Flaky laminated brioche, filled with a cream cheese pastry cream and your choice of raspberry jam or whole apricots, these Danishes are a labor of love but so worth it.
What type of butter is best for Danish Dough?
I’m never one to tell you that you absolutely have to use a specific product but Kerrygold Salted butter makes a WORLD of difference when laminating dough. It is soft even when fridge cold which makes layering and rolling out the dough 10 times easier. Don’t worry about the added salt, you won’t notice it and its quite a bit softer than the unsalted. If you can’t get Kerrygold salted just make sure to at least buy a high quality European butter with at least 82% fat content.
What type of fruit can be used for danishes?
You can use almost any fruit for danishes! Personally if it’s a fruit like raspberries, blueberries, cherries or blackberries I like to turn them into a jam first. There’s a lot of room to be creative with danishes, you can also bake them just with jam and without and pastry cream! I even like to bake whole apricots with the pits removed in the danishes.
What is Danish Dough?
Danish dough is a laminated dough made with a brioche that is either yeast or sourdough based and then layered or “laminated” with butter. It’s very important the butter stays cold but not too cold, throughout the entire process – that is what causes the beautiful layers to crisp and flake.
Tips for making Danishes
- Take your time and know that every time you make a laminated dough, you’ll get better!
- Use Kerrygold Salted butter for your butter block, I know it may seem extra but the higher fat content and salt make this butter softer and 10x easier to work with. If you use regular grocery store butter it will likely be too hard and splinter in your dough or melt before you have a chance to do the laminations.
- The steps for this recipe are very similar to that of my cinnamon rolls, it’s just the last two folds that are different so feel free to watch this full length youtube video where I go over every detail of laminating the dough.
- If you feel like your dough or butter are too warm and getting melty, or your home is quite warm, increase the fridge rest times to 50 minutes. On the other hand if your fridge is very cold and your butter seems to be breaking, decrease the time to 30 minutes.
- Keep your lines and corners of the butter and the dough as straight and crisp as possible, this will lead to better layers and lamination.
- Avoid proofing these in direct sun, it can be between 70 and 80 where you proof them but if it’s too warm, the butter will melt out and all of your hard work will be lost.
- Don’t be afraid to bake these until deeply golden!
Additional recipes to try!
Ingredients for Danishes
- All Purpose Flour: Any all purpose flour will work for this! I have not yet tried any other flours with this recipe.
- Sugar: This recipe uses granulated sugar in the dough and pastry cream.
- Yeast: In this recipe, instant yeast is used. However, if you are using active dry, simply warm up the milk and whisk it in. Let it sit for 10 minutes first and then add in the remaining ingredients.
- Salt: A tiny bit fine sea salt is added to the dough and the pastry cream filling.
- Milk: Milk is the liquid in the dough and the pastry cream; however, it will also work with non-dairy milks such as almond milk.
- Eggs: I use standard large eggs from the store. There is one whole egg in the dough and two egg yolks in the cream filling.
- Vanilla: Vanilla extract enhances the flavors of the dough and filling, I used vanilla bean paste for the filling but extract works too!
- Butter: The butter adds the rich fat necessary for the dough. I recommend Kerrygold salted butter for this. *see tips for more info
- Corn Starch: A little corn starch thickens the pastry cream but arrow root starch would work too!
- Heavy Cream: Heavy cream or heavy whipping cream will work for the pastry cream.
- Cream Cheese: I like to use cream cheese to balance out the pastry cream and give it a little tang.
- Fruit: I like to use apricots or raspberry jam when they’re in season but the blueberry topping from these or the cherry compote from these would both be delicious.
How to make Danishes?
*This recipe can be split between two days, laminate the dough in the evening and then shape and bake in the morning. Or you can do it all in one day but note that if you start around 6 am they will be done around 2 or 3 pm.
Laminated Dough
Brioche
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add in the flour, sugar, and yeast – whisk to combine.
- Add in the egg, milk, butter, and salt. *The butter needs to be soft enough to knead in but the milk and egg can both be fridge cold.
- Use a dough hook to knead everything together on medium low speed for 5 minutes until the dough holds together and the bowl is clean. The dough does not need to be smooth!
- Lay a piece of plastic wrap over a quarter sized baking sheet or full sized if that fits in your fridge. Roughly shape the dough into a rectangle, the exact size and thickness really aren’t that important but at least 5″ x 10″.
- Lay another sheet of plastic over the dough and wrap the edges around the dough to make an airtight seal.
- Place the dough into the fridge and set a timer for 30 minutes.
Butter Block
- After the 30 minutes have passed, leave the dough in the fridge. We’re now starting on the butter block.
- Take two sheets of parchment paper, they should be at least 12″x12″. On one of them draw a 9″ x 9″ square with a pencil approximately in the center. Flip the paper with the square over, you should be able to see your drawing through the paper and set the other sheet aside for now.
- Cut your 300 grams of Kerrygold salted butter blocks into 1/2″ thick slices and lay them onto the parchment within the square in a single layer. Should look like a paved square of yellow kerrygold bricks.
- Lay the second sheet of parchment over top and use a rolling pin to gently roll over the butter and parchment, causing them to stick together.
- Flip the whole sandwich of parchment and butter over so that you can now see your square drawing again. Continue pressing and rolling until the butter reaches the edges of the square. Use a knife and bench scraper as needed to create a 9″ x 9″ level (as perfect as you can), straight edged square of butter.
- Place the butter block, still inside of the parchment, flat in the fridge. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
Laminate the Dough – Fold 1
- After the timer goes off, leave the butter block in the fridge but take the dough out.
- Lightly flour your work surface and unwrap the dough. Roll it into a rectangle that measures 9″ x 18″. Use flour as needed to keep it from sticking, but brush off any excess before moving on.
- Take the butter block out of the fridge and peel away one sheet of parchment paper. Flip the block, exposed butter side down, onto the center of the dough. Peel away the second sheet of parchment and set aside.
- Now fold the short sides of dough over the butter to enclose it. iStretch the edges gently till they reach each other. The sides will show the two layers of dough and one layer of butter, no need to squish the dough together to enclose it.
- Turn the dough & butter block so that the center seem where the dough edges met is oriented north south not east west. Use flour as needed and roll it out until it measures about 20″ x 10″. Be sure, to rotate and flip the dough to keep it even.
- Trim off about 1/4″ from each short end to create clean edges. Then letter fold it so the top third folds over the middle third and then the bottom third folds up and over the other two.
- Take your time to make sure everything is lining up nicely. Turn the dough envelope 90 degrees so that it is tall and skinny not short and wide. Wrap it back up in the plastic wrap, and place it back in the fridge for 40-45 minutes.
Laminate the Dough – Fold 2
- After the 45 minutes have passed, take it out of the fridge and unwrap it. With it in the same tall and skinny orientation, use the rolling pin to roll it out to the same size (20″ x 10″) making sure along the way to keep the edges straight.
- You shouldn’t really need to roll it out width wise, only lengthwise.
- Once again, trim the short edges into clean crips lines (approximately 1/4″ or 1/2″ off each end).
- This time do a book fold, so fold the bottom end up about 3 inches and the top end down to meet the bottom end. Essentially you should have two layers of dough with a seam of where the ends meet off center.
- Then fold the whole thing in half. Now you will have four layers of dough on top of each other and it should look like a book but the seam of where the ends are meeting should not line up with the fold line.
- Rewrap and let chill for 40 minutes in the fridge.
Divide the Dough
- After the 40 minutes have passed, take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out to 9″ x 22″. Be sure to turn and flip the dough frequently so that it stays even and lined up.
- I like to do two rolls away from myself, turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat until I’ve made it all the way around and then flip it over and repeat.
- If you feel like the dough keeps shrinking back and the butter is starting to melt, wrap it up as is and chill for 20-30 minutes until cold and relaxed, then continue rolling.
- Once you’ve reached the proper size, trim 1/4″ off the long edges and anything needed off the short ends to get clean edges.
- It should now be the correct size to cut 10 4″x4″ squares. Use a ruler to mark out the squares with the tip of a knife before cutting. Be sure to cut with a sharp knife, don’t saw back and forth.
- Arrange the squares on a lined baking sheet. I usually do a quarter baking sheet and do 3 layers of 4 and then the last layer of two with sheets of parchment in between. Wrap the sheet with plastic wrap to keep them from drying out and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or up to overnight to chill.
Cream Cheese Pastry Cream
- While the dough is chilling, make the pastry cream. In a medium pot whisk together the corn starch, sugar and salt.
- Then pour in the milk, heavy cream, and two egg yolks. Whisk to combine.
- Place the pot over medium low heat, stirring frequently until fully thickened throughout and bubbling. It should be thick! Remove the pot from the heat and whisk in the vanilla.
- Pour it through a fine mesh sieve into a shallow heat safe bowl to cool. Cover the surface with a sheet of plastic wrap and place in the fridge to cool completely.
- Once chilled, add the cream cheese into a mixing bowl and use an electric mixer to beat until smooth. Scoop in the pastry cream and beat on medium low speed until smooth and combined.
- Use immediately or store covered in the fridge until ready to use.
Proof
- After at least 2 hours of chilling, or in the morning, line two baking sheets with parchment. If you only have one, just do one batch of danishes at a time.
- Melt the butter on the stove or in the microwave and pour the sugar into a shallow dish big enough for each square.
- Lay 5 pastries on each baking sheet. Brush one side of each pastry with melted butter. Working with one at a time, flip the buttered side over into the sugared dish. While it’s laying in the sugar dish, brush the other side with more melted butter. Flip the pastry over to sugar the other side and then place it back on the baking sheet.
- Repeat with the remaining pastries. Place the baking sheet somewhere warmish but not hot, no warmer than 75/80 degrees.
- Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 F.
- The amount of time it takes to proof depends a lot on how warm your home is so you’re going to need to look at the pastries. It is usually over an hour. After about 45 minutes, check on them.
- They should have puffed (not doubled in sized but puffed). If you gently press in the center of one of them with your pointer finger, it should pop back a little but still hold the dimple.
Assemble
- Once puffed, work with one danish at a time. Gently pull one corner of a square and fold it into the center of the square.
- Press the tip of the corner down and then work in a clockwise direction, pulling and pressing each corner into the center until they’ve all been squished in. There will already be a little dimple but you’ll want to make the center well a little bigger, approximately 1-1.5″.
- Repeat with the remaining pastries. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of the cream cheese pastry cream into the center of each pastry.
- Top with your fruit of choice! I did half with homemade raspberry jam and half with whole apricots that I used a straw to press the pit out of. You can also cut the apricots in half or make a compote with them first.
- Place the danishes in the oven and immediately drop the temperature to 350 F. Bake the assembled danishes for 15 minutes. Then rotate and bake for another 10-15 minutes until deeply golden brown. If you baked the apricots whole, I like to break them open with a spoon – if you baked them with cut side up, drizzle with a little honey to give them a beautiful shine.
- Allow the pastries to cool on the baking sheet for at least 10-15 minutes before serving.
Danishes
Flaky laminated brioche, filled with a cream cheese pastry cream and your choice of raspberry jam or whole apricots, these Danishes are a labor of love but so worth it.
Servings: 10
Equipment
Ingredients
Danish Dough
- 500 grams all purpose flour
- 50 grams granulated sugar
- 15 grams instant yeast
- 1 egg large, cold
- 60 grams salted butter soft (not melted)
- 250 grams whole milk cold
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter Block
- 300 grams salted butter cold! I recommend Kerrygold, needs to be at least 82% fat
Cream Cheese Pastry Cream
- 60 grams granulated sugar
- 25 grams corn starch
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 200 grams whole milk
- 75 grams heavy cream
- 2 egg yolks large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste vanilla extract works too
- 227 grams cream cheese 1: 8 ounce block
Coating
- 50 grams butter melted
- 100 grams granulated sugar this will probably be more than you need
Fruit
- 5 apricots small! or larger ones cut in half
- 75 grams raspberry jam I like to make it at home so it isn't too sweet! (just raspberries, a little sugar, and a little lemon juice)
Instructions
- *This recipe can be split between two days, laminate the dough in the evening and then shape and bake in the morning. Or you can do it all in one day but note that if you start around 6 am they will be done around 2 or 3 pm.
Laminated Dough
Brioche
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add in the flour, sugar, and yeast – whisk to combine.
- Add in the egg, milk, butter, and salt. *The butter needs to be soft enough to knead in but the milk and egg can both be fridge cold.
- Use a dough hook to knead everything together on medium low speed for 5 minutes until the dough holds together and the bowl is clean. The dough does not need to be smooth!
- Lay a piece of plastic wrap over a quarter sized baking sheet or full sized if that fits in your fridge. Roughly shape the dough into a rectangle, the exact size and thickness really aren’t that important but at least 5″ x 10″.
- Lay another sheet of plastic over the dough and wrap the edges around the dough to make an airtight seal.
- Place the dough into the fridge and set a timer for 30 minutes.
Butter Block
- After the 30 minutes have passed, leave the dough in the fridge. We’re now starting on the butter block.
- Take two sheets of parchment paper, they should be at least 12″x12″. On one of them draw a 9″ x 9″ square with a pencil approximately in the center. Flip the paper with the square over, you should be able to see your drawing through the paper and set the other sheet aside for now.
- Cut your 300 grams of Kerrygold salted butter blocks into 1/2″ thick slices and lay them onto the parchment within the square in a single layer. Should look like a paved square of yellow kerrygold bricks.
- Lay the second sheet of parchment over top and use a rolling pin to gently roll over the butter and parchment, causing them to stick together.
- Flip the whole sandwich of parchment and butter over so that you can now see your square drawing again. Continue pressing and rolling until the butter reaches the edges of the square. Use a knife and bench scraper as needed to create a 9″ x 9″ level (as perfect as you can), straight edged square of butter.
- Place the butter block, still inside of the parchment, flat in the fridge. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
Laminate the Dough – Fold 1
- After the timer goes off, leave the butter block in the fridge but take the dough out.
- Lightly flour your work surface and unwrap the dough. Roll it into a rectangle that measures 9″ x 18″. Use flour as needed to keep it from sticking, but brush off any excess before moving on.
- Take the butter block out of the fridge and peel away one sheet of parchment paper. Flip the block, exposed butter side down, onto the center of the dough. Peel away the second sheet of parchment and set aside.
- Now fold the short sides of dough over the butter to enclose it. iStretch the edges gently till they reach each other. The sides will show the two layers of dough and one layer of butter, no need to squish the dough together to enclose it.
- Turn the dough & butter block so that the center seem where the dough edges met is oriented north south not east west. Use flour as needed and roll it out until it measures about 20″ x 10″. Be sure, to rotate and flip the dough to keep it even.
- Trim off about 1/4″ from each short end to create clean edges. Then letter fold it so the top third folds over the middle third and then the bottom third folds up and over the other two.
- Take your time to make sure everything is lining up nicely. Turn the dough envelope 90 degrees so that it is tall and skinny not short and wide. Wrap it back up in the plastic wrap, and place it back in the fridge for 40-45 minutes.
Laminate the Dough – Fold 2
- After the 45 minutes have passed, take it out of the fridge and unwrap it. With it in the same tall and skinny orientation, use the rolling pin to roll it out to the same size (20″ x 10″) making sure along the way to keep the edges straight.
- You shouldn’t really need to roll it out width wise, only lengthwise.
- Once again, trim the short edges into clean crips lines (approximately 1/4″ or 1/2″ off each end).
- This time do a book fold, so fold the bottom end up about 3 inches and the top end down to meet the bottom end. Essentially you should have two layers of dough with a seam of where the ends meet off center.
- Then fold the whole thing in half. Now you will have four layers of dough on top of each other and it should look like a book but the seam of where the ends are meeting should not line up with the fold line.
- Rewrap and let chill for 40 minutes in the fridge.
Divide the Dough
- After the 40 minutes have passed, take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out to 9″ x 22″. Be sure to turn and flip the dough frequently so that it stays even and lined up.
- I like to do two rolls away from myself, turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat until I’ve made it all the way around and then flip it over and repeat.
- If you feel like the dough keeps shrinking back and the butter is starting to melt, wrap it up as is and chill for 20-30 minutes until cold and relaxed, then continue rolling.
- Once you’ve reached the proper size, trim 1/4″ off the long edges and anything needed off the short ends to get clean edges.
- It should now be the correct size to cut 10 4″x4″ squares. Use a ruler to mark out the squares with the tip of a knife before cutting. Be sure to cut with a sharp knife, don’t saw back and forth.
- Arrange the squares on a lined baking sheet. I usually do a quarter baking sheet and do 3 layers of 4 and then the last layer of two with sheets of parchment in between. Wrap the sheet with plastic wrap to keep them from drying out and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or up to overnight to chill.
Cream Cheese Pastry Cream
- While the dough is chilling, make the pastry cream. In a medium pot whisk together the corn starch, sugar and salt.
- Then pour in the milk, heavy cream, and two egg yolks. Whisk to combine.
- Place the pot over medium low heat, stirring frequently until fully thickened throughout and bubbling. It should be thick! Remove the pot from the heat and whisk in the vanilla.
- Pour it through a fine mesh sieve into a shallow heat safe bowl to cool. Cover the surface with a sheet of plastic wrap and place in the fridge to cool completely.
- Once chilled, add the cream cheese into a mixing bowl and use an electric mixer to beat until smooth. Scoop in the pastry cream and beat on medium low speed until smooth and combined.
- Use immediately or store covered in the fridge until ready to use.
Proof
- After at least 2 hours of chilling, or in the morning, line two baking sheets with parchment. If you only have one, just do one batch of danishes at a time.
- Melt the butter on the stove or in the microwave and pour the sugar into a shallow dish big enough for each square.
- Lay 5 pastries on each baking sheet. Brush one side of each pastry with melted butter. Working with one at a time, flip the buttered side over into the sugared dish. While it’s laying in the sugar dish, brush the other side with more melted butter. Flip the pastry over to sugar the other side and then place it back on the baking sheet.
- Repeat with the remaining pastries. Place the baking sheet somewhere warmish but not hot, no warmer than 75/80 degrees.
- Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 F.
- The amount of time it takes to proof depends a lot on how warm your home is so you’re going to need to look at the pastries. It is usually over an hour. After about 45 minutes, check on them.
- They should have puffed (not doubled in sized but puffed). If you gently press in the center of one of them with your pointer finger, it should pop back a little but still hold the dimple.
Assemble & Bake
- Once puffed, work with one danish at a time. Gently pull one corner of a square and fold it into the center of the square.
- Press the tip of the corner down and then work in a clockwise direction, pulling and pressing each corner into the center until they’ve all been squished in. There will already be a little dimple but you’ll want to make the center well a little bigger, approximately 1-1.5″.
- Repeat with the remaining pastries. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of the cream cheese pastry cream into the center of each pastry.
- Top with your fruit of choice! I did half with homemade raspberry jam and half with whole apricots that I used a straw to press the pit out of. You can also cut the apricots in half or make a compote with them first.
- Place the danishes in the oven and immediately drop the temperature to 350 F. Bake the assembled danishes for 15 minutes.
- Then rotate and bake for another 10-15 minutes until deeply golden brown. If you baked the apricots whole, I like to break them open with a spoon – if you baked them with cut side up, drizzle with a little honey to give them a beautiful shine.
- Allow the pastries to cool on the baking sheet for at least 10-15 minutes before serving.
Notes
Tips for making Danishes
- Take your time and know that every time you make a laminated dough, you’ll get better!
- Use Kerrygold Salted butter for your butter block, I know it may seem extra but the higher fat content and salt make this butter softer and 10x easier to work with. If you use regular grocery store butter it will likely be too hard and splinter in your dough or melt before you have a chance to do the laminations.
- The steps for this recipe are very similar to that of my cinnamon rolls, it’s just the last two folds that are different so feel free to watch this full length youtube video where I go over every detail of laminating the dough.
- If you feel like your dough or butter are too warm and getting melty, or your home is quite warm, increase the fridge rest times to 50 minutes. On the other hand if your fridge is very cold and your butter seems to be breaking, decrease the time to 30 minutes.
- Keep your lines and corners of the butter and the dough as straight and crisp as possible, this will lead to better layers and lamination.
- Avoid proofing these in direct sun, it can be between 70 and 80 where you proof them but if it’s too warm, the butter will melt out and all of your hard work will be lost.
- Don’t be afraid to bake these until deeply golden!
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