DANISH PASTRY DOUGH

For 24 Danish pastries.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1000 g wheat flour
  • 20 g fine salt
  • 550 g water/milk
  • 25 g fresh yeast
  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 500 g unsalted butter

For egg wash

  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • A bit of fine salt

PREPARATION

Pour water/milk, flour, sugar, salt and yeast into a bowl.
Knead for 12 minutes in stand mixer with a hook to get a smooth and homogeneous dough.
Then roll out the dough to a square of about 25 x 25 cm.
Place the dough on a baking sheet and cover it with a plastic bag.
Put the baking sheet in the refrigerator for 60 minutes.

Remove the butter from the refrigerator and cut it into 2 cm slices.

Place the butter slices on a piece of baking paper and place a piece of baking paper on top.
Use the palm of your hand or a rolling pin to knock the butter out to a square of about 15 x 15 cm.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and from the baking sheet.
Sprinkle a bit flour on the table so it does not stick.
Place the butter in the middle as below and fold the corners of the dough to the centre.
Be careful that it does not overlap too much.

Then roll out the dough to a rectangle of about 30 x 90 cm.
Make a letter fold - see explanation below.
Brush off the flour.
Place the dough on the baking sheet and cover it with a plastic bag again and put it in the refrigerator for 60 minutes.

Repeat the procedure twice more.

When rolling out the dough on the table and sprinkling flour underneath, always remember to brush off the flour before folding the dough.

TIPS

About flour

For Danish pastries, you will need wheat flour.

In supermarkets there are often many choices, and this makes it difficult to choose.

My advice is to find an all purpose organic flour and do a first test.
There is a good chance that this flour is not strong enough (lack of gluten).
It will be easy to use (the dough is not very elastic), but your Danish pastries will become flat when they need to rise and when you brush them with egg wash.
In this case, you can buy organic flour for bread.
This type of flour contains more gluten.
If you try to use this flour for bread, you can have a lot of trouble making this kind of dough.
The dough may be too elastic and it will shrink a lot every time you try to roll it out.

The first flour was too weak (lack of gluten) Bread flour is too strong (too much gluten) The solution is simple, just mix the 2 types of flour.

You can experiment with 50 percent all purpose flour and 50 percent bread flour.
If you are not completely satisfied, you can change the percentage.
You can add more bread flour if your pastries are still flat and you had no problem rolling out the dough.
You can add more all purpose flour if you had trouble rolling out the dough.

About water/milk

You can use 50% milk and 50% water or 100% milk.
It’s up to you.

Milk can be whole milk, low fat milk or skimmed milk.

You can also add up to 4 eggs per 1000 g of flour.

Whatever you choose, you must have a total of 550 g of liquid.

About butter

Use butter with high fat percentage, preferably over 80% and preferably organic.
You can use both salted and unsalted butter.
But you have to regulate the salt amount if you use salted butter.

About butter quantity

500 g butter for 1000 g flour is the most used, however, anything between 400 and 600 g can be used.
Not less and not more.

About fresh yeast quantity

25 g of fresh yeast for 1000 g of flour is enough, but it does require that you have time to let the Danish pastries rise long enough.
Otherwise, you can use 50 g of fresh yeast, then they will rise faster.
Do not use more than 50 g of fresh yeast for 1 kilo of flour, then the dough will have a strong yeast taste.

About room temperature

When making Danish pastries, the kitchen should not be too hot.
Preferably around 18°C, otherwise it is difficult to work with the butter, and you must constantly cool the dough, as it may seem sticky.

About temperature and humidity

Danish pastries should rise at 26-28°C.
Turn the oven to approximately 30°C.

It is important that the surface of the Danish pastries does not dry out.
Use a brush and add a bit of water on the surface.

Measure the temperature before putting the Danish pastries into the oven.
The temperature must not exceed 30°C.
If you do not have a thermometer, put a small amount of butter in a bowl and place in the oven.
The butter must not melt.
You can put 3-4 baking sheets in the same oven.
Check the temperature every 10 minutes.
If the oven gets too hot, open the door slightly and turn down the temperature.
If the Danish pastries get too much heat, the butter will start to come out of the dough.
The pastries will not be so crispy.

About brushing and decorating

Brush gently with the egg-wash, not in the spaces, just on the top.
Sprinkle with pearl sugar, black sesame, almond or nut flakes.

About baking

Bake at 180°C in a convection oven for 15-20 minutes.

Know and test your oven - no ovens bake the same way.
Set the timer for 10 minutes and check.
If they are too light brown, they do not have the optimal crispness.

FOLDING

2 layers

Simple folding gives 2 layers of butter

3 layers

Letter folding gives 3 layers of butter

4 layers

Bogfoldning giver 4 lag smør

2 x book folding

4 x 4 = 16 layers

2 x letter folding + 1 x simple folding

3 x 3 x 2 = 18 layers

3 x letter folding

3 x 3 x 3 = 27 layers

1 x simple folding + 1 x letter folding + 1 x book folding

2 x 3 x 4 = 24 layers

1 x simple folding + 2 x book folding

2 x 4 x 4 = 32 layers