HOW TO MAKE A DANISH PASTRY FROM SCRATCH

How To Make A Danish Pastry From Scratch

Danish Pastry is very very very time consuming.. 2 hours of prep, around 5 hours of chilling, and 45 minutes of rising… =/  that is why we usually prefer to go buy them than make them. But they are extra delicious so that makes the toil worthwhile IF you do decide to make yours instead of purchase them.

Danish Pastries can be filled with almost anything you desire..  Ricotta, and or Cream Cheese filling is very popular. Also popular fruit fillings include apple, cherry, blackberry, blueberry, lemon, pineapple and strawberry.

Today I had some leftover Homemade Blackberry Fruit Salad that my mom made and I decided to make a fruit filling out of that. I also have some Ricotta cheese and I will make a Lemon Cheese Filling for some of the pastries.

Pastry

1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks)

4 1/2 5 cups all purpose flour

2 Tbsp Active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm milk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 large egg

• First you want to prepare your dough.

To prepare pastry, in a large bowl, beat butter at medium speed until very soft. About 1 minute.

Beat in 1/2 cup flour.

Place butter mixture between 2 sheets of waxed paper.

Using a rolling pin Roll mixture into a 12×6 inch rectangle almost.

Chill for 1 hour on cookie sheet in fridge (I started mine out in freezer then into fridge)

Next in a bowl. Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Let stand till foamy, about 5-10 minutes.

(if does not foam your yeast is bad)

Stir Sugar Salt and Egg into yeast mixture. Work in flour 1/2 cup at a time till soft dough forms turn onto board,

On a floured surface using flouring rolling pin, roll dough into a 16 inch square

Take out chilled butter and remove top wax paper. Invert onto half of dough fold over dough over butter.

Press edges to seal

Using a floured rolling pin roll dough into a 21×12 inch or so rectangle

Fold lengthwise into thirds into a 12×7 rectangle

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.

Repeat Rolling folding and chilling 3 times

YES I SAID THREE TIMES hahahaha (take it out of fridge and roll out, fold up, wrap and chill again THREE times)

1.) 

2.)

3.

after the last roll… fold..wrap… and CHILL….

• During this time in between  chilling’s I am making my filling and putting into the fridge.

Note: you can also use canned filling to make it easier..

• Here is how I made my VERY BERRY FILLING as I am calling it.

I had some leftover blackberry fruit cocktail my mother made (recipe on this site)

and I put it into a pot on stove added about a cup of sugar and boiled.

Took out my emulsifier blender and blended the fruit.

let it cook down and added a tbsp of cornstarch to a tad of water and added  to the fruit filling to thicken.

Take off heat pour in bowl and cover and store in fridge till completely cools and thickens.

• For the LEMON CHEESE FILLING

1 cup Ricotta cheese

1 pkg Cream Cheese

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp orange extract

1 tbsp lemon extract

mix together and put into bowl in fridge till time to use.

NOTE: will seem thin when done mixing but put in fridge it will thicken in fridge and will SET when baking…

• Assembly

you will then roll out one last time on your board.

on a floured surface using a floured rolling pin. You will roll dough into a 20×12  inch rectangle.

Cut into 20 12×1 inch strips

cut slice in center of strip

lightly roll each strip into a rope by twisting in opposite directions

Holding one end with finger , Coil 1 end of each rope toward center to form a spiral shape. Tuck end under.

Press into center for well.

you will end up with two cookie sheets full ten to eleven on each sheet

cover Let rise in warm place till doubled 25 minutes ( can put oven on to 100 degrees then shut off. Spray water inside and put dough into rise)

take out after 25 minutes and  press center well again..

Spoon 1 tbsp of filling into each pastry  center cover with a damp cloth.

cover put back  to raise in warm spot 20 minutes

take out,  preheat oven 350 degrees

• Prepare a egg glaze. Mix together 1 large egg and 1 tbsp water and brush pastries with glaze

• Bake pastries till golden brown. around 20 minutes or so . Watch them.

Transfer to wire rack to cool slightly.

• Final Step

take confectionary sugar and a small amount of water mix till smooth and thick.. and string some glaze over top of cooling pastries. let sit.

put onto display and serve

Enjoy. you deserve it after all that hard work. =)

PS. you will have lots of filling left over so you can use it for other pastries or cakes.