(no subject)
good god. I feel like I need a cigarette, and I hate the damn things.
needless to say, my danishes are very. very. very. good. a HELL of a lot of work. a HELL of a lot. but really, really, really good. omfg.
Mom and Dad have each had one, and they both agree that they are some DAMN FINE danishes.
Here's the recipe:
0.25 cup warm water
0.5 cup milk, room temperature
1 large egg, room temperature
2.25 cups white bread flour
1 packet (1/4) rapid-rise yeast or 1 tablespoon fresh yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into thin slices (Best butter you can get your mits on)
Put the water and milk into a measuring cup and add the egg, and beat it with a fork to mix.
The instructions say to then put all the dry ingredients into a food processor, whizz once to mix, then add the butter and process until there's about half inch chunks of butter all throughout the mix. Then dump everything into a bowl, add the wet stuff, and mix it until it's just combined and slap it in the fridge. If your food processor won't do that, put the dry stuff in a bowl, sand the butter in until it's in half inch chunks, then mix and put it in the fridge. Let it stay in there at least overnight, and up to four days.
This is the hard part. The next day, on a floured surface, scrape out your dough, and roll it into a 20" square. Or close to one. Fold it "like a business letter", in thirds, then rotate it 180 degrees. Repeat this step until when you look at the dough, you don't see any chunks of butter -- it should all look like happy nice pastry dough. It will suck up a lot of flour, and you may need to briefly toss it into the freezer a few times, to keep the butter from melting all over the place. Once it's all combined, using a VERY SHARP KNIFE, cut the dough into two equal pieces. Wrap up both pieces, and either put them both in the fridge, or put one in the fridge and one in the freezer.
4oz cream cheese
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon flour
Zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
0.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
Blend this all together, and refridgerate it for at least an hour, and up to 24 hours.
Take out your dough, and on a floured surface, roll it out into a big rectangle, roughly 0.25" thick. Slice it into 6 square shapes. (You might get a seventh danish out of the scraps.) Fill each of these squares with a generous tablespoon of the cheese filling, and then bring the corners into the center and pinch them together. Pinch them very hard, and then you might have to come back later and pinch them again before they go in the oven. ><
Once you have them all assembled and filled, put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and brush them with an egg wash. (1 large egg + 2tbsps milk + beating = eggwash.) Let them rise for 1.5 hours. Come back when there's 20-30 minutes left to go, and start preheating your oven to 350F. Once it's been ~1.5 hours and the danishes have doubled in size and feel marshmallowy, pop 'em in the oven for 15 minutes, or until they're golden brown. (My oven is old, so they were in there for longer than 15 minutes.)
While the danishes are baking, make a clear sugar glaze out of 0.33 cups sugar and 0.25 cups water, by slapping the two ingredients into a pot on the stove, then bringing the liquid to a boil. Once it's started boiling, turn it off and put a lid on it. :P
Once the danishes are done baking, put them onto a wire rack (set inside of another cookie sheet!) and let them cool for a few minutes, then brush them at least twice with the clear glaze. They'll suddenly look like danishes once you start putting the clear glaze on. XD Once they're mostly cool, drizzle the opaque glaze (0.25 cups confectioner's sugar mixed with a tablespoon or so of water, so it's a runny icing) over them with a fork.
Yay! You've made danishes!
The pastry recipe and the two glazes are copyright 2001 by Nigella Lawson. The cheese filling is ripped off of this recipe from Epicurious, though there are some obvious modifications on my part.
needless to say, my danishes are very. very. very. good. a HELL of a lot of work. a HELL of a lot. but really, really, really good. omfg.
Mom and Dad have each had one, and they both agree that they are some DAMN FINE danishes.
Here's the recipe:
0.25 cup warm water
0.5 cup milk, room temperature
1 large egg, room temperature
2.25 cups white bread flour
1 packet (1/4) rapid-rise yeast or 1 tablespoon fresh yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into thin slices (Best butter you can get your mits on)
Put the water and milk into a measuring cup and add the egg, and beat it with a fork to mix.
The instructions say to then put all the dry ingredients into a food processor, whizz once to mix, then add the butter and process until there's about half inch chunks of butter all throughout the mix. Then dump everything into a bowl, add the wet stuff, and mix it until it's just combined and slap it in the fridge. If your food processor won't do that, put the dry stuff in a bowl, sand the butter in until it's in half inch chunks, then mix and put it in the fridge. Let it stay in there at least overnight, and up to four days.
This is the hard part. The next day, on a floured surface, scrape out your dough, and roll it into a 20" square. Or close to one. Fold it "like a business letter", in thirds, then rotate it 180 degrees. Repeat this step until when you look at the dough, you don't see any chunks of butter -- it should all look like happy nice pastry dough. It will suck up a lot of flour, and you may need to briefly toss it into the freezer a few times, to keep the butter from melting all over the place. Once it's all combined, using a VERY SHARP KNIFE, cut the dough into two equal pieces. Wrap up both pieces, and either put them both in the fridge, or put one in the fridge and one in the freezer.
4oz cream cheese
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon flour
Zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
0.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
Blend this all together, and refridgerate it for at least an hour, and up to 24 hours.
Take out your dough, and on a floured surface, roll it out into a big rectangle, roughly 0.25" thick. Slice it into 6 square shapes. (You might get a seventh danish out of the scraps.) Fill each of these squares with a generous tablespoon of the cheese filling, and then bring the corners into the center and pinch them together. Pinch them very hard, and then you might have to come back later and pinch them again before they go in the oven. ><
Once you have them all assembled and filled, put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and brush them with an egg wash. (1 large egg + 2tbsps milk + beating = eggwash.) Let them rise for 1.5 hours. Come back when there's 20-30 minutes left to go, and start preheating your oven to 350F. Once it's been ~1.5 hours and the danishes have doubled in size and feel marshmallowy, pop 'em in the oven for 15 minutes, or until they're golden brown. (My oven is old, so they were in there for longer than 15 minutes.)
While the danishes are baking, make a clear sugar glaze out of 0.33 cups sugar and 0.25 cups water, by slapping the two ingredients into a pot on the stove, then bringing the liquid to a boil. Once it's started boiling, turn it off and put a lid on it. :P
Once the danishes are done baking, put them onto a wire rack (set inside of another cookie sheet!) and let them cool for a few minutes, then brush them at least twice with the clear glaze. They'll suddenly look like danishes once you start putting the clear glaze on. XD Once they're mostly cool, drizzle the opaque glaze (0.25 cups confectioner's sugar mixed with a tablespoon or so of water, so it's a runny icing) over them with a fork.
Yay! You've made danishes!
The pastry recipe and the two glazes are copyright 2001 by Nigella Lawson. The cheese filling is ripped off of this recipe from Epicurious, though there are some obvious modifications on my part.