Daring Bakers Challenge - Danish Braid
This months challenge for the Daring Bakers group was Danish Braid, also known as laminated dough. Wow. Since overcoming my fear of yeast this year, as well as surviving the Opera Cake fiasco, I was confident that this would be a successful challenge.
I actually remember my mother making puff pastry when I was a child, with the block of butter in the dough, folding it to seal the butter inside, then the 3 turns to create the flaky layers we know and love. This dough was prepared almost the exact same way. And since I was able to make the TWD’s brioche dough, I knew I could do this.
*pats self on back* And I did! I was so successful, in fact, that I made it twice in one month!!! I eschewed the apple filling and allowed myself to be swayed to the much loved pastry cream / chocolate chip filling, familiar to all who know and love New York style danishes.
My first attempt - I was a little skimpy with the filling, but ultimately that proved to be the way to go -
I had no problems whatsover, the dough was easy, especially since you could stretch the preparation over a 2 day period. I kept it simple, and love love loved it! David and Sabrina took to having a coin toss to see who would get the coveted end piece. And now that I think about it, the braid was the most difficult part of the process. I’ve never braided dough, but the DB’s provided helpful links that demonstrated the process and it really was simple enough to follow.
This is a recipe that I will make again and again - one batch of dough yielded 4 full size braids, which didn’t last too long in our house, so I made another round, and as I am typing this, there are 3 braids sitting in the freezer.
I was much more generous with filling the subsequent braids, which proved to be detrimental to the overall look of the pastry - my braids split open, however, they were every bit as tasty as the first batch. They just look like giant claws coming out of the sides of the pastry.
Ahhh, light, flaky and oh so delicious. Flush with confidence, I went back for round 2:
Notice how the strips are shorter, therefore the seal was lost as the heat expanded the pastry. It didn’t matter in the end - but I definitely learned how and how not to make the braids.
A wonderful challenge, I really enjoyed this! Thanks to Kelly and Ben for a terrific idea. I can’t wait to see what next month brings!
For the recipe in full detail, please visit Kelly or Ben’s blog -
Martha vs. Dorie (or, Danish vs. Brioche)
As part of my New Year’s resolution to conquer my fear of yeast, I decided to try and re-create the Chocolate Chip Danish my family loves. I mean, why start with something simple like white bread when you can go for the most difficult recipe in the book? I have always avoided yeast recipes for one simple reason - it doesn’t like me. Either the liquid is too hot, and the yeast is D.O.A. Or the liquid is too cold and the yeast stares at me as if to say “Ha, got you again - you can’t make me rise”. After temper tantrums, begging, crying, offers of economic persuasion, I threw in the towel. This year, well, this year things would be different.
Armed with my two of my favorite baking books, “Baking - From My Home to Yours” by Dorie Greenspan, and Martha Stewart’s “Baking Handbook”, I made what Martha calls “Danish Dough” and what Dorie calls “Brioche Dough”. And really, the recipes are so similar but the primary difference being the Danish dough is prepared like puff pastry (rolled, butter scattered and folded three times) and the Brioche dough has all the butter added to the dough while it’s mixing. The final prep is the same - roll the dough into a rectangle, spread with pastry cream, add your desired fruit-chocolate-nut filling, slice, rise and bake.
The majority of the labor is in the final stages - making the dough involves more chilling time than active time. Preparing the pastry cream is a snap, the crumb topping I added is so easy you could do it in your sleep, and the best part is all the components can be prepared ahead of time and if your family is lucky like mine, they will wake up and have freshly baked Chocolate Chip Danish waiting for them. Or turn the same dough/pastry cream combo into “Sugar Buns”, which involves filling squares of dough with pastry cream, rolling into balls, baking (after a short rise) then brushing the top with melted butter and rolling in sugar.
Mother of the Year Award - yeah, I’ve got it clinched!!
Look! (and drool, if you must)
