Cranberry Danish

On the Seventh day of Christmas, my True Love baked for me…

The 12 cakes of Christmas idea actually came from my restauranteur friend Ash, who suggested that I made a “Danish a day in December”.  It’s fair to say that I immediately recognised that it wouldn’t be possible for me to do that and hold down a full time lawyering job.  Danish is a little bit more time consuming and a little bit more demanding than cupcakes!

However, thinking about Christmas and the idea of Danish, it hit me that I’d never seen a Cranberry Danish.  I mean, it’s probably because I live in the southern hemisphere, where cranberries are pretty much dried and nothing else. I’m sure that somebody in the northern hemisphere has totally done Cranberry Danish already. But here is my take on the idea!

Full disclosure: they’re pretty great. The pastry forms gorgeous crispy layers and is so buttery. Of course if you don’t like cranberries you could substitute any other berry, pitted cherries, pears, or of course, apricot halves.

A little lesson in Danish Dough:

This lesson applies whether you’re making croissants, Danish, or cronuts. Actually making Danish dough is not that time-consuming in terms of actual work – most of the time is in chilling. I like to make it while I’m watching a movie on TV – complete up to stage 3, watch half an hour of movie, do stage 4 the first time, watch half an hour of movie, do stage 4 the second time, finish the movie, then make your Danish!

The dough also will keep in the fridge overnight, and it freezes very well.

Danish pastry – stage 1

Stage 1: Unwrap the lump of butter paste and place it between two large sheets of baking paper. Using a rolling-pin, roll the butter paste into a rectangle about 18cm x 12cm. Use a knife to “correct” the edges so that you have an even rectangle. Wrap the butter paste rectangle in the baking paper and chill until firm (I have wrapped mine in cling wrap so you can see it!).

Danish pastry- stage 2

Stage 2: Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 20cm x 40cm rectangle. Take the butter paste out of the refrigerator and place the butter in the middle of the dough.

Danish pastry – stage 3

Stage 3: Make an envelope fold. Fold one side of the dough over the butter, then the other side over. Press the dough down with your fingers as shown in the stage 4 picture below. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Danish pastry – stage 4

Stage 4: Roll the dough/butter envelope out to a 20 x 40cm rectangle, flouring your surface as needed. The edges of the previous fold should on the short edge of the rectangle. Make another envelope fold (this time folding the edges of the previous fold into the centre of the dough – you can see one side of those three folded edges in the picture above) and press down with your fingers. Wrap and chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Repeat Stage 4 one more time, taking some care now to be gentle with the dough, because the dough-butter laminations are getting quite thin (final fold shown in stage 4 picture above). Wrap and chill the dough for 30 minutes. Your Danish dough is then ready to use.

Danish pastry 

Cranberry Danish

The recipe makes about 24 but I tend to only make 12 at a time. The leftover pastry freezes extremely well.

Danish dough

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
7 g package dry yeast
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 cups flour (plus extra for rolling)
1 teaspoon salt

Combine the water, milk, sugar and yeast in a bowl, stirring to help the yeast to dissolve. Place in a warm spot and allow to form a sponge – about 5-10 minutes. Stir in the eggs and vanilla.

Combine the flour and salt  in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook (or in a large bowl if you are doing this by hand!). Make a well in the centre and pour in the dry ingredients. Mix until a dough forms, and continue mixing until the dough is relatively even and smooth. If you are working by hand use a wooden spoon until the dough comes together, then knead the dough on a lightly floured surface. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.  Make the butter paste while the dough is resting. When the butter paste is ready, laminate the dough and butter paste into Danish dough following the tutorial above.

Butter paste

250g unsalted butter, slightly cooler than room temperature
1/4 cup flour

Combine the butter and flour with a wooden spoon. Scoop onto a large sheet of cling wrap and pat down into a rectangular lump. Wrap and chill in the freezer for a few minutes.

Custard filling

ingredients

mixing

Vanilla sugar syrup

You can make as much or as little of this as you like. This recipe makes much more than you need but it is a convenient size to handle. You can keep the rest of the syrup in a bottle in the refrigerator indefinitely. It’s great for cocktails also!

making the Danish

Roll out the dough to about 6mm thick and cut into 8cm squares. Using the point of a sharp knife, make a cut halfway through the depth of the pastry at a distance of about 1 cm from the edges. This will allow the edges to rise up a little more than the centre of the dough, making a rim around the filling.

Place about 2 tbsp of custard in the centre of each square of dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon, top with about five cranberries and a sprinkle of flaked almonds. 

Cover the assembled Danish in plastic, and leave in a slightly warm place for about 30 minutes to let them rise until they are between 1.5 and 2 times the original size. Take care that the place you put the Danish isn’t too warm – no more than about 30 degrees, or the butter you carefully layered into the dough will start to melt out.

When the Danish have puffed up a bit, bake at 210 degrees Celsius for about 12-15 minutes or until nicely risen and golden brown. Brush with vanilla sugar syrup while the Danish are still hot.

 Enjoy!xxx