Yum! So let me tell you if there is something I really love, it is a fresh fruit danish straight from the oven. I remember getting up at 5am and making my dough from scratch. Then I would let it rise for a while, then I would laminate the layers and layers of butter. This is what creates the layers within the beautiful pastry and gives it that puff.
Danish pastry is very similar process to puff pastry. Although puff pastry doesn't have a rising agent. Danish dough contains yeast, so the dough requires rising for the yeast, puff pastry does not require this.
I usually would do about 5-6 folds (laminating the butter) just because sometimes less is more. And if you begin to fold the layers too much, it decreases the puff in the pastry.
I would then roll the dough out, shape the danishes, fill the danishes with vanilla creme patisserie, top with a section of fruit. Plums and apricots are my favourite, but you could do apple, pear, peach.
One of these fresh danishes straight out of the oven and freshly glazed, paired with a hot strong coffee always goes down a treat! I need to stop writing about these, its actually making me hungry. Plus looking at the pictures, they look delectable.
The filling is creme patisserie, which is a thick french custard used in a number of my desserts. The finish to the creme patisserie is very smooth and subtle.
I make my danishes mini, compared to what you would usually see in a standard corner side bakery. I think everything looks sweeter and nicer daintier. Plus when you eat 4 in a row, there is no need for you to feel guilty.
I use canned fruit for the danishes, because the fruit is already soft. Also canned fruit keeps better then fresh fruit. Now days you can get all the fruit under the sun in a can too!
Tell me, tell me what is your favourite coffee. My favourite coffee is a piciollo for sure! Which means smallish Italian. It's just a small latte, and you don't have to drink all the milk. It comes in the little espresso shot glasses, but just filled all the way to the top with milk.
My two favourite jobs in hospitality are for sure barista and bartending. I have also been a chef and waitress. I just like making products and putting my spin on the final product. Making pretty cocktails and silky coffees.
The only downfall to bartending is the night shifts. They are hard and not a lot of companies compensate for you working past midnight and throughout the night.
Mix all your dry ingredients in a bowl, and set aside.
Add your eggs to the yeast mixture, once it has foamed up.
Gradually add a cup of flour at a time, so you don't add too much flour.
Mix until all flour is combined, and add another cup of flour and so on.
Keep adding flour till you have a tacky dough, you may have to add less or more depending on your humidity or climate where you are living.
Once the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl like this it is at the perfect consistency. Bit tacky but still moist.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 7-9 minutes until the tacky dough turns into a nice smooth ball.
Thats better. Place in a dish and cover with a damp tea bowl or glad wrap.
Recipe time,
Traditional Danish Dough
-Bake from scratch
Recipe:
Dough:
1 cup whole milk warmed
2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
57 grams unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon orange zest
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs
Butter Block:
397 grams of unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
Filling:
Creme Patiserrie
250ml milk
250ml pouring cream
4 yolks
125g caster sugar
30g cornstarch
30g flour
1 vanilla bean
Method:
In a small bowl combine warm milk and sprinkle sugar and yeast over top. Set aside for 5 minutes and wait till it gets foamy.
In a bowl on a stand mixer beat flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, zest and salt at a low speed. Set aside. Add the eggs to the yeast foamy mixture. Mix gently to break up eggs. Slowly add a cup of flour to the yeast mixture. Mixing well in between additions. (The reason you add the flour to the wet ingredients) is so you don't over add flour and making your dough dry and not useable. Once a tacky dough is formed, tip out onto a floured surface and begin to knead until it is smooth and elastic.
Knead the dough until it is smoother and a tiny bit more elastic. But don't overwork it. 2-3 minutes is all it needs, just so it can form into a nice tight smooth ball. Wrap in glad wrap and set in the fridge for 2 hours so the gluten has time to relax.
Now moving onto making your butter block.
Follow the method for laminating the dough in this blog entry,
Heat milk and cream in a saucepan. Strip the pod of the vanilla bean, retrieving all the specs. Place the bean pod in as well. You can discard it later, it will just bring more flavours.
In a seperate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy in colour. Add cornstarch and flour and whisk until well combined.
Bring the milk mixture off the heat. Discard the big pod of vanilla. Slowly temper the egg yolks. Pour hot milk onto the egg yolks and whisk fast till the milk has combined with the yolks.
Do this slowly, with pouring the hot milk mixture in small increments. Until it is all combined. Once that is done, place glad wrap down on the custard to prevent a film from appearing. Leave to set in the fridge.
Assembly:
Roll your danish dough out, and cut into various shapes. Place a spoonful of custard on top, garnish with half a canned plum, or canned apricot. Glaze the pastries with an egg wash. Allow the pastries to rise for about 30-45 minutes until puffy looking.
Place in a preheated oven 200 degrees for ten minutes. Turn down the heat to 180 degrees to continue the cooking for 15-18 minutes. Or until cooked on the bottom, and has a golden brown colour on the pastries.
Leave to cool, dust with icing sugar.
Yum yum!
