Danishes, Part I
Danishes.
I have discovered they are much like apple turnovers. Love to eat them, making them? Not so much…
Before we start cooking, however, let’s start with a drink!
In Montana, we call peppermint schnapps in hot cocoa either polars or snowbunnies or alpines (thank you Pru~). I have yet to find what the rest of the internet calls this drink, however.
It certainly has Tino’s seal of approval, however.
Now, onto the dough, the longest and most complicated part of making danishes.
What you’ll need:
First of all we need to work some flour into dough and make is a nice malleable, almost kneadable, mass. Take two tablespoons of flour, sprinkle some onto the dough and press it into 1 cup (two sticks) of butter with your rolling pin. Then knead the rest in.
Flatten this out to about 8x5 ½ inches, wrap in plastic, and pop it into the fridge.
The dough is fairly simple. Combine 2 cups + 2 Tbsp flour, ½ tsp salt, and 2 Tbsp sugar into a bowl.
Add ½ Tbsp butter, cut into pieces and work into the mixture with a pasty blender/cutter or two forks until it resembles semi-coarse crumbs. Then make a well of sorts in the middle.
Heat 1/2 cup of milk to about 105 - 115 degrees F / 40.5 - 46 degrees C and add in 1 package of yeast and 1 Tbsp sugar.
Hmm, It says 2 ½ teaspoons here, but 2 ¼ teaspoons in the cookbook. Well, a little more yeast won’t hurt anything…too much, right?
Set this aside for a few moments to let the yeast wake up and start eating the sugar. Once it looks like the head on one of England’s pints, you’re set to add it into your flour well!
Mix this until you have a thin batter (mostly in the well still!). Then beat together 1 egg and 1 egg yolk. Add these to the well and mix it until it’s a goo sticky mess. Then dump it out onto a floured work surface and knead until it’s smooth. Leave it sit for about 5 minutes.
Sprinkle the dough and roll it out to a 14 x 8 rectangle (short end facing you!) Take your butter out of the fridge and cover the top 2/3rds of the dough with it, leaving at least a 1 inch border on all sides. Fold the bottom 1/3rd of the dough up, the top 1/3rd down.
Press the 3 ‘open’ edges down. Rotate the dough so the folded edge is on the left and the sealed longer edge is on the right. This rolling and folding is called a ‘turn’. Flatten it slightly with your rolling pin and ‘turn’ (roll and fold) it twice more. Wrap it in plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Take it out and ‘turn’ it two more times, then rewrap it and put it fridge once again for 30 more minutes. Take it out and ‘turn’ it one last time, wrap it and put it back in the fridge for 30 final minutes.
NOW the dough it ready to use! Finally.
See how I use this dough for two different danishes here!
I have discovered they are much like apple turnovers. Love to eat them, making them? Not so much…
Before we start cooking, however, let’s start with a drink!
In Montana, we call peppermint schnapps in hot cocoa either polars or snowbunnies or alpines (thank you Pru~). I have yet to find what the rest of the internet calls this drink, however.
It certainly has Tino’s seal of approval, however.
Now, onto the dough, the longest and most complicated part of making danishes.
What you’ll need:
First of all we need to work some flour into dough and make is a nice malleable, almost kneadable, mass. Take two tablespoons of flour, sprinkle some onto the dough and press it into 1 cup (two sticks) of butter with your rolling pin. Then knead the rest in.
Flatten this out to about 8x5 ½ inches, wrap in plastic, and pop it into the fridge.
The dough is fairly simple. Combine 2 cups + 2 Tbsp flour, ½ tsp salt, and 2 Tbsp sugar into a bowl.
Add ½ Tbsp butter, cut into pieces and work into the mixture with a pasty blender/cutter or two forks until it resembles semi-coarse crumbs. Then make a well of sorts in the middle.
Heat 1/2 cup of milk to about 105 - 115 degrees F / 40.5 - 46 degrees C and add in 1 package of yeast and 1 Tbsp sugar.
Hmm, It says 2 ½ teaspoons here, but 2 ¼ teaspoons in the cookbook. Well, a little more yeast won’t hurt anything…too much, right?
Set this aside for a few moments to let the yeast wake up and start eating the sugar. Once it looks like the head on one of England’s pints, you’re set to add it into your flour well!
Mix this until you have a thin batter (mostly in the well still!). Then beat together 1 egg and 1 egg yolk. Add these to the well and mix it until it’s a goo sticky mess. Then dump it out onto a floured work surface and knead until it’s smooth. Leave it sit for about 5 minutes.
Sprinkle the dough and roll it out to a 14 x 8 rectangle (short end facing you!) Take your butter out of the fridge and cover the top 2/3rds of the dough with it, leaving at least a 1 inch border on all sides. Fold the bottom 1/3rd of the dough up, the top 1/3rd down.
Press the 3 ‘open’ edges down. Rotate the dough so the folded edge is on the left and the sealed longer edge is on the right. This rolling and folding is called a ‘turn’. Flatten it slightly with your rolling pin and ‘turn’ (roll and fold) it twice more. Wrap it in plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Take it out and ‘turn’ it two more times, then rewrap it and put it fridge once again for 30 more minutes. Take it out and ‘turn’ it one last time, wrap it and put it back in the fridge for 30 final minutes.
NOW the dough it ready to use! Finally.
See how I use this dough for two different danishes here!