Oh my! These little delights were brought to the potluck lunch last week and I bet I ate six of them throughout the day. You know how they leave stuff out so you can graze on everything the rest of the day? My office is next to the break room and I could sneak in there and grab one or two every now and then. I had never heard of these, but they’ve been floating around cyber space waiting for me to find them.
There are only five ingredients in this cookie – cream cheese, vanilla, sugar, chocolate chips and crescent rolls. They’re easy to throw together, but the crescents stay a little flimsy and are a little awkward to roll up and wrap in saran wrap for the chilling part. Bret helped me on that and he looked at the funny-looking rolls skeptically, wondering what I’d come up with now. Just looking at the assembled parts tells you these are going to be good!
Nitishia (from the potluck) had used a combination chocolate, caramel and cherry chips, but I couldn’t find any cherry chips, so just used chocolate and caramel chips. I also put a few more than called for because you can’t go wrong with more chocolate. I was right. These things are heavenly right out of the oven. You can see the layers from the crescent rolls and the gooey cream cheese swirled with softened chocolate chips. Here’s a close up shot (you know how I love my close ups):
My mind was whirling with combinations for these cookies: a little cinnamon added to the cream cheese and covered with cinnamon chips; butterscotch chips with a drizzle of glaze on top, or what about orange zest in the cream cheese with chocolate chips and an orange glaze. I have one more roll of crescent rolls and am going to try it with Neufchatel (1/3 less fat) cream cheese to see if you can even tell the difference. I wouldn’t want to change the melt-in-your-mouth goodness of these, though. They’re wonderful!
- 1 can (8 oz) crescent rolls
- 1 (8 oz.) block cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/4 C sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 C chocolate chips (your choice - mini, caramel, semisweet, or a combination)
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In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together until smooth. Unroll the crescent rolls onto a sheet of waxed paper and lightly pinch together the seams. Stretch the dough out slightly. It should be in the shape of a rectangle.
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Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the crescent dough, leaving about 1/4" from the edges so it won't squish out when you roll it. Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly on top of the cream cheese and then roll up the dough as firmly as you can without losing your filling.
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Cut the dough in half and wrap each half in cling wrap. Store in the refrigerator overnight or the freezer for a couple of hours to firm up the dough.
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the cookies into 1/2" slices, cleaning the knife between slices, and place on a parchment-covered cookie sheet. Cook for 14-15 minutes or until the cookies are lightly golden brown. Let sit on the cookie sheet for a minute or two, then transfer to a rack for cooling.
Tips and Stuff:
You can buy seamless crescent roll sheets somewhere in this civilized country, but not in my neighborhood. It would be much easier to handle with the seamless sheets.
To keep the dough from sticking to the wax paper, you can lightly spray it with cooking spray. It was a little tacky to pick up after rolling.
The dough will never harden, but it will firm up so you can slice the cookies.
Keep your family away from the warm cookies or you'll turn around and they'll be gone....