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Recipe Categories : | Pastries
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Ingredients :
- 2 envelopes active dry yeast
- ½ cup very warm water
- ¼ - ½ cup sugar
- ¾ cup milk, cold
- 2 eggs
- 4 ¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1 tspn salt
- 1 lb butter
- flour for work surface
Preparation and Cooking Instructions :
- Sprinkle yeast into very warm water in a 1 cup measuring cup. ("Very
warm" water should feel comfortably warm when dropped on wrist.) Stir
in ½ teaspoon of the sugar. Stir until yeast dissolves. Let stand,
undisturbed until bubbly and double in volume, about 10 minutes. Now
you can tell the yeast is working.
- Combine remaining sugar, milk, eggs, 3 cups of the flour, salt, and
the yeast mixture in a large bowl. Beat with electric mixer at medium
speed, for 3 minutes (or beat with spoon for 3 minutes). Beat in remaining
flour with a wooden spoon until dough is shiny and elastic (dough capable
electric mixer is fine, this is an old recipe!). Dough will be soft.
Scrape down sides of bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Place the sticks of butter 1 inch apart, between two sheets of waxed
paper; roll out to a 12 inch square. Chill on cookie sheet until ready
to use.
- Sprinkle working surface heavily with flour, about 1/3 cup; turn
dough out onto flour; sprinkle flour on top of dough. Roll out to an
18" x 13" rectangle. Brush off excess flour with a soft pastry brush.
- Peel off top sheet of wax paper from butter; place butter paper side
up on one end of dough to cover 2/3 of the dough; peel off remaining
sheet of waxed paper. For easy folding, carefully score butter lengthwise
down the center, without cutting into the dough. Fold the third of dough
which is not covered with butter over the middle third of the dough
to enclose the butter completely. Turn dough clockwise so the open side
is away from you.
- Roll out to a 24" x 12" rectangle using enough flour to keep dough
from sticking. Fold both side ends in to meet in the center of the dough
(creating a folded edge at both sides of dough). Fold in half to bring
the two folded edges together and create four layers of dough. Turn
again so the open side is away from you. * Repeat rolling and folding
this way two more times. Keep the dough to a perfect rectangle by rolling
straight up and down and from side to side. When it is necessary, chill
the dough between rollings. Clean off the working surface each time
and dust lightly with flour. Refrigerate dough 1 hour or more (even
overnight, if you wish) to relax dough and firm up butter layers). Cut
dough in half. You can see the buttery layers, which when baked become
flaky and crisp. Work with only half the dough at a time. Keep the other
half covered and refrigerated until ready to use.
** TIPS FOR THE BAKER: It is important to keep butter enclosed in dough.
If it oozes out, immediately sprinkle with flour and if dough becomes
too sticky to handle it is probably because the butter has softened.
Just chill 30 minutes before continuing rolling and folding.
Use more flour than you would normally use for rolling out pastries,
then brush off excess with a soft pastry brush before folding or filling;
this way flour will not build up in the pastry.
Since the dough is very rich, it is best to let pastries rise at room
temperature . Do not try to hasten the rise by using heat; doing so
would melt the butter. This would ruin the texture of the pastry.
If using margarine (NOT recommended because of changes in the water
content in recent years) which is of a softer consistency than butter,
refrigerate 20 minutes between each rolling.
For freezing: Place shapes pastries on cookie sheets. Don't brush with
egg or sprinkle with toppings until ready to bake. Cover with foil or
plastic wrap and freeze.
To Bake from frozen state: Remove Danish from freezer the night before
and place in refrigerator. Next morning, arrange on cookie sheets, 2
inches apart. Let rise at room temperature, away from drafts until double
in volume, about 1 ½ hours. Brush with egg wash, sprinkle with
toppings; bake following individual recipes.
For refrigerating: Place shaped Danish on cookie sheets; cover; refrigerate.
To bake simply remove from refrigerator, let rise and bake as above.
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