The Art of Danish Pastry: A Guide to Creating Beautiful and Delicious Pastries

Creating a beautiful and delicious Danish pastry is a art form that requires patience, skill, and attention to detail. As we begin our journey through the world of Danish pastry, it's essential to understand the importance of starting with the right ingredients and equipment. The pastry dough should be made from high-quality ingredients, including flour, sugar, eggs, and butter, which will provide a solid foundation for our creations.

The first step in creating a beautiful Danish pastry is to roll out the dough into a long, thin strip, about the same width as the length of the strips. This may seem like a simple task, but it's crucial to get this right, as it will determine the shape and structure of our pastry. If you're new to making Danish pastry, don't worry if it doesn't make sense at first; just take your time and practice until you get the hang of it.

Once we have our strip of dough, it's time to create the tree-like pattern that is characteristic of Danish pastry. To do this, we pipe a mixture of cheese and raspberry jam down the center strip, folding the top of the tree down over the filling and then interweaving the branches on a diagonal over the filling, alternating left to right. This creates a beautiful, intricate pattern that is both visually striking and delicious.

To add an extra layer of complexity to our pastry, we can also create the pointy twisty, which involves brushing down with beaten egg and folding half of each triangle towards the center in an alternating fashion. Another shape we can create is the pinwheel, which requires placing 90-degree cuts in each corner of the pastry, leaving a gap between them, and then brushing down with beaten egg yolk and folding the loosened corners toward the center to create a pinwheel-like pattern.

For the more experienced baker, there's also the option to create a miniature version of our Danish braid. This involves piping the first stuff, piping the other stuff, brushing it down with beaten egg, and folding each facet of the square towards the center until everything is ensconced in an elegant eclair. Finally, we can create the lazy crumple-doo by simply brushing one side of the square and folding it on top of itself.

Of course, no pastry collection would be complete without a few special treats. To add some extra flair to our Danish pastry, we can also create a miniature version of the pointy twisty, which involves placing 90-degree cuts in each corner of the pastry, leaving a gap between them, and then brushing down with beaten egg yolk and folding the loosened corners toward the center to create a pinwheel-like pattern. However, be warned: this shape can be a bit temperamental, as it requires precise cutting and folding techniques.

To take our Danish pastry to the next level, we need to consider the importance of filling. A good filling is essential to balancing out the sweetness of the pastry and adding an extra layer of flavor. We'll use dollops of cheese and raspberry jam as our filling, which will provide a delicious contrast to the sweet pastry.

To ensure that our pastry turns out perfectly golden brown and puffed, we need to bake it in a hot oven (400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 18 minutes) on the middle rack. This will help the pastry cook evenly and prevent it from becoming soggy or greasy.

Finally, as we wait for our Danish pastry to cool, we can drizzle it with our slightly thicker drizzle, which is made by whisking together powdered sugar and milk until smooth and creamy. This adds an extra layer of sweetness and indulgence to our pastry, making it truly unforgettable.

In the end, creating a beautiful and delicious Danish pastry is all about experimentation and having fun. Don't be afraid to try new things and make mistakes – they can often lead to unexpected surprises and delicious creations. And with these tips and techniques, you'll be well on your way to becoming a master of Danish pastry in no time.

Baking Danish Pastry: The Importance of Technique

When it comes to baking Danish pastry, technique is everything. As we've seen, the right ingredients are essential, but the real magic happens when we put our hands together with the dough and shape it into the desired form. In this section, we'll explore the importance of technique in creating beautiful and delicious Danish pastry.

The first step in developing a good technique for Danish pastry is to practice, practice, practice! Like any skill, making Danish pastry requires patience and attention to detail. It's essential to take your time when rolling out the dough, folding it over the filling, and shaping it into its final form. This will help you develop a sense of how the dough responds to different techniques and allow you to make adjustments as needed.

Another crucial aspect of technique is temperature control. When baking Danish pastry, we need to ensure that our oven is at the right temperature (400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 18 minutes) to prevent the pastry from becoming soggy or greasy. This requires attention to detail and a keen sense of observation – will the dough be perfectly golden brown by now? Will it still have a nice sheen to it?

Finally, technique is also about presentation. When we shape our Danish pastry into its final form, we need to consider how it will look on the plate. A beautifully crafted pastry can make all the difference in an otherwise ordinary baking experience. By paying attention to texture, color, and overall appearance, we can create a stunning centerpiece that's sure to impress.

The Importance of Ingredients

When it comes to making Danish pastry, ingredients are everything. The quality of our ingredients will directly impact the flavor, texture, and overall deliciousness of our pastry. In this section, we'll explore the importance of choosing high-quality ingredients for our Danish pastry.

First and foremost, we need to choose a good flour that will provide structure and stability to our pastry. All-purpose flour is an excellent choice, as it offers a balance between strength and tenderness. We should also use high-quality butter, which will add richness and flavor to our pastry. And of course, no Danish pastry would be complete without a generous amount of sugar – this adds sweetness and indulgence to our pastry.

But ingredients are not just about taste; they're also about texture and consistency. When we mix together our dough, we need to ensure that the ingredients are well combined and evenly distributed. This requires attention to detail and a keen sense of observation – is the dough too sticky or too dry? Will it hold its shape when folded over the filling?

By choosing high-quality ingredients and paying close attention to texture and consistency, we can create a delicious and beautiful Danish pastry that's sure to impress.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

When making Danish pastry, there are several common mistakes that can lead to disappointment. In this section, we'll explore some of the most common mistakes to avoid.

First and foremost, one of the most common mistakes is overmixing the dough. When we mix together our ingredients, we need to be careful not to overdo it – this can lead to a tough or dense pastry that's unpalatable. To avoid this, we should mix our dough just until the ingredients are well combined and evenly distributed.

Another common mistake is underbaking the pastry. This can result in a pastry that's still raw in the center or even burnt around the edges. To avoid this, we need to keep a close eye on our oven temperature (400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 18 minutes) and check our pastry regularly during baking.

Finally, one of the most common mistakes is not using the right amount of filling. Too little filling can result in a pastry that's dry and unpalatable, while too much filling can lead to a pastry that's soggy or greasy. To avoid this, we need to be mindful of our ingredient ratios and use just the right amount of filling.

By avoiding these common mistakes, we can create a beautiful and delicious Danish pastry that's sure to impress.

Conclusion

In conclusion, making Danish pastry is an art form that requires patience, skill, and attention to detail. With practice, technique, and high-quality ingredients, we can create beautiful and delicious pastries that are sure to impress. Whether you're a seasoned baker or just starting out, the world of Danish pastry has something to offer – from classic shapes like the pointy twisty to more modern creations like the eclair-like miniature Danish pastry. So go ahead, get creative, and indulge in the sweet taste of success!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Binging with Babishand bingingwithbabish.com arebrought to you by Squarespace.Head there now to check outall of the recipes from the show,kitchen equipment lists and more.Get 10% off your first Squarespace orderby visiting squarespace.com/babish.From websites and online storesto marketing tools and analytics,Squarespace is the all-in-one platformto build a beautiful online presenceand run your business.- Like who would havethought that once again,in your hour of need, that,that you would turn to us, you know?- I admit.- Hm, help yourself.- Hey what's up with the fancy pastry.We got to keep the food budget down.- Well, what are we supposedto have for breakfast?- The oatmeal packets.- Oatmeal packets.- Hey, what's up guys.Welcome back to Binging with Babish.For this week, we're taking a lookat the fancy pastry fromAnt-Man and the Wasp,which of course is justan Entenmann's Raspberry Danish Twist.Now I am of course, livingon earth with a heartand the intelligence of a human being.So I love Entenmann's.After all, it's basicallyjust sugar that you can chew,but as I'm sure any Dane will tell you,it's a pretty far cry from Danish pastry.It is very soft.It is extraordinarily sweetand it's got streuselon it for some reason.And again, it's delicious.So I don't really feel aneed to improve upon it.And I will freely admit that this episodewas just an excuse tosurprise my girlfriend, Jesswith her favoritepastry, raspberry Danish.But I think I'm allowed to dothat every once in a while.So let's dig in.The first thing we're gonnaneed is very high qualityand very French butter.You ideally wanna use French butterbecause it actually hasa higher melting pointthan other butters.We're following a recipefrom King Arthur flour.So into the bowl of the stand mixergoes 659 grams of all purpose flour,which of our 450 grams of unsalted butter,we're gonna grab about 30grams or two tablespoons worthand work it into theflour with our fingerslike we're making a pie dough.This apparently coats the flourwith a bit of fat makingthe pastry more tenderbut I don't know if that's true.We're also adding 67 grams of sugarand 12 grams of instant yeast.Tiny whisking until homogenousand then it's time to add the wet stuff.75 milliliters or about a thirdof a cup of lukewarm waterand 230 milliliters ofrefrigerator cold, full fat milk.We're also adding about three gramsor one teaspoon of vanillaextract and two large eggsbecause Danish pastry isvery similar to croissant,but instead of a lean dough,it's a very soft and enriched dough,which makes it a lot more forgiving.Anyway, we're mixing thattogether with 15 gramsof kosher salt and mixinguntil just combinedand no dry spots remainedabout two minutes.What will result is a very sticky doughthat we're gonna cover and let rest,whilst we prepare our butter squares.You heard me right.Butter squares, not square.On two sheets of parchment paper,we are placing the remaining halvesof our 450 grams of butterand using a rolling pinand our repressed rage,pounding out to a thickness ofabout one or two centimeters.Then we're opening up the parchment paperfolding the butter inhalf, flouring as necessaryand pounding out again.A sum total of fourtimes or until the butterhas the consistency andrigidity of Play-Doh,that is you can almostbend it entirely in halfwithout it breaking.Rinse and repeat with theother half of the butterand there you have, itour two butter rectangles,which we're gonna set aside,while we generously flour our countertop,turnout our enriched yeasted dough.Use a bench scraper tocoax it into a rectangle,roughly the same sizeas our butter rectangleand roll it out to aboutthree times its widthand a few centimeters tallerso it can perfectly envelop the butter.The first slap of which, we're gonna placein the center of the dough andthen fold one side over it,making sure to drape and not stretch.Then we're gonna lay thesecond butter rectangleat top of that and giveeverybody a thorough dustingto make sure that there's no excess flourbecause as we fold theremaining third of the doughthe butter, we wanteverything to stick together,which we will emphasize bypinching the edges shut.And there you have it pastrywith two layers of butter,but now we are going toperform the task of laminating,that is rolling the dough outto about the same width andheight that it was before.Once again, brushing off any excess flourand folding, once again into thirds,like a pamphlet, a pastry pamphletfor pastry pundits.Had to pull out thethesaurus for that one.And just like that, we'vegot six layers of butter,but we're not done.We're gonna wrap plastic wrapand fridge for 20 minutesbefore unwrapping androlling out once again,folding into thirds androlling out one more time.So hang on six times three times three.Let me just do the math real quick.My calculator tells me thatthat's 54 layers of butter,which we're gonna wrap in plasticand left rest in the fridge for anywherefrom four to 16 hours,before cutting into our desired portionsand rolling out for final assembly,which in our first attemptto sort of recreatethe Entenmann's vibe, we'regonna cut into a rectangle.I wanna imitate the Entenmann'sdimensions as best as I can.That's a tongue twister.So I'm going to measure out a rectangleabout 13 by six inches becauseI anticipate it shrinkingabout an inch in eachdirection when baked.Then I'm cutting out threeone inch wide strips,brushing off any excessflour, brushing my strips downwith a beaten egg and laying one stripin the middle of therectangle with two stripsflanking it on each side.This I hope is gonna give usthe two sort of raspberrycanals that you getwith the Entenmann's Danish twist.Then we're gonna placethis on a rim baking sheetand cover with greased plasticwrap, proofed for one hour.To make our cheese filling,we're combining a 100 gramseach cream cheese and ricotta,along with one whole egg.I'm just kidding.Remove the egg from its shell.35 grams of sugar and agenerous pinch of kosher salt.Sorry, tiny whisk.This is not a job for you.Now you could easily whiskthis together in a stand mixer,but I was feeling thatspecial kind of lazywhere doing the hardthing somehow feels easierthan getting the thingout to do the easy thing.Then we are retrieving our proven pastryand piping into the channelsboth our cheese mixtureand some raspberry jam.And in this case, it's better to optfor store-bought raspberry jam.I tried making my own and it's too runny.Brush the whole thingdown with a beaten eggand bake at 400 degreesFahrenheit for 15 to 18 minutesand do not bake it on the top rack.or you're gonna get this weird dapplinginstead of the nice evenbrowning that you're after,but it's still totally edibleso we're gonna make aglaze out of a big pileof confectioner's sugar mixed withjust a little bit of skim milk.So it doesn't end up too runny,like you know, this one is.Then I'm attempting to imitate Entenmann'sweird glaze pattern.It's kind of like a rainbow shapeand I'm slicing and serving.And I gotta say, this isjust not doing it for me.It's totally delicious.But I think the shape was developedfor factory optimization andthere's no artistry in it.And danishes are an opportunityfor prettily patterned pastry.So let's roll out another half batchof dough to a thicknessof about one centimeterand take a crack at theever popular Danish braid.This involves trimmingyour dough into a rectangleand then placing diagonalcuts down the sidesof the pastry about two centimeters wideand leaving a gap inthe center of the pastryabout the same width asthe length of the strips.Did that make any sense?No? Well, just make itlook like a Christmas tree.Then we are piping our cheese mixtureand raspberry jam down that center strip,folding the top of thetree down over the fillingand then interleaving thebranches that is folding them overon a diagonal over the fillingalternating left to right,creating the picturesque patternknown as the Danish braid.Tuck the bottom flapunder the last two strips.Cover with greased plasticwrap proof for one hour.Now, like I said, you don't generallywanna use homemade jam.I did, and I experiencedsome leakage, but no biggie.Brush down with a beaten eggand bake at 400 degreesFahrenheit for 15 to 18 minutes.This time on the middle rack.So you get that perfectlygolden brown pastrythat will haunt your dreamswhen you're at a gas stationand you want breakfast.Once completely cooled on a wire rack,drizzle with your glaze, slice and serve.And I gotta say, as far aselongated, sliceable pastriesfor a crowd go, this is the one you want,but if you really wanna explorejust how pretty Danish pastry can be,you need to only roll it outand slice it into even squares.And upon these squares,you shall build your churchfor my favorite patterns,simply fold in half diagonallyand place two cuts downthe sides of the pastryleaving a gap at the end.Brush off any excess flour.Separate the two flaps you'venow created on each sideand fold them over each other.To make the Danish known as,I don't know what it's called,let's call it the pointy twisty,which when you actually make it,you're gonna first wannabrush down with a beaten egg,both for color and soeverybody sticks to everybody.Next up, what I can onlyimagine is called the pinwheel.Place four cuts from each corner,leaving a gap in the center,brush down with beaten eggand fold half of each triangletowards the center inan alternating fashionso that it forms a pinwheel.Next up, a rather complicatedone that has a big payoff.We're gonna place 90 degree cutsin each corner of the pastry,leaving a gap between them.Brush down with beaten egg yolk and foldthe now loosened corners towardsthe center of the pastry,creating what I'm gonna callthe corner cut crazy carnation.Then the easiest of all the shapes,basically just brush thething down with egg yolkand fold each facet of thesquare towards the centerto create what I callthe lazy crumple-doo.Next, we can actuallymake a miniature versionof our Danish braid.Basically just do everything I said beforebut in a smaller way.Pipe the first stuff,pipe the other stuff,brushy brush with beaten egg, foldy folduntil everything's ensconcedin an elegant eclair.And then last but notleast, the one that I wishedthat I didn't do on camerabecause it kind of exploded,just brush down one side of the squareand folded on top of itself,like an open-ended Danish burrito.Then we are filling ouras yet unfilled pastrieswith dollops of cheese at raspberry jamand as usual baking at400 degrees Fahrenheitfor 15 to 18 minutes until golden brown,puffed and picture perfect.Except for, you know, this guy,who I warned you about, Itold you he's a troublemaker,but everybody else islooking pretty damn nice.To ensure crispness, weare cooling completelyon a wire rack and then drizzlingwith our slightly thicker drizzle.Otherwise it just kind ofdisappears into the pastryand then finally we're digging inand I think this is the way to do Danish.Not only is it pretty, but it's smaller.So it's able to puff up moreand the pastry is ableto bake more evenly.It's somewhere betweencroissant and brioche.It is jammy and cheesy andjust the right amount of sweet.And it's a member of the clean Jess club.This episode and many othershave been sponsored by Squarespacebecause they've been an amazingpartner in both bringingthis show and my websites to life.They've got a reallyintuitive, easy to use platformthat made it super easyfor someone like me,who's never done web design, ever.They have templates, they do domains.They have really good customer service.It's basically a one-stop shopfor building a really slick website.If you wanna try it for yourself,you can start your free trial todayby visiting squarespace.com/babishto get 10% off your first purchase.(upbeat music)\n"