Miniature versions of classic Danish pastries offer such lovely style when entertaining friends & the good news is that they are appropriate to serve for a variety of celebrations. This makes croissant dough richer and gives the dough a better flavor Although I’m generally most interested in baking sweet things, like cakes and cookies, I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with breadmaking for the past couple of weeks. 5. Every laminated dough, be it puff pastry, croissant or Danish, begins its life as a thick slab of butter encased in a dough “envelope”. Fold the four alternate points to the center, pressing them down lightly to hold them in place. But the idea of mixing some flour with soft butter, rolling it into a thin layer, made cold & then used is BRILLIANT! Dust with flour, put into a clean plastic bag and chill in the fridge for an hour. Most puff pastry rolls are similar in size and our squares ended up 12.5cm in size. Ancient Persians are thought to have been the first to create puff pastry. 4. Cut a border, ½ inch (1 cm) wide in the square, leaving it intact at two opposite corners. Take your dough out of the fridge and roll it into a rectangle, about ¼ inch thick. Add the eggs, water and milk and mix on a slow speed for 2 minutes, then on a medium speed for 6 minutes. So in all, I tested 24 variations of lamination. Begin by cutting the puff pastry into a 10cm/4in squares. Neatness when folding is also imperative. Make your Danish pastry dough. PUFF PASTRY : mix the flour with the salt, then turn out onto your work surface in a pile. Fill the center with fruit mince and brush the finished pastry with glace icing. So far I’ve made potato bread, soft pretzel bread, cinnamon raisin bread, and this raspberry loaf. This is good for almond squares with a filling of frangiapane. The rolling and folding technique is the same as the one used for croissants. If you can’t find that kind of butter, look for at least 82% fat, it will be easier to work with that one. A laminated dough is made by rolling and folding butter or other fats, known as the beurrage, into the dough to create hundreds of thin layers of flaky pastry. This is the classic shape for an apricot or pear Danish pastry with the fruit exposed in the middle. Fold the bottom half of the dough up. 3. To make a quick Danish pastry dough, rather than folding in a block of butter, I toss chunks of butter into the dough. Repeat this stage twice more, putting the dough back into the fridge between turns. Now gently cut off the exposed bit of butter, without going through the dough, and put it on the top of the dough you have just folded down. What also makes this method so effective is you can be completely laminated with one trip to the sheeter, and in a matter of 10 minutes all of your laminating is completed. Roll the pastry out on lightly floured surface to a large rectangle about 40 X 20 cm. Put the dough back in the plastic bag and chill for an hour to harden butter. It is then ready to use. The Turks took repetitive folding of the dough to new heights, which was eventually adopted by their mortal enemies, the Austrians, and later the French (think croissant). The … Gather the flour back in to a mound, create a trough, and add another tablespoon of water. For the first shape, fold two opposing corners into the centre of the pastry, over the filling, and press firmly to seal. 2. Fold the bottom half of the dough up. Lay the butter on the dough so that it covers the bottom two-thirds of it. Danish Pastry Dough Here’s a nice Danish-style pastry dough that works as well for coffee cakes as it does for Danishes. Now roll it out to a rectangle, about 50 x 20cm, as before. A yeast dough is rolled out thinly, covered with thin slices of butter between the layers of dough, and then the dough is folded and rolled several times, creating 27 layers. There are loads of different ways to fold a danish pastry. Croissant dough also has sugar and milk in its ingredient list, which puff pastry doesn’t have. Taken from Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake, published by Bloomsbury Photograph © Peter Cassidy, Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookies, Makes 1.1 kg: about 25 pastries Like puff pastry and croissants, Danish dough is laminated (layered with butter). Put the flour into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. To be successful with this technique you need to ensure your dough is very cold. Fold the exposed dough at the top down one-third of the butter. This time fold up one-third of the dough and then fold the top third down on top. As for croissant dough, well-chilled, good-quality butter is essential. A folded flaky pastry for say, a galette, can have as few as 27 layers. calories in a Danish pastry One serving of this pastry has 262 calories. For the third shape, the Catherine wheel or pinwheel, use a knife to make a 4cm/1½in cut from each corner toward the centre of the square. However the results are valid for all kinds of laminated bread. 1. And mark my words, this tastes as close to the real thing as we can get in the States. Brush the finished pastry with glace icing and sprinkle with flaked almonds. Continue sprinkling and fluffing until the flour … For the first shape, fold two opposing corners into the centre of the pastry, over the filling, and press firmly to seal. Another is the wide variety of luscious fillings you can use. "Unformed" which is simply the laminated pastry cut into squares and baked. We need squares for this recipe, so measure with a ruler if you can! Fold each side into the center; then fold one side over the other to make a rectangular packet about 6" x 10". 6. Pinch the edges lightly to seal in the butter. For the second shape, fold all four corners into the centre to create a parcel shape. When the Danish bakers, pragmatic fellows, finally returned to their jobs, they copied the techniques of the Viennese, and then, being Danes, went on to improve the pastry by adding jam and other kinds until the 16th and 17th Centuries, when coffee and sugar were introduced to the North. It’s easy to shape in different ways too. 500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting, 250g chilled unsalted butter, preferably a good-quality Normandy butter. Much like croissant dough, Danish is a pastry dough that is leavened both by yeast as well as lamination of fat throughout the dough. Fold each side into the center; then fold one side over the other. 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