February, the Month of Red, Pink and White

February is the month we lean toward desserts with a red and white theme. Here is one that I tried recently. It was posted by Pillsbury on their Facebook page, and if it sounds like cheese cake, plus cherry pie filling, I am there!! This is an easy recipe, and though rich because of the cream cheese, I found it not to be overly sweet, but good enough to eat. . . . and eat. . . . and eat.

CRESCENT CHERRY CHEESE COBBLER

Ingredients:
1 (8 oz.) tube crescent rolls (8 crescent rolls are in one tube)
12 oz. (1 1/2 blocks) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar (divided use)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 (21 oz. ) can cherry pie filling
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
Spray an 8x8 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Unroll the crescent rolls. Line four (4) of the crescent rolls in the bottom of the baking dish.
Spread them out and cover the bottom of your baking dish. Seal the seams as best as possible.

Next, combine cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
Then add in vanilla extract and mix again.
Spread cream cheese mixture over crescent rolls in the baking dish.

Then pour pie filling on top of cream cheese layer. Spread it around evenly.

Finally, top with remaining crescent roll dough.
Do your best to stretch it out on top and seal the seams of the crescent rolls.

Pour melted butter on the top of the crescent rolls. Then sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar evenly over the melted butter. Bake for about 35-45 minutes.
Top crust should look crusty and be golden brown in color.

Slice and serve. This must be kept refrigerated if not eaten the same day its made.

In this picture it looks like I could have taken it out of the oven a little sooner, but it was still delicious. As you can see, I didn't quite get the crescent dough stretched out to the edges. It was a little hard to manipulate without pulling holes in it. But maybe that is because my hands don't work as well as they used to? I have seen ads for the crescent dough that comes in a solid sheet instead of perforated for individual rolls, so that might work better. I have not seen it in the store here so far, unless I missed it.

The recipe calls for unsalted butter but I rarely buy that. I don't remember  my mom ever using it either and she was a great cook and baker. I just used regular salted butter. I am not a purest or perfectionist when it comes to cooking and this was 'good enough'. I don't think anyone would push it away unless they just don't like desserts. Period.