Here’s a video for a quick dessert using packaged ingredients.

http://allrecipes.com/video/4732/cream-cheese-squares/detail.aspx

It’s simple enough that you could add to it and make it your own. I love a cheese danish as is, but fruit or jam in the filling would be interesting. I’ve seen versions of this recipe on a number of websites, but they all skip the last step of the melted butter! Who would skip melted butter? Personally, since I am more than a little addicted to cinnamon, I really like that part, too. Some other ideas:

• I think you could make it with thawed sheets of puff pastry for something a little fancier, but I might use a higher oven temperature, maybe 400° for a shorter time
• The 1 cup of sugar, plus the sugar on top seems like a lot of sugar; I think you could use less in both places
• If you add jam to the filling, you could swirl it in instead of making a second layer
• You could add other ingredients to the cream cheese filling, like pumpkin for half the cream cheese, in which case, I would use the full amount of sugar and add an egg as binder
• Add thinly sliced almonds to the cinnamon-sugar topping and a little almond flavoring to the filling
• Maybe you make your own crescent or sweet roll dough and want to try it with this recipe

I still say it’s too much sugar, especially with the cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. When I make it again, I’m using only 1/2 cup sugar in the filling, and adding an egg to it. Without the full amount of sugar, the filling could be runny without the egg. I try not to eat a lot of added sugar, despite what you see posted here, and this dessert gave me an instant headache—that’s how I know when the sugar is too much. Other than that, it was easy to make and would be a good family dessert. I’m going to walk it off on the treadmill, now.

Cream cheese and sugar

Spreading filling over roll dough

Baked and crisp on top

Soft filling