Danish Pastries

A lazy start to the day with freshly ground coffee and warm danish pastries - sounds good doesn't it?

Problem is though they are quite time consuming to make so while the rest of the family slept soundly I was up at 7am - shaping and filling the danish pastries before proving them for another couple of hours. And that is on top of the three hours preparation the evening before and then resting the dough in the fridge overnight. You can't have a quick freshly made 'danish' fix!!

Danish pastries are made from laminated yeast-leavened dough. Layers of cold butter are introduced into an egg enriched dough by means of a number of folds and turns. I followed the instructions in Paul Hollywood's Bread Book - the photo above shows the recipe page from his book with perfect distinct layers - with my dough in front, with slightly less defined layers! Paul Hollywood has a great website  too with loads of scrummy recipies.

 

Good lamination!!

I made mini croissants, maple & pecan pinwheels, apricot & almond turnovers and raisin cinnamon swirls. The results were very tasty and instantly devoured once my lazy family surfaced!