 less fat) 1/4 cup sugar 1 egg yolk 1 tsp. almond extract

Melt butter in microwave and then stir in half and half, sugar, salt, and almond extract. Now stir in the beaten eggs. Then pour this mixture into your breadmaker pan (if you are using a breadmaker). Dump the flour on top of the liquid in the breadmaker pan. Make a little hollow in the center of the top of the flour and pour the contents of the yeast package on it. Set your breadmaker for the dough only setting. When done, remove/divide/refrigerate the dough in plastic bag (s). You can refrigerate an hour or overnight.

When ready, roll out cold dough-no additional flour is needed during rolling! Roll out small thin individual rectangles or a large thin rectangle. Spread the filling on the rectangle, fold over the dough, and pinch/seam edges together. Place seam side down on ungreased cookie sheet. Brush top (s) with egg wash-this is very important to the final look and texture.

Bake at 350°F. Check for browning at 15 minutes, but in my oven I bake for 20-22 minutes total.

I don't like really sweet pastries (less is more), but if you wish, you can frost these after baking, or add chocolate chips or fruit to the filling before baking.

For the dough recipe I found that using 1/4 cup butter gave me a rubber-band-tight dough, whereas using 1/2 cup butter instead made for a very easy to roll dough.

This dough baked without the egg wash reminds me of chicken pot pie crust so you could probably make a pretty good pot pie with it (minus the almond flavoring of course).

#croissant #creamcheese