Tag Archives: pastries

Danish Pastry Filled with Jams


Prep Time:  50 minutes
Cook Time: 16 to 18 minutes
Total Time: 3 + hours
Yield: 24 to 36 servings
Skill Level: Advanced Beginner
Kitchen Appliance: Oven, Bread Machine or Stand Mixer

danish-pastry

DANISH PASTRIES

Ingredients

Dough

2 cups (454g) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
5 1/2 cups (659g) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
4 teaspoons instant yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons salt, if you use salted butter, reduce this to 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cardamom, optional; for traditional flavor
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup (227g) cold milk
1/3 to 1/2 cup (76g to 113g) lukewarm water*
2 large eggs
*Use the greater amount in winter, or in a dry climate; the lesser amount in summer, or when it’s humid out.

Cheese filling

1/2 cup (113g) cream cheese
1/2 cup (113g) cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons (35g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon salt

Fruit filling

about 1 to 1 1/4 cups (298g to 369g) jam, preserves, or canned fruit pie filling

Cinnamon Sugar Nut Filling

About 1 stick butter, 3 tablespoons cinnamon, and 1/2 cup Sugar. blend together

Egg Wash

1 large egg white, beaten lightly with 1 tablespoon cold water

Glaze

1 1/2 cups (170g) confectioners’ sugar or glazing sugar
2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons (28g to 35g) water or milk, enough to make a “drizzlable” glaze
pinch of salt

crushed nuts, optional; to garnish

Instructions

Begin by cutting 1/4″ butter off the end of each of the 4 sticks in the pound; you’ll have about 2 tablespoons butter. Set them (and the remaining butter) aside. You’ll be using the 2 tablespoons butter immediately, but won’t need the remaining butter until after you’ve made the dough.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, yeast, salt, and cardamom. Add the 2 tablespoons cold butter, working it in with your fingers until no large lumps remain. This step coats the flour a bit with fat, making the pastry a tiny bit more tender.
Add the vanilla, milk, water, and eggs. Mix and knead to make a cohesive, but quite sticky dough. This is easily done in a bread machine set on the dough cycle; or in a mixer. If you use a mixer, the dough won’t completely clean the bowl; it’ll probably leave a narrow ring around the side, and stick at the bottom.
Scrape the dough into a ball, and transfer it to a floured work surface. Cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rest for 10 minutes while you prepare the butter.

Cut each stick of butter in half lengthwise, to make 8 long rectangles. On a piece of floured parchment or plastic wrap, line up 4 of the butter pieces side by side, to form a rectangle. Sprinkle lightly with flour, and cover with another piece of parchment or plastic wrap.
Gently pound and roll the butter until it’s about 6″ x 9″. The pieces may or may not meld together. If they do, great, they’ll be easier to work with. If not, though, that’s OK; don’t stress about it.
Repeat with the remaining 4 pieces of butter. You should now have two butter rectangles, about 6″ x 9″ each.

Roll the dough into a rectangle about 12″ wide and 24″ long. Don’t worry about being ultra-precise; this is just a guide, though you should try to get fairly close.
Place one of the butter pieces onto the center third of the dough. Fold one side over the butter to cover it. Place the other butter piece atop the folded-over dough, and fold the remaining dough up over it.

You now have a rectangular “packet” of dough-enclosed butter. Pinch the open ends and side closed as best you can.

Turn the dough 90°, so a 12″ side is closest to you.

Roll the dough into a 10″ x 24″ rectangle (approximately). Fold each side into the center; then fold one side over the other to make a rectangular packet about 6″ x 10″.Dust the surface of the dough with flour, wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.

Remove the dough from the fridge, and again roll it into a rectangle about 10″ x 24″. Fold it into a packet as you did in the last step ; it’ll be about 7″ x 12″.

Roll one final time, fold into a packet, and flour the dough lightly. Wrap loosely (but completely) in plastic, and chill it for 2 hours, or up to 16 hours; we prefer the longer refrigeration, as it gives the dough a chance to relax and rise.

Before shaping the pastries, select your filling(s). We like to use a variety. Either of the filling suggestions in this recipe make enough to fill all the pastries; so if you want to mix and match, make a half-recipe of the cheese filling, and use only half the amount of fruit filling called for.
To make the cheese filling, combine all of the ingredients, stirring until smooth. For the smoothest filling, process in a food processor.
When you’re ready to make pastries, remove the dough from the refrigerator, unwrap it, and cut off one-third.

You’ll work with this piece first; return the remainder to the fridge.
Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball, then flatten the balls into 3″ to 3 1/2″ rounds, making the center thinner than the edges. You want to build up a slight wall of dough all around the circumference; this will help hold the filling. Place the rounds on a parchment-lined or lightly greased baking sheet.
Working with one-half of the remaining dough at a time, repeat the process; you’ll finish with three baking sheets, each with 12 dough rounds.

Cover the Danish lightly with greased plastic wrap, and let them rise for about 1 hour; they’ll become slightly puffy. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 400°F.

Use your fingers to press the centers of the dough rounds as flat as possible, leaving the “sidewalls” puffed. Spoon a slightly heaping measuring teaspoon of filling into the well of each round.
Brush the exposed edges of pastry with the egg/water topping; this will create a satiny, golden crust.
Bake the pastries for 15 to 18 minutes, until they’re golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and transfer to a rack. Glaze and serve immediately; or wait until they cool, then glaze.

To make the glaze, here it is:
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar or glazing sugar
2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons water or milk, enough to make a “drizzlable” glaze
pinch of salt
Whisk everything together. Drizzle over the pastries.
Drizzle the glaze atop the pastries. Sprinkle with crushed nuts, if desired.

SUBTITUTIONS

YEAST… Yes you can substitute them for each other: Active dry yeast and instant yeast can generally be used interchangeably, one-for-one (although active dry yeast may be slower to rise). So if a recipe calls for instant yeast and active dry yeast is used instead, you may want to consider adding an extra 10 to 15 minutes for the rise time.
Yes you can use salted butter instead of unsalted. If you choose to use salted butter, cut back the salt in the following recipe to 1 1/2 teaspoons.

You may want to know why?

Why all the rolling and folding? That’s what gives Danish pastry its flaky layers. Each time you roll, fold, and roll again, you’re creating more and thinner layers of butter — 128 layers, if you do the four “turns” indicated in the directions.
Why unsalted Butter? Because salt is sometimes used by unscrupulous butter manufacturers (though not our friends at Cabot or Land O’Lakes, certainly) to mask “off” flavors. So salted butter can have a longer sell-by date, and can stay in the refrigerator case at the supermarket longer than unsalted. We prefer our butter as fresh as possible. Also, using unsalted butter allows you to add as much (or little) salt as you need.

 

 

EGG WASH


Prep Time: 5 minutes
Yield: 2 o 6 pie crust tops
Skill Level: Easy Beginner
Kitchen Appliance: Manual Fork

Add egg wash or you get dull pastries like this

Image on left with egg wash, on the right no egg wash.

Egg products, such as egg whites or egg yolks, supply coating, gloss or finishing to foods within the baking category. Consumers expect a certain appearance on the outside of baked goods, such as color or finish. Food color overall is an indicator of quality, including the color of finished baked products. The proper coating or finish not only aids with appearance but can also help extend shelf life by sealing in moisture.

Slightly beaten liquid egg products can serve as a coating or glaze on baked goods, with different variations of the egg mixture according to the desired appearance and texture of the final product. A baker might select either egg yolk, egg white or whole eggs for varying results.

The white is the primary source of proteins in an egg. When whites alone are used as a coating the proteins coagulate and draw moisture from the product, with eventually evaporates, resulting in a crisp surface. An egg wash can also give the baked product a finished, slightly glossy look. Protein browns when exposed to heat, so the addition of an egg wash helps give baked goods a bronzed sheen, in addition to the gloss.

Slightly beaten yolk or eggs, brushed onto surface of unbaked good helps prevent crust from drying out and lends a glossy look. Added at a certain stage in the baking process, the egg wash can help prevent overbrowning. However in order to seal in moisture, yolks must be used in the egg wash.

An egg wash application is common not just for bread, but also different types of pastries or pies, to promote browning, create a glossy shine or both. A variety of other ingredients added in different proportions to the selected egg product (whole egg, egg white or egg yolk), will supply different levels of browning, shine and even texture to the crust surface

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 Tbsp heavy cream, half and half, milk or water
  • 1 large egg yolk or egg white

Beat egg yolk with cream and brush on the surface of the pie with a pastry brush.

Morning Sweets… Cinnamon Rolls with Walnuts


Cinnamon Rolls with Walnuts
You can make this recipe in no time. Very easy and all so yummy.

By Orgnat Life

This yummy recipe is so simple a beginner could achieve 5 STARS first time. Wait there’s is an “IF”.. That is, if you have a bread maker. Most of the models make dough.

I always encourage everyone to get a bread maker. If you are going to make bread and rolls regularly, let the bread maker do the hard work for you.

Bread Maker

You can purchase Bridgford Frozen dough at the store, but that defeats the purpose of making your own… NO PRESERVEATIVES… So which ever you choose to fit your life style.

Click here for nutritional informationhttps://www.bridgford.com/products/pdfs/6120.pdf

This recipe makes 1.5 lb of dough or 15 large rolls. This is a basic dough recipe for your creative adventures in baking rolls and breads.

Level: Intermediate Yield: 12 servings Total Time: 2 hours 30 mins
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Utensils: Bread Maker, rolling pin or a sturdy water glass, measuring cup, measuring set, 2 spoons, sharp knife, 13″ x 9″ pan and something to roll your dough out on. I use a large pizza pan with a small rolling pin.

Dough Recipe
If you are using a bread maker place ingredients in container as follows.
⦁ 1 cup Water
⦁ 4 tablespoons Butter cut into tiny pieces
⦁ 1 and 1/2 teaspoons Salt
⦁ 3 cups Unbleached Flour (regular if that is all you have)
⦁ 1 tablespoon sugar
⦁ 2 teaspooons active dry yeast
Set menu on bread amker to dough. Depending on your bread maker 90 minutes approximately

If you are using frozen dough it will take about 60 to 90 minutes to thaw. Follow directions on package. You can thaw the dough out in your refridgerator over night if baking in the morning. Bring the dough to room tempreture. Once your dough is ready you can follow the directions below.

Ingredients for Filling
⦁ 1 to 1.5 sticks Butter
⦁ Sugar
⦁ Cinnamon sprinkel to taste
⦁ Walnuts (finely chopped)

While you are waiting on your dough, remove 1.5 sticks of butter from refrigerator so it can soften up. After the butter is soft use up to 1/4 stick of butter and heavily spread butter on pan bottom and sides with a spoon.
Cut up 1 to 1 1/2 sticks of cold butter into small pieces and cover the bottom of your pan evenly with the butter.
Take 1/4 cup of sugar and lightly sift over the butter. Set that to the side.

As soon as your dough is ready / proofed take it out and knead it one more time. I butter my hands and knead without flour.
⦁ Split it into 4 even sections.
⦁ Roll out 1 section so it is about 1/8″ thick or less. No bigger or you will end up with a doughy roll.
⦁ Butter the dough slightly.
⦁ Sprinkel 3 tablespoons sugar over dough.
⦁ Sprinkel your cinnamom. I like mine a little heavy but I like cinnamon. You can experiment with each section you roll out so in the end you will know what is a good coverage of cinnamon for you.
⦁ Sprinkel your fine chopped Walnuts to taste or make without nuts.
⦁ Take the dough at the edge and start to roll the dough up into a log shape and cut into 3. Place into your pan.

Leave at least 1″ more or less in between each roll. Cover with dish cloth and let rise for 30 minutes or until double to triple the size.

Preheat oven to 350′ degrees prior to cooking
Make sure you have at least 4″ inches of room around the rolls, if not, lower the rack.

Cook for 30 minutes in the center of the oven.

Take out of oven let set for 5 minutes.
Take a plate or plastic container to size and place on top of pan and flip it over. Leave the pan on top for 5 minutes. Lift pan off and let cool for 15 to 20 minutes.

ENJOY

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