Crescent Sausage Breakfast Squares

This recipe makes a delicious breakfast casserole. If you’re looking for something filling and easy to prepare, you need look no further than this rich and creamy dish. The recipe is very good as is, but I’ve often thought I would like to try adding some sliced mushrooms or diced red bell peppers to it. I might still try doing that one of these days.

CRESCENT SAUSAGE BREAKFAST SQUARES

• 1 lb. bulk breakfast sausage (pork or turkey)
• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, cut in pieces
• 2 stalks green onions, chopped
• 2 packages crescent rolls

1. In a small pot, brown sausage; drain well.
2. Stir in cream cheese and green onion, and continue to cook until cream cheese is completely melted.
3. Preheat oven to 375°F.
4. Unroll one package of crescent rolls and place in a 9×13-inch baking dish.
5. With your fingers, gently pinch and press the seams together to seal them.
6. Spread the sausage mixture evenly over the crescent dough in the baking dish.
7. Unroll the remaining package of crescent rolls, place on top a sheet of wax paper, and pinch and press the seams together to seal.
8. Flip the wax paper with the crescent dough over the sausage mixture and carefully peel the wax paper away.
9. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
10. Cut into small squares and serve.

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Dulce de Leche Bars

I love dulce de leche. It’s so delicious, I can eat it by the spoonful! I thought it would be fun to make some kind of bars with dulce de leche in them. So I made up this recipe with a blondie base and ready-made dulce de leche. It turned out great! The kids loved them. I’ll definitely be making these again!

DULCE DE LECHE BARS

• 1½ cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
• 1 can (13.4 ozs.) dulce de leche (or you can make your own)
• ¼ cup evaporated milk (can substitute fresh milk)

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 9×13 baking pan with foil and grease foil lightly.
2. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In a large bowl, melt butter in microwave.
4. To melted butter, add brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and nuts, stirring to combine.
5.  Add flour mixture to butter mixture, mixing together well. Batter will be thick.
6. Reserve 1 cup of the batter and set aside.
7. Spread remaining batter into prepared pan. It will seem like you don’t have enough batter to completely cover the bottom of the pan, but just do your best, spreading as thinly as you need to.
8. Bake for 15 minutes.
9. While bottom crust is baking, empty dulce de leche into a bowl and add milk.
10. Microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after every 30 seconds, until dulce de leche is completely combined with milk and is soft and pourable.
11. Remove cooked crust from oven and pour dulce de leche over crust, spreading to within ¼-inch of edges.
12. Drop spoonfuls of reserved 1 cup batter randomly over dulce de leche layer.
13. Cut through batter and dulce with a knife to create a marbled effect.
14. Return to oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until set.
15. Cool on wire rack, then lift foil from pan to remove.
16. Cut into bars or squares.

Jam and Cream Cheese Bars

Jam and cream cheese bars made with regular cream cheese. The cheese is more melty and gooey.

I wanted to try making something new for dessert so decided to browse through my old cookbooks in search of something easy and different. I saw this recipe for cream cheese danish in “Mr. Food Ooh-So-Easy Recipe Collection.” It sounded like it would be delicious. Of course, I had to give it my own twist so I changed a few things up. I added the jam and omitted the egg yolk. I also cut down on the sugar so it wouldn’t be too sweet. Then, instead of topping it with the egg white and pecans, I got the idea from a similar recipe on allrecipes.com to top it with butter and sugar, only I used turbinado sugar so it would have a nice crunch. It turned out great! The family loved it.

Jam and cream cheese bars made with fat-free cream cheese. The cheese is firmer, though still soft.

I made it again a second time only this time, I decided to try doing a healthier version. I used reduced-fat crescent rolls, sugar-free jam, fat-free cream cheese sweetened with splenda, and a heart-healthy margarine which I cut down to 1/4 cup. It turned out really good! My only complaint was that I thought the healthier version seemed a bit salty. I think when fat is removed from a food, they replace it with salt to make up for the flavor that’s lost so using all the fat-free ingredients upped the saltiness quotient in the recipe. Still, it made a salty-sweet, creamy dessert that even those watching their waistlines could have a piece of without regretting it in the morning.

Whichever version you choose to make, this recipe is definitely a keeper. It would be equally good served as a dessert with coffee after dinner, or for breakfast or brunch in the morning.

JAM & CREAM CHEESE BARS

• 2 cans refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 1 cup jam (any kind you like)
• 2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup margarine, melted
• ¼ cup turbinado sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
2. Press one can of the crescent rolls into the bottom of the prepared pan.
3. Spread jam over crescent layer. Feel free to add more or less jam if you prefer.
4. In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, ½ cup sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
5. Dollop cream cheese mixture over jam layer and spread smooth with a spatula.
6. Unroll the second can of crescent rolls and place on top of the cream cheese layer. Do not press down.
7. Pour the melted margarine over the top crescent layer, spreading it evenly to the edges.
8. Sprinkle turbinado sugar all over the top.
9. Bake 25 minutes or until top is crisp and golden.

To Make the Healthier Version:

• 2 cans reduced-fat refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 1 cup sugar-free jam (any kind you like)
• 2 (8 oz.) packages fat-free cream cheese
• ½ cup splenda
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup heart-healthy margarine (like Brummel & Brown), melted
• ¼ cup turbinado sugar

Follow the same procedure above.