How to Make Danish Pastry Dough From Scratch
Baking is one of my favorite pastimes. I enjoy baking cookies, cakes, breads, pies, muffins, cupcakes, and much more.
Making Danish pastry dough is a bit time-consuming, but you will be very pleased with the results.
What Is Danish Pastry?
Danish pastry is a multilayered, laminated sweet pastry in the viennoiserie tradition. It consists of yeast-leavened dough and fat, such as butter. Delicate and buttery, it reminds me French pastries like croissants and brioche.
The Process of Making the Dough
The process is a bit time-consuming, as it requires rolling, chilling, shaping, and raising before the Danish ready to be baked in the oven. As a self-taught baker, I learned that patience is a virtue. The best advice I can give you is to make sure to follow the directions exactly.
How to Make and Shape the Danish?
One of the special features of Danish pastry is the variety of shapes you can give the dough. Another is the wide variety of luscious fillings you can use. If you're planning to bake after the final chilling, take the dough out, roll, and shape to any style you prefer. The dough can also be chilled overnight to bake it the next day. I decided to leave the dough in the fridge and let it chill overnight.
Ingredients
For the sponge:
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
For the dough:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups pastry flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 cups cold salted butter, cut into pieces
Directions
- Make the sponge: In a mixing bowl, combine the warm water, flour and yeast. Combine the mixture evenly by using a spatula. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Transfer the mixture to the stand mixer with a hook attachment. Combine the all-purpose flour, pastry flour, half of the butter, and sugar. Mix using a low speed.
- Continue adding the remaining butter to the bowl and increase the speed to medium for 2 minutes or until the mixture forms a dough. (You'll notice there are chunks of butter in the dough. This is good! The butter chunks help make the pastry flaky).
- Transfer the dough from the mixer to a bowl. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes before putting it in the fridge for 2 hours.
- After the dough has chilled for 2 hours, prepare a lightly floured board. Turn the dough out and dust with a little flour. Roll the dough to a rectangle. Bring two short ends of the dough to meet in the center. Then, fold the dough in half at the point where they meet (see photo below). Wrap dough with cling wrap and chill again in the fridge for 2 hours.
- Take the dough out and roll it again into a rectangle, turn the dough over and fold it into thirds (see photo below). Wrap dough with cling wrap and chill for 2 hours. Repeat the same step one more time; wrap and chill another 2 hours (or overnight).
- After 2 hours (or the next day), take out the dough and make the Danish. It can be a twist, swirl, or any shape that you want with your favorite fillings.
Note: Using the dough scraper helped me throughout the process. You might want to have a scraper while rolling and folding the dough process.
Photo Tutorial
Make the sponge: In a mixing bowl, combine the warm water, flour, and yeast. Combine the mixture evenly by using a spatula. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
The cold butter. I would recommend cutting the butter into pieces and letting it sit in the fridge until it's ready to add to the mixture.
Combine the all-purpose flour, pastry flour, half of the butter, and sugar. At a lower speed, mix.
Continue adding the remaining butter to the bowl and increase the speed to medium for 2 minutes or until the mixture forms a dough.
Take the dough out from the mixer and transfer to a bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it stand for 30 minutes before putting it in the fridge.
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Lightly floured the board before rolling.
This is how the dough looks for the first chill.
The first stage. Roll the dough into a rectangle.
Bring the two short ends of the dough to meet in the center.
Fold the dough in half at the point where they meet.
Wrap the dough with cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, take out the dough out.
The second stage. Roll it out again into a rectangle.
Turn the dough over and fold it into thirds.
Wrap the dough with cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
The third stage. After 2 hours, roll out the dough into a rectangle shape.
Turn the dough over and fold it into thirds.
Wrap the dough with cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
After two hours, the dough pastry should look smooth. I decided to let it sit overnight before making Danish the next day.
© 2020 Liza
