Kay Nimitz Smith -- Writer, Mom, Goddess in Training: Granini's Danish Pastries

Granini's Danish Pastries

Recipe

These pastries actually require four different recipes. One for the dough, one for the cream cheese innards, one for the lemon filling, and one for the (optional) cream cheese coconut glaze.

I will post all four recipes here, but I think the lemon filling deserves its own set of instructions and pictures -- not because it's that difficult, but rather because the lemon goodness can be used for multiple tasty treats.

Ingredients for the dough:

(Thank you to Dessert for Two for her fantastic recipe!)

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

10 Tablespoons of salted butter

1/3 cup ice cold water

PLUS: 1 egg white in a separate dish for brushing onto your pastries when you're done filling them and shaping them and right before you pop them in the oven.

Ingredients for the cream cheese innard goodness:

1/2 cube of cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Ingredients for the (optional) cream cheese glazy drizzle

1/2 cube cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla,

1/4 cup coconut milk

Ingredients for the lemon filling

(Thank you to Christopher Kimball's Dessert Bible)

10 Tablespoons sugar (1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons)

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

7/8 cup (1 cup minus 2 Tablespoons) cold water

2 large egg yolks

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 Tablespoons grated lemon zest

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Instructions for the pasty dough:

The pastry dough is a bit like making a very buttery pie crust that becomes more and more malleable with each and every rolling of the dough. And once it rests, it's quite easy to shape.

Sift your flour and salt together onto a good working surface.
Cut your cold butter into fine cubes
Make a well in your sifted ingredients.
Plunk your dainty butter cubes into the well, and use a fork or a pastry knife to mix them together thoroughly. You want your flour to look a bit like course oatmeal by the time you're finished.
Make another well in your flour.
Add in the ice cold water.
Gently, very gently, use a fork to cover the flour. Then gently mix everything together until you have a nice dough ball. Don't worry if there is a lot of flour left over. You'll end up mixing that in eventually through the next steps.
Lightly flour your rolling pin.
Roll the dough out into a long rectangle.
Fold the bottom third up, and the top third down. Then rotate the dough 90° and repeat FIVE times. Roll, fold, fold, rotate. Repeat.
Then wrap your dough in plastic wrap and let it sit for at least an hour. You can even refrigerate overnight and then roll it out into your shapes in the morning!
Once you've let your dough sit and relax and chill out, you're ready for some fun!
There are many different shapes for making pastries. AND, there are many different sizes. I've only tried a couple. But I prefer smaller danishes rather than big ones.
A few easy shapes are these: Roll the dough into a rectangle, and then cut into small squares. Fill your dough with your cream cheese and then your lemon (or whatever berry filling you like). Then fold over the two corners to make a flattened version of a cannoli.
OR, you can roll the dough into rectangles, cut into small squares, then cut your dough at diagonals, fill the centers, and then fold over each one of the corners to make a pretty pinwheel.
OR, you can cut the dough into strips, twist and roll the dough into a round spiral, make a divot in the center, and fill.
I'll practice more with these lovely danishes, and put up more pictures as I learn!
AFTER you are done shaping and filling your danishes, lightly brush them with egg white. Then bake at 430° for 18 minutes or so, or until the tops are golden brown. Don't under bake them, or they will be doughy.
Once the danishes have baked and cooled completely, feel free to drizzle on the optional cream cheese coconut glaze.
Enjoy!

For those of you who like pictures, here you go!

Cut your butter into thin slices

Flip it around 90° and cut it into thin cubes

Pile on the butter onto the flour.

Use a pastry knife to mix the butter into the flour.

Add in your ice cold water. Ice cold water, rather than room temperature, helps your dough become quite flaky and delicious.

It's almost into a ball.

A ball! Don't worry if there's a lot of flour left over. It will all incorporate after you roll it out several times.

Roll it out into a long rectangle.

Fold the bottom third up and the top third down.

Roll it out again. Turn.

Then repeat five times.

Roll, fold, fold, rotate 90°. Repeat.

Once you're done with your rolling and folding, put your dough in plastic wrap and let it sit for an hour or overnight.

When you're ready to work with your dough, roll it out onto parchment paper.

Make it fairly thin (about 1/8 inch thick).

Shape into a rectangle.

Cut into squares.

You can be sloppy if you want, but the nicer your rectangles, the more pretty your pastries will turn out. Mine are pretty sloppy. But hey, it was my first time. I need some practice!!

I made two different shapes, because I wanted to know which would taste better and which would look better. Then I filled them.

Put the lemon on the top.

Folded everything over.

Here's a close up. Make sure that your dough pieces are touching in the center so that they bake together and don't 'open up' while they rise in the oven.