Tomato Pesto Baked Cream Cheese – Easy and delicious recipe for baked cream cheese and tomato pesto all wrapped inside warm and flaky Crescents® dough.
Meet my golden brown blanket stuffed with melting cream cheese, tomato pesto, and herbs. No but seriously. I’m SO happy THIS happened! Oh, HEY there, lovelies! Happy TGIF! How was your week? Did you catch up on the Housewives? Empire? Or maybe you made my BLT Pasta!? ‘Cause, I certainly did. Twice! Sometimes I really pay attention to Goce and make the same thing twice. I always make new food, or recipes, because of this bloggity blog thing, thus I’ve deprived him of eating the same thing twice… poor boy. *insert sarcasm emoji*
One other thing I definitely did this past week was continue with my “To Do” Thanksgiving recipes. As I already mentioned a few days ago, I’m always in charge of the mashed potatoes, but I’m also expected to bring a pie AND an appetizer/snack – two things more than everyone else because, you know, I’m a food-blogger. As in, I know what I’m doing. Pshhhhht!
Which leads me right here, to this awesome cheese bomb that happens to be perfectly perfect for Thanksgiving because, you can never ever have enough appetizers. Appies, as I like to call them, are like food that doesn’t count. You eat it, yes, it’s delicious, oh yes, but in as far as calories and all that type of stuff? It just doesn’t count. NO! It doesn’t. Especially on Thanksgiving, when ALL bets are off.
Yes, I realize that sounds ridiculous but I actually believe it.
Which in turn makes it more ridiculous and more desirable. You see, these three things together; crescent rolls dough, cream cheese, and tomato pesto? They just GET me. They appeal to my taste buds, and they leave nothing more to be desired, except more of the same. It really is something I could eat every day around noon, but I mostly want it around the Holidays.
This appie is actually brought to you by my own desire for all Mediterranean flavors all the time, as well as my family’s. The first time I made this baked cream cheese, I was inspired by all of us AND a 1980’s Church cookbook. In the cookbook, they used brie cheese, but I didn’t want to come off all pretentious to my very Macedonian family, so I used cream cheese instead. I think they thought it was Feta at first, which would be just as cool, but a ready to go block of cream cheese is way better. 
A golden crescent rolls crust like the one above WINS me over each and every time. Swear, Pillsbury is always there to lend me a delicious, helping hand. My most favorite thing about this appetizer is that it’s low maintenance. You’re hardly doing anything. For instance, Pillsbury made the dough and you picked it up at Walmart, 
…the cream cheese block is also already cut into a block when you buy it, the JARRED pesto is also done, and all YOU have to do is put those three things together and pop ’em in the oven! 
Plus it’s sorta pretty. And pretty food always wins.
ENJOY!
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Tomato Pesto Baked Cream Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 tube (4-ounces) Pillsbury Original Crescents®
- 1 package (8-ounces) Low Fat Cream Cheese or Neufchatel Cheese (tastes best with full fat cream cheese)
- 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1/2- cup Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Sauce*
- 1 egg yolk , beaten
- Crackers and assorted Fall/Winter fruits , to serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Lightly grease a baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.
- Unroll Crescents® dough on a lightly floured surface.
- Press together all the seams and form a rectangle; set aside.
- Remove cream cheese block from package and transfer to a plate.
- Sprinkle rosemary on top of cream cheese and press down the rosemary.
- Spread Tomato Pesto Sauce over the cream cheese.
- Place cream cheese, tomato pesto side down, in the center of dough.
- Bring sides of dough together, pressing edges to seal, covering all sides of cheese. Cut off any excess dough.
- Transfer to previously prepared baking sheet.
- Brush with egg yolk.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
- Remove from oven.
- Cut in half.
- Serve immediately with crackers and assorted fruits.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
Categories:
SIMILAR RECIPES:
Loaded Potato Pinwheels
Lemon Cheesecake Crescent Rolls
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Pillsbury. The opinions and text are all mine.
wow this is genius girl! I would probably eat the whole thing myself!
Yes, I love this! Who needs dinner anyway? 😉
This is the best- pretty, EASY, and yummy!
Anything with buttery crescent rolls and gooey cream cheese is out of this world…so I can see this dip being a fav on our holiday table!
Easy peasy cheesy!! 😉
YES! All my favorite [recipe] words in one!! 😀