Danish Dough

The next four recipes all begin with Danish dough--a close relative of croissant dough but with the extra addition of eggs, making it the softest of all laminated doughs. To begin, I created the dough block--a rough mixture of whole milk, yeast, flour, salt, and sugar. Once the dough block was formed, it went into the fridge for thirty minutes to chill. While the dough block chilled, I mixed cubes of butter with flour to create the beurrage (butter block) that would go between the layers of dough. Similar to croissants, Danish dough involves several "turns" to create the flaky layers in the finished pastries. The first turn was a letter turn, meaning the dough is folded in thirds like a letter. After an hour long chill, the dough was rolled out again and then folded using the book fold method (four folds layered like a book). Back into the fridge for another chill, and then one final letter fold. The finished Danish dough was now ready to chill overnight before forming the base for Cheese Danish and Cardamom Twists.

Next: Cheese Danish