One evening I decided to clean out my fridge, and noticed that I have a lot of half-empty jam jars. Really, why do I keep buying jam?

So rather than getting rid of jam that I likely will not eat anytime soon, I went to the grocery store and bought frozen puff pastry, a block of cream cheese, and eggs to create a strudel.

Ingredients:

Half of an 8 ounce cream cheese bar (4 ounces)

2 tablespoons of sugar

2 eggs

One sheet of puff pastry

Method:

1) Make sure cream cheese is soft (leave out to thaw for several hours) and mix it with one egg and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Once it is mixed well and the texture is creamy, put aside

2) Roll out puff pastry and cut across the edges (picture below)

3) Spread the cream cheese mixture down the middle of the pastry, followed by the jam (you can use any jam–I used blueberry) You may find that you have too much cheese mixture, so put some of the left over mixture in the fridge in a sealed container for the next strudel. You do not want to have too much mixture in the pastry as it will overpower the jam.

4) Fold the edges covering the mixture (as pictured)

5) Beat egg and egg wash the braided dough

6) Sprinkle coarse sugar on top (optional) **You can use many different toppings: caramel, icing sugar, chocolate chips, etc.

7) Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on it and remove it when golden brown

8) Mmm flaky pastry with a blueberry cheesecake-tasting center!

Enjoy!