#readcookeat recipe : Cheese, Bacon & Mushroom Danish (Beneath the Lake)

Beneath The Lake by Christopher Ransom (click through to read my review) may not have been one of my favourite reads in terms of fiction, but it's inspired three great meals from foodie references that I bookmarked for the #readcookeat challenge. After trying Salisbury Steak and Homemade Girl Scout Cookies (I still can't get my head around the fact that they are mass-produced !), I turned to this mention of Cheese Danish.

p2 Raymond Mercer, still proud of turning eight three weeks ago, begins the morning with a cheese Danish and tumbler of Tang while his parents sip their coffee around the picnic table at the center of Mercer Base Camp up on Admiral's Point, the sand bluff overlooking the small bay on one side, the real lake on the other.

I suspect that this refers to a sweet Danish pastry, made with sweetened cream cheese, but this got me thinking about attempting a savoury version. I looked up how to make Danish pastry and wikipedia informed me that  "Danish pastry is made of yeast-leavened dough of wheat flour, milk, eggs, sugar and large amounts of butter or margarine. A yeast dough is rolled out thinly, covered with thin slices of butter between the layers of dough, and then the dough is folded and rolled several times, creating 27 layers." Well, that sounded like way too much hassle so I cheated and used a shop-bought sheet of puff pastry. Not quite as authentic but it worked just fine !

Cheese, Bacon & Mushroom Danish

ingredients :

1 sheet puff pastry

drizzle of olive oil

1 onion

3 mushrooms

4 rashers of bacon

4tbsp cream cheese 

Pierre has said he wants to help out making more dinners, not just cakes and cookies, so he was put on bacon grilling duty ! Don't overcook it as it will continue to cook in the oven.

Meanwhile, finely chop the onions and mushrooms and cook in a drizzle of olive oil until soft.

Use a pair of scissors to snip the bacon rashers into small pieces into the pan. Spoon in the cream cheese and heat through, stirring, until all mixed together. Make sure it's not too runny.

Spoon the filling along the bottom edge of the pastry sheet and carefully roll it up into a reasonably tight Swiss roll-like tube.

Cut into pieces with a sharp knife.

Stand them up on a baking sheet, lined with baking parchment. Press the edges so that they take on more of a round shape if you have trouble standing them up.

Bake at 220° for 10-15 minutes until golden brown and puffed up. Serve with boiled potatoes and salad or vegetables.

Come over to the #readcookeat linky at Chez Maximka and see who else has been cooking the books !