danish pastry dough

This recipe yields 2 lbs of dough, which equals 2 pastry braids. 1 braid serves 5-6 people. If you don't need that many tempting pastries around, freeze the second half of the dough for a later time. Make-ahead and freezing instructions included below.

Homemade Pastry Dough (Quick Method)

cup (60 milliliters) warm water (between 100-110°F, 38-43°C)

(120 milliliters) whole milk,

1 large egg,

cup (50 grams) granulated sugar

teaspoon salt

Tablespoons (205 grams) unsalted butter, cold

1 large egg

Tablespoons (30 milliliters) whole milk

Preliminary note

To help guarantee success, I recommend reading through the recipe, watching the video tutorial, and reading the explanations below this recipe. (All answer many FAQs.) Do not use an electric mixer for this dough. It&#8217;s best if the dough is folded together with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula since it is so sticky. There is very minimal mixing required.

Make the Pastry Dough

Whisk the warm water, yeast, and 1 Tablespoon (6g) of sugar together in a large bowl. Cover and allow to rest until foamy on top, about 5 minutes. If the surface doesn&#8217;t have bubbles on top or look foamy after 15 minutes (it should if the yeast isn&#8217;t expired), start over with a fresh packet of yeast. Whisk in remaining sugar, the milk, egg, and salt. Once these wet ingredients are mixed together, lightly cover and set the bowl aside as you work on the next step.

Cut the cold butter into 1/4 inch slices and add to a food processor or blender. Top with 2 and 1/2 cups flour. Pulse the mixture 12-15 times, until butter is crumbled into pea-size bits. See photo below for a visual. Using a food processor or blender is best for this dough. Keeping that in mind, if you don&#8217;t have one, you can use a pastry cutter to work in the butter.

Pour the flour mixture into the wet yeast mixture. Very gently fold everything together using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Fold *just until* the dry ingredients are moistened. The butter must remain in pieces and crumbles, which creates a flaky pastry. Turn the sticky dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap, parchment paper, aluminum foil, or into any container you can tightly cover.

1st Refrigeration

Wrap the dough/cover up tightly and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 48 hours.

Roll &amp; Fold

Take the dough out of the refrigerator to begin the “rolling and folding” process. If the dough sat for more than 4 hours, it may have slightly puffed up and that&#8217;s ok. (It will deflate as you shape it, which is also ok.) Very generously flour a work surface. The dough is very sticky, so make sure you have more flour nearby as you roll and fold. Using the palm of your hands, gently flatten the dough into a small square. Using a rolling pin, roll out into a 15&#215;8 inch rectangle. When needed, flour the work surface and dough as you are rolling. Fold the dough into thirds as if it were a business letter. (See photos and video tutorial.) Turn it clockwise and roll it out into a 15 inch long rectangle again. Then, fold into thirds again. Turn it clockwise. You’ll repeat rolling and folding 1 more time for a total of 3 times.

2nd Refrigeration

Wrap up/seal tightly and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours. You can also freeze the dough at this point. See freezing instructions.

Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Rimmed baking sheets are best because butter may leak from the dough as it bakes. If you don&#8217;t have rimmed baking sheets, when it&#8217;s time to preheat the oven, place another baking sheet on the oven rack below to catch any butter that may drip.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and cut it in half. Wrap 1 half up and keep refrigerated as you work with the first half. (You can freeze half of the dough at this point, use the freezing instructions below.)

On a floured work surface, roll dough out into a 12&#215;8 inch rectangle. You can roll out the dough on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper or lightly floured silicone baking mat instead because you will transfer the shaped dough to a lined baking sheet next.

Using a sharp knife, cut off two corners of the dough (on one 8-inch side) and then two small triangles 3 inches apart from each other on the other end (the other 8-inch side). See visual below.

Spread 1/2 of the filling (raspberry or cream cheese) down the length of the center of the strip, which should be about 3 inches wide. Using a sharp knife, pastry wheel, or pizza cutter, cut 10 slanting strips (3/4 &#8211; 1 inch wide each) along both sides. Fold strips over filling, alternating each side to resemble a twist or a braid. Fold the bottom end up to seal the filling inside. Repeat with the second half of the dough and the rest of the filling. The braids may seem very narrow, but they puff up and out as they bake.

Egg Wash

Whisk the egg wash ingredients together. Brush all over the dough.

I strongly recommend refrigerating the shaped braids before baking for at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour before baking. The braids tend to leak more butter and/or lose more shape if they haven&#8217;t chilled.

Bake each braid for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Some butter may leak from the dough, that&#8217;s completely normal and expected. Feel free to remove the baking sheets from the oven halfway through baking and brush the dough with any of the leaking butter, then place back in the oven to finish baking. (That&#8217;s what I do!)

Remove baked danish braids from the oven and cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSNnz2RHO90

Learn how to make a beautiful buttery flaky pastry braid with this shortcut version of Danish pastry dough. With layers of buttery flaky dough and a sweet cheese filling, this blueberry cream cheese pastry braid is undoubtedly irresistible.

Get the full recipe: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/blueberries-n-cream-danish-braid/

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How to Make a Pastry Braid  | Sally's Baking Addiction

Buttery, flaky, light-as-air homemade Danish dough is easier than you think with this easy recipe. Perfect for all your sweet Danish breakfast cravings, this recipe isn’t a quick fix but it is simple to make. Start this recipe the day before. Yields 12-24 individual pastries.

How to make Danish Pastry

milk ((250 milliliters))

white granulated sugar

salt

If you haven&#39;t already grate the butter and place in the freezer to chill for 10 minutes. Grate it into a large bowl and don&#39;t press it down, leave it loose.

Warm ½ cup of the milk in the microwave or a small saucepan, just until warm to the touch (not hot) or about 40C. Too hot and you&#39;ll kill the yeast, too cold and the yeast won&#39;t bloom.

To the warm milk, add 1 tablespoon sugar and all the yeast and mix. Let it sit for 10 minutes to become frothy. If it doesn&#39;t look frothy, the yeast is no good and you&#39;ll need to start again with fresh yeast.

To the large bowl of cold butter, add the flour, remaining sugar and the salt. Give it light toss to coat. Now very, very lightly with your fingertips or with a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until the pieces are about the size of a lentil. Be careful not to melt the butter. If it&#39;s warm where you are place it in the fridge for a few minutes to cool again.

Whisk the remaining ½ cup milk and the egg into the yeast mixture until well combined, then pour it into the dry ingredients.

Use a spoon or spatula to mix the ingredients together just until you have a very rough and sticky dough.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 8-24 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface - you don't want to add too much flour as it will dry out the dough. Form a simple rectangle.

ROLL AND FOLD: Roll it out to a large rectangle about 6mm / ¼ inch thick (about 27cm x 45cm). Fold, letter style in thirds (fold the top over the middle third, then the bottom third over that).

Repeat this roll and fold 3 more times for a total of 4 times, ending with a much smoother folded dough. The last roll and fold, the dough will feel much tighter - it&#39;s ok if you can&#39;t quite roll it out to 6mm / ¼ inch. Add a touch of flour if you see it sticking to the counter or your rolling pin at any point but try not to add too much.

Chill for 1-2 hours to relax before rolling and turning into danish pastries.

To turn it into baked pastries, use these Lemon Danish Pastries or these Custard Danish Pastries as a guide. For baking temp and time, see notes 5.

https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/aL02DgLf.mp4

These cream cheese strawberry Danish, with perfect, flaky Danish pastry, strawberries, jam and cream cheese are easier than you may think. The perfect Danish recipe from brunch to afternoon tea.

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