Danish pastry

homemade-croissants

This is one project that is so worth it you will not believe. Imagine: you bite into a crunchy buttery pastry, still lukewarm from the oven… And you made it yourself! In only two days!

I found this recipe in the wonderful book, Paul Hollywood’s Bread, and you will find essentially the same recipe on this link. Of course, as in any of my recipes, I try to use as much of modern technology as possible, so I employed the KitchenAid to knead the dough. However, there is no escaping the manual work of layering the butter between the dough layers.

Once made, you can freeze the dough; before preparing, leave it in the fridge overnight.

For the fillings, your imagination is the limit. From this quantity, I filled half with an apple purée and chocolate combination, and from the other half I made (empty) croissants.

danish-pastry-raw

Danish pastry dough

  • Servings: 12
  • Difficulty: For the keen cook
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Ingredients

  • 250g/9oz unsalted butter
  • 500g/1lb 2oz strong white flour
  • 7g salt
  • 80g/3oz caster sugar (for both sweet and savoury)
  • 10g fast action yeast
  • 1 free-range egg, lightly whisked
  • 260ml/9fl oz full fat milk

Instructions

  1. Roll out the butter between two pieces of greaseproof paper into a rectangle about 15x30cm/6x12in and 8mm (third of an inch) thick. Place in the fridge for two hours.
  2. Meanwhile, to make the pastry dough, place the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in the bowl of a KitchenAid fitted with a dough hook, making sure the yeast does not come into direct contact with the salt. Mix in the egg and most of the milk until you have a soft dough. Add a dash more milk if there are still dry flakes in the bowl.
  3. Knead for 10 minutes, or until it can be stretched with your hands. (It will be slightly firmer than bread dough.) Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours at least.
  4. Once chilled roll the dough out onto a floured work surface and roll it into a 50x20cm/20x8in rectangle. Lay the chilled butter over two-thirds of the dough. Bring the unbuttered section into the centre, then fold over the covered top. You now have three layers of dough and two layers of butter. Pinch the edges together slightly to seal in the butter. Return the dough to the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
  5. Once chilled, give the dough a quarter turn and roll out the dough into a long rectangle again and repeat the folding process. Refrigerate for 30 minutes again. Repeat this process twice more then wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave it to rest overnight.
  6. After resting, you can portion the dough and freeze it.

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Apple and chocolate pastries

Ingredients

  • 1 quantity Danish pastry dough
  • 3 large free-range eggs, yolks only
  • 50g/1¾oz golden caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tbsp plain flour
  • 150ml/5fl oz milk
  • 150ml/5fl oz double cream
  • ½ tbsp calvados
  • 50g/1¾oz dark chocolate (80% cocoa), broken into pieces
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 6-7 medium-sized dessert apples, peeled, cores removed and chopped
  • 30g/1oz caster sugar
  • 2 free-range eggs, beaten

Instructions

  1. First make the chocolate crème patissière. Beat the eggs and sugar together in a bowl, then add the cocoa and flour, and whisk well.
  2. In a heavy-based saucepan, heat the milk, cream and calvados until it reaches a simmer, then slowly pour the mixture onto the eggs, whisking as you pour. Return the mixture to the pan and heat gently, stirring constantly, until it has thickened and come to the boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the broken chocolate and vanilla. Allow the chocolate to melt and stir to mix, then leave to cool covered with a disc of baking parchment to stop a skin forming.
  3. To make the apple purée, heat the apples with a splash of water and the caster sugar for 10 minutes, or until the apples are softened and broken down to a purée. (If needed blend the apple mixture in a food processor for one minute into a smooth purée, then pass it through a sieve.)
  4. Put the apple purée into a bowl and allow to cool completely.
    Take the chilled dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface to just under a centimetre thick and cut it into 12cm/4½in squares. You should get 8-12 equally sized squares.
    Spoon one tablespoon of the crème patissière onto the middle of each of the pastry squares and spoon one tablespoon of the apple purée next to it. Fold the pastry into triangles, and press the edges together firmly to seal.
  5. Arrange the pastries well-spaced apart on one or two baking trays lined with baking parchment. Cover with clingfilm, or place in a large plastic bag, and leave to rise for 1-2 hours.
    Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
  6. Pierce the top of the triangles with a sharp knife to let the steam out and brush the triangles with egg wash.
  7. Bake on a lined tray for 15-20 minutes, or until golden-brown. Cool them on a wire rack.

Croissants

Ingredients

  • 1 quantity Danish pastry dough
  • 2 free-range eggs, beaten

Instructions

  1. Roll the dough to about half a centimetre thickness, and cut it into triangles with two longer equal edges and one shorter edge. Starting from the shorter edge, tightly roll the dough.
  2. Arrange the croissants well-spaced apart on one or two baking trays lined with baking parchment. Cover with clingfilm, or place in a large plastic bag, and leave to rise for 1-2 hours.
    Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
  3. Brush the croissants with egg wash.
  4. Bake on a lined tray for 15-20 minutes, or until golden-brown. Cool them on a wire rack.

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