Homemade Apple and Cream Cheese Danishes

It's no secret that my favorite Daring Baker's Challenge so far has been the Danish. Yeasted sweet dough filled with cinnamon-sugar apples? That was an easy one to guess. It was so delicious and looked so impressive. Among other things, I just loved the feel of the dough, how it was so soft and workable, and scented with lemon zest and cinnamon, flecked with gorgeous speckles of vanilla bean. It was a delicious challenge, and one that cemented my love of making complicated pastries. I haven't made one recently, though I repeated it for Father's Day, because it is just so dangerously good. Yesterday I finally broke down and did it. My husband had been requesting another cinnamon-apple filled braid since June, and I wanted to experiment with some of the other cute Danish petite pastries that I didn't have leftover dough for last time. So I made the dough in the morning and let it chill out all day, then began my turns after dinner. I was able to finish four turns and stash the whole thing in the fridge well before bedtime, and baked it in the morning--a sequence of timing I'll definitely be repeating in the future. The major change to this braid was the recipe and technique. Last time I got a dough that flaky and good, but still pretty bready and soft. I hadn't ever had home-made Danish, though, and didn't have a standard for comparison. This time I wanted to try Rose Levy Beranbaum's Danish Dough, from her Pie and Pastry Bible that I always mention. She's never steered me wrong, and promised flaky results. Her recipe differs only slightly--calling for the use of Plugra, or European butter as a recommended ingredient--but it was her method that intrigued me. Hers was the classic method of kneading flour into slightly softened butter, then shaping it into a 5" square, and chilling the butter block until it reached no more than 60 degrees. Any warmer, or much cooler, she said, and the butter would simply dissolve into the dough, or tear it, preventing flakiness. This was in direct opposition to the Sherry Yard recipe, which calls for the use of softened butter spread over the dough. So I pounded, and rolled, and turned and rolled. After the butter is in, it's the same deal. You roll it, chill it, fold it, chill it, three times. I added a fourth, and a double-fold at the end, because one of the DB'ers had recommended it. After it had been rolled, cut, filled, and baked using Rose's higher-heat method...the Danish shattered the moment my knife touched it. It was so light, so crisp, so flaky!
Shards of pastry were scattering over the baking pan as I cut myself a piece of the still-warm cinnamon braid. The apples were wonderful, and the little cream-cheese filled diamonds were creamy and rich, and falling apart in my mouth. Sheer heaven. Just miles better than the Daring Baker's version--no contest at all. (Sorry, Daring Bakers. I feel a little like a traitor saying so, but it's true!) I whole-heartedly believe that the technique makes all the difference. The Plugra may have helped, and I think if you're going to invest 2 days in a project you should cough up the extra $2 for the good butter--but this will be the method I am sticking with.

Danish Braid
Adapted from The Pie and Pastry Bible

Dough: 2/3 cup milk or buttermilk, 85 degrees (heat gently over stove if using buttermilk, don't allow to boil)
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
10.5 oz (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour, one tablespoon set aside
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped of seeds
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 egg
1 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

Butter Block (Beurrage): 17 tablespoons unsalted butter (Plugra or European-style preferred), one tbsp at room temp
1 tbsp flour

Cream Cheese Filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
Beat until smooth and creamy.

Apple Filling

Make Dough: Mix flour, salt, cinnamon, zest, sugar, and yeast in a large mixer bowl, stir to combine. Add milk, vanilla seeds, egg, and 1 tbsp softened butter. Turn mixer to low and knead 4-5 minutes, adding reserved 1 tbsp of flour if dough is too sticky. It should clear the sides of the bowl, but stick to the bottom, and still be sticky to the touch. Move dough to an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap or lid, and leave at room temperature for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, place dough in refrigerator. You must leave it a minimum of 2 hours and can leave it a maximum of 8. Meanwhile, prepare butter block. Allow butter to soften slightly, and place into a large ziplock bag. Add one tablespoon of flour, and knead with the bag to incorporate the butter. Using the bag, shape the dough into a 5 inch square. Another way to do this is to line a child's sandwich keeper with plastic wrap, and scrape the butter onto it--it acts like a mold, making the perfect size you need. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place in fridge until it reaches 60 degrees.--no cooler, no warmer. I recommend starting this about an hour before you are planning to use it in the dough. When the dough has rested and the butter block is ready, turn the dough onto a well-floured surface. Roll into an 8" square. Place the butter block diagonally onto the dough, so that the points of the butter square are pointing towards the straight edges of the dough square. Make some light marks that extend from the points of the butter square to guide you. Now, make an envelope by folding the pointed corners of the dough square over the butter block, so you have a neat little package. (Just like making envelopes with construction paper when you were a kid, or making cootie catchers.) Pinch the edges together so that no butter is visible. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for exactly 30 minutes. When time is up, place dough seam-side up on a floured board. Roll into a rectangle 7x16 inches--and yes, you should measure. Brush the extra flour off the surface of the dough --this is an important step!--and fold it like a business letter, into thirds. Cover dough with plastic, and refrigerate 40 minutes. This is one "turn." Make a mark on a notepad if you have trouble remembering. You will be doing two more turns exactly like this one, a three-fold turn. Each time you take out the dough, make sure the open ends are on either side (facing your left and right) and the rolled ends are facing top and bottom. You'll see it will naturally work out that way, as you're going to roll it into another 7x16" rectangle every time. Every time, chill it for 40 minutes. After three turns and rests, prepare the dough as you have been, another long rectangle. This time, fold one quarter of the length towards the middle on the right side, and again on the left, so they meet in the middle. Then fold the whole thing over onto itself. If you look at it from the edge, it will look like a book (and is called a book-turn I think). Click here to see one of my fellow DB'ers , Le Petrin, who has very clear photos of this process--just click English to translate.
After this, I go to bed! I let the dough rest in the fridge overnight, but you can take it out after 2 hours if you'd like. To shape the dough, take it out of the fridge, cut it in two pieces (refrigerating the other half) and let it rest about 10 minutes. Roll into a rectangle about 12x15 "or so, dough should be about 1/8 inches thick. It's now ready to shape and proof. I'm going to link you to some videos that show you better than I could explain how to shape different pastries. So click here to see it done. The advice I will give you--if you're doing a braid, place it on the baking tray, on a piece of parchment, before you shape it! It's much easier than moving the whole thing. Little pastries that fit on a spatula can be done on the board. After it's filled and shaped, allow to proof (covered gently with plastic wrap) at warm room temp for a full two hours. Preheat your oven to 400 when you have 30-45 minutes left. Brush each pastry (gently!) with 1 beaten egg, and sprinkle with coarse sugar or chopped nuts, if desired. Turn oven down to 375. Bake 20 minutes, til golden brown and crisp--internal temp will be 210. Keep your eye out for over-browning and uneven baking--rotate pans and cover with foil if necessary. Let rest on baking sheet 20 minutes before cutting or serving--little pastries can be moved before that, but the braid needs to set up a bit. This has become one of my very favorite treats to make, and after you've done it once, it's not really difficult. Timing is everything, but there's not a lot of work involved. And the payoff is so worth it on this one. There are few things more delicious than homemade Danish, still warm from the oven, made with all-natural ingredients by your own hands. This is what this blog is all about. After you try this you'll never go back to Entemann's again.

This post proudly submitted to Yeast-Spotting.