How to make danish pastry
HOW TO MAKE DANISH PASTRY
Danish pastries come in many layers, no pun intended - and as many layers they have as delicious they are. Traditional Danish pastry dough is in itself really just a yeast dough, where butter is rolled into the dough. 27 layers must be made and this is done by folding the dough over each other and rolling it together.
When the dough is baked, the combination of butter and yeast will make the layers grow and thereby achieve the crispy airy pastries the Danes love so much.
If you want to try baking your own danish pastries then keep reading, we have made a quick recipe guide that should get you started in the art of baking your own danish pastries - just like a real danes.
WHAT ARE DANISH PASTRIES?
Danish pastry, also known as wienerbørd or simply just Danish. Wienerbrød is a multilayered, laminated sweet pastry with roots in viennoiserie tradition. This pastry type is named Danish because it originates from Denmark. Like other viennoiserie products, such as croissants, Danish pastries are a variant of puff pastry.
THE MOST POPULAR DANISH PASTRIES IN AMERICA
Danish pastries are not only popular in Denmark and America, it has become more like a trademark for Denmark around the world, which we are very proud of. Some of our most popular products would be “Winerbrød”, the Spandauer that comes with different types of fillings, The famous Copenhagener, and last but not least our very popular Cinnamon Social™ that you just need to try for yourself.
5 ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS IN A DANISH
It’s actually pretty easy to make a traditional danish pastry dough and
and it only requires a few ingredients. We have listed the ingredients you need to start a great dough. The hardest thing is the technique but with practice comes mastery.
- Milk
- Water
- Yeast
- Egg
- Sugar
- Flour
- Salt
- Danish butter or margarine
HOW TO BAKE A DANISH SPANDAUER
We promised you a quick guide and an introduction to the beauty of Danish pastry baking so here we go.
First of all you need to make the dough for the pastry of choice. For this recipe we went with one of our most popular products, the Spandauer, also called the baker's bad eye in Denmark which refers to the filling inside the pastry and not to the taste - don't you worry.
SPANDAUER RECIPE:
- Dissolve yeast in cold water.
- Add eggs and sugar.
- Knead the flour little by little.
- Put the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Take the dough out of the fridge.
- Roll it out to 20 x 35 cm. ca. 1 cm. thickness.
- Take the butter out of the fridge. Cut slices of butter and cover 2/3 of the dough with slices of butter.
- Then first fold one side over and fold it over again, so that you end up folding twice, then refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes before continuing with the next folding.
- Then roll it out again and fold it in the same way. When it is to be rolled out again, you just turn the dough so that you roll it out again on the long joint.
- You repeat this 3 times.
- Then roll out the dough and cut it into squares. Add your filling of choice so it’s distributed on each square and then fold it as a package. Then place them on a baking sheet and let them rise for approx. 1.5 hours.
- Before baking, place 1 tbsp. cream in the middle.
- Bake at 220 degrees alm. oven and approx. 12-14 minutes.
- Let them cool.
- Stir icing together of icing sugar and water.
- Decorate your spandauers with the icing and serve when the icing has solidified.