Recipes and Advice for Making Danish (the pastry)

[eatrustic]

Thanks for the technique Andie, I think I'll start with strips of cooked fettucine to practice the intricacies!

[andiesenji]

Thanks for the technique Andie, I think I'll start with strips of cooked fettucine to practice the intricacies!

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I practiced on a piece of a wide, flat shoelace - - - Sadly, I don't think they make them any longer. Back in those days we wore "saddle" shoes, with wide flat shoelaces - nothing else was considered "stylish" unless you wore white bucks (Spaulding, with red rubber soles) and they had the round, braided laces. Gads, what one went through for fashion......

[CKatCook]

My loving hubby bought me this book called "the professional pastry chef" and I have been baking and baking away. I decided today to try my hand at danish pastry. So I formed the margarine square, the recipe called for margarine not butter, formed my dough around the square, sealed it in, and rolled carefully as the book said, the problem? there is big blobs of margarine in my dough now....is that normal? they are still there after several turns of the dough and it is in the refrige now for chilling....the blobs are still there....

thanks!!

[Kerry Beal]

What temperature was the fat when you put the square in the paste?

[CKatCook]

cold from the refrigerater like the directions said....

[gfron1]

My guess is that the margarine is a commercial application decision (cost, shelflife, etc). All of the danish dough that I use calls for butter. But that's not your question. My recipes either have me cube the butter into 1/4" cubes (Julia Child), or sheet it like you're doing. When I sheet it, if I'm careful it won't be lumpy, but rather consistent and smooth. More commonly I will have uneven spots, but nothing disasterous - adds character in my opinion. I think that you're okay. Going forward of course, practice, and keep it cold. I return my dough to the fridge (or freezer) a few times in the rolling out process depending on the temp in my kitchen.

[CKatCook]

Thank you, Thank you! The book gives the reason for the margarine being that it makes a flakier pastry in the end. What I wound up doing is just want you suggested, going forward with it, folding it in thirds rolling a little, chill again, repeat. And by that time all the margarine was worked into the dough. I now have them formed and they are rising.

So I will see when I bake them how they come out....If I can get my camera to work I will post a pictures (I doubt it though, I have been fighting with that camera for ages now....LOL)

[alanamoana]

don't be afraid to replace the margarine with butter in that recipe. they come out fine. also, because the dough is so slack, you can add a little extra flour with no ill effects.

when i use butter, i leave it out at room temperature until it is flexible (but not greasy) so that i can spread it onto the dough easier. i do follow the directions closely in that i keep everything as cold as possible (all the liquid ingredients and the flour) until mixing time. by the time i'm done mixing, i can immediately incorporate my fat into the dough and do at least two turns right away without resting the dough. then i let it rest and do two more turns. i do the first couple of turns immediately so that my butter can become smooth and incorporated without solidifying again in the fridge. the dough is so slack that it won't fight you.

as you noticed, after to you do all the turns, you won't have any problems.

edited to add: traditional danish pastry also has the most fat of any laminated dough as compared to puff pastry and croissant dough...so you'll almost always still see fat through the dough until the last turn.

Edited September 23, 2007 by alanamoana (log)

[chefpeon]

The key to no lumpy butter (or margarine) chunks in your laminated doughs is having the butter at the right temperature.

The butter must not be COLD, but COOL. A "test" that I use is pressing my finger in to the dough and the butter. If the butter feels about as firm as the dough, you're good to go. If the butter feels like a brick, you need to leave the butter out at room temp for a while til it's cool, but not cold.

This is what I always do when I do a laminated dough:

Put butter on the mixer with a certain amount of bread flour (the flour acts to soak up the water content in the butter). Mix it around til it is smooth with no lumps and still COOL. Form butter into a square on a piece of parchment paper, and put it in the fridge.

Next, I mix the dough. Once mixed, I form the dough into a square, on a flour sprinkled parchment lined sheet pan. I put it in the fridge to rest for 30 mins.

Next I take out the dough and butter squares, and usually 100% of the time, the butter is cool but not cold and the dough is nicely relaxed and cool too. I put butter square into dough square. Bring up the corners to encase the butter, and roll. No lumps. Truly.

[CKatCook]

Chef - you pretty much follow the method I follow except I had my butter COLD, not cool. I think that was the difference.

I was surprised using margarine in this didn't effect the taste more. Normally I detest the thought of using the stuff, but it turned out pretty good. So good in fact what I normally give away to co-workers, my hubby demanded I leave at home this time....!

Thank you everyone for your wise and wonderful help!

[Serj]

This is slightly off topic but still kinda interesting... something I have seen done is when somebody messed up the lamination on thir croissant dough with butter sticking through the dough (opposite problem - because of the ambient heat the butter got way too soft too quickly), they rolled a very thin layer of detrempe and laid it over the rolled out dough before making a fold, guaranteeing that there is an additional layer of dough between blobs of butter. I thought it was a pretty cool emergency fix it!

[CKatCook]

I am very much a newbie on the baking scene, whats a detrempe? if its an extra layer of dough, that would have been a very good idea!

[alanamoana]

when referring to laminated (layered doughs like puff, danish and croissant), usually the dough itself is called the detrempe and the butter block is called the...butter block . it doesn't specifically mean an extra layer of dough, it is just that serj noted someone who used it as such to correct an error in rolling.

[Simon Bellenie]

Hi all - been following the forum for a while, and joined today as I could think of no better place to ask my question ...

I have been trying to find a recipe for a while, but have run out of places to turn.

I am looking for a particular type of danish pastry recipe ... for want of a better description. For those in the UK it used to be sold in one of the supermarket instore bakeries, and can still be found in high street ones, but I cannot nail it down online.

The "pastry" in question is more bread-like in texture, and filled with apple - unfortunately all I can find are recipes for laminated doughs, with varying degrees of flakiness. The closest i have found online so far is this almond-filled pastry, which seems to be a combination of pastry and choux.

http://www.food.com/recipe/almond-danish-puff-146750

Any ideas will be welcome, as this search is driving me mad

thanks

[Plantes Vertes]

Hi Simon,

Could you describe the pastry in more detail? Was it like pieces of apple dispersed throughout the dough or a puree filling in the middle, or...? Which supermarket was it from? Not impossible that I have eaten one...

Edited October 23, 2013 by Plantes Vertes (log)

[Simon Bellenie]

sure...

i think it was from tesco, and was some sort of sweet dough, though not as "cakey" as a brioche.

the filling was a fairly standard sweet apple filling - as you would get most apple breakfast pastries.

Shape-wise it was rectangular, with the filling enclosed, a white sugar glaze (again, as for most similar pastries), with flaked almonds on top.

So, basically I am wondering which doughs people could recommend - sweet, not as cakey as a brioche (not sure of the technical way to put this), but also more moist than brioche.

Thanks

(PS - as a new member, i cannot post again for 24 hours, so bear with me )

[Plantes Vertes]

Is it a yum-yum? You can get them from Waitrose, apparently.

[andiesenji]

I think this is the type of Danish YEAST dough you want. When baked plain it is similar but a bit more moist and not as "cakelike" as brioche.

It is sturdy enough to handle being loaded with fruit and does not get tough with handling.

It does take some time because you do have to chill it between folding operations and I cut the FOLDING AND ROLLING business in half with no problems.

Meaning that I only do half the folding operations called for in this recipe.

Edited October 23, 2013 by andiesenji (log)

[Simon Bellenie]

Is it a yum-yum? You can get them from Waitrose, apparently.

Yum-yums are similar to the cronut - deep fried donut dough, but thanks for looking

I think this is the type of Danish YEAST dough you want. When baked plain it is similar but a bit more moist and not as "cakelike" as brioche.

It is sturdy enough to handle being loaded with fruit and does not get tough with handling.

It does take some time because you do have to chill it between folding operations and I cut the FOLDING AND ROLLING business in half with no problems.

Meaning that I only do half the folding operations called for in this recipe.

Thanks for the suggestion - by "plain", do you mean with no folds at all?

From the same page, http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Danish-Pastry-Apple-Bars-II/Detail.aspx?prop24=RD_RelatedRecipes LOOKS to have the same sort of structure though.

I had a read through Rose Beranbaum's Bread Bible last night, and from her description, it would be pretty close to her Monkey Bread dough inasmuch as it is "akin to sticky buns"... so might well take that as my next attempt.

[andiesenji]

Is it a yum-yum? You can get them from Waitrose, apparently.

Yum-yums are similar to the cronut - deep fried donut dough, but thanks for looking

I think this is the type of Danish YEAST dough you want. When baked plain it is similar but a bit more moist and not as "cakelike" as brioche.

It is sturdy enough to handle being loaded with fruit and does not get tough with handling.

It does take some time because you do have to chill it between folding operations and I cut the FOLDING AND ROLLING business in half with no problems.

Meaning that I only do half the folding operations called for in this recipe.

Thanks for the suggestion - by "plain", do you mean with no folds at all?

From the same page, http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Danish-Pastry-Apple-Bars-II/Detail.aspx?prop24=RD_RelatedRecipes LOOKS to have the same sort of structure though.

I had a read through Rose Beranbaum's Bread Bible last night, and from her description, it would be pretty close to her Monkey Bread dough inasmuch as it is "akin to sticky buns"... so might well take that as my next attempt.

I meant when it is baked without fruit or other fillings.

I also use this with a meat and veg filling, in a roll that can be cut in slices after baking.

[pastrymama]

Maybe the dough is a standard sweet dough as used to make cinnamon rolls.

[LePetitPrince]

Hi there,

Could it be something like this (Danish: æblefisk = directly translated to applefish):

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8Z9XequS8Ek/ThHSMkKNRlI/AAAAAAAAE-Q/Z-dvOEIlttc/s640/juli2011+046.jpg

It's danish pastry (called wienerbrød in danish) filled with apple marmelade.

[Simon Bellenie]

Thanks all - I am thinking the cinnamon roll dough may be as close as I am going to get, and will play around with a cinnamon/apple filling.

[kjente2]

Are you looking for an actual danish dough? Beatrice Ojakangas makes a great one. It's been quite some time since you asked and if you haven't found what you need that may be the trick. I have a multitude of scandinavian baking books. Check out the great scandinavian baking book.

[beowulf73]

Greetings,

 

This is my first post here, so hopefully this hasn't been asked dozens of times.  I did do a search but nothing promising was returned.

 

I have made Danish pastry (or wienerbrød to be more correct, I suppose) a number of times, but seem to be struggling with some issues consistently.  First, I will say that the pastries always look pretty good and taste really good, so it's not as though my attempts are an absolute fail.  Rather, I would just like to refine my process as much as possible to achieve even better results.

 

Here are the main issues that I'm facing:

 

• The pastry dough patterns seem to come "undone" while baking
• While baking, what seems like a lot of butter leaks out and pools on the baking sheet

 

Normally what I make are things like pinwheels, braids and "boats"...not sure what that last pattern is really called, but basically two opposing corners folded in and overlap in the middle on top of the filling.  In my last batch I made a cream cheese filling, but sometimes it's a fruit/jam type of filling.  I suspect part of the issue of the patterns coming undone is that I may add too much filling.  However, my wife and I both love the amount of filling.  It's not like a cup of filling or something crazy like that....about 1.5 tbsp or so for each 5" pastry square.  I may try a smaller amount (2 tsp or so) next time just to see if that helps.  I do have one pattern which is like a Danish braid, only done with a 5" square.  This is the only one that didn't come undone.  The others which are much less "locked in" for lack of a better term all sort of opened up upon baking.

 

As for the butter leaking out and pooling, I have no idea on that.  Maybe my room temp (~73F) proof is too warm?  I'm not really sure.  Even though the pastries seem to be pretty buttery tasting, I have to think that if there's anyway to keep it from leaking out so much, the buttery flavor could be improved.

 

Finally, if what I'm experiencing is completely to be expected and I'm just being persnickety, I'm fine with that too.  I was just hoping there was maybe a trick or process that I could adopt that would help make things just a wee bit better.  Thanks in advance for any advice!