Danish pastry dough
This is my favourite pastry dough. It’s extremely versatile and can be used to make a variety of delicious “morning goods”, from apple turnovers to strawberry-and cream-filled pastries. It’s easy to shape in different ways, too. As for croissant dough, well-chilled, good-quality butter is essential. Neatness when folding is also imperative.
Makes 1.1kg: about 25 pastries
Prep 14 hours, including overnight chilling
500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
10g salt
80g caster sugar
10g instant yeast
2 medium eggs
90ml cool water
125ml tepid full-fat milk
250g chilled unsalted butter, preferably a good-quality Normandy butter
Put the flour into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the salt and sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add the eggs, water and milk and mix on a slow speed for two minutes, then on a medium speed for six minutes.
Tip the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and shape it into a ball. Dust with flour, put into a clean plastic bag and chill in the fridge for an hour.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out your chilled dough to a rectangle, about 50cm x 20cm and about 1cm thick. Flatten the butter to a rectangle, about 33cm x 19cm, by bashing it with a rolling pin. Lay the butter on the dough so that it covers the bottom two-thirds of it. Make sure that it is positioned neatly and comes almost to the edges.
Fold the exposed dough at the top down over one-third of the butter. Now gently cut off the exposed bit of butter, without going through the dough, and put it on top of the dough you have just folded down. Fold the bottom half of the dough up. You will now have a sandwich of two layers of butter and three of dough. Pinch the edges lightly to seal in the butter. Put the dough back in the plastic bag and chill for an hour to harden the butter.
Take the dough out of the bag and put it on the lightly floured surface with the short end towards you. Now roll it out to a rectangle, about 50cm x 20cm, as before. This time, fold up one-third of the dough and then fold the top third down on top. This is called a single turn. Put the dough back in the plastic bag and chill for another hour. Repeat this stage twice more, putting the dough back into the fridge for an hour between turns.
Your dough now needs to be left in the fridge for eight hours, or overnight, to rest and rise slightly. It is then ready to use.
Apple Danish with sultanas
These are a firm favourite of my son Joshua. You can vary the icing by flavouring it with mandarin, satsuma or lemon zest instead oforange.
Makes 16–20
Prep 3 hours/bake 15-20 mins
1kg dessert apples, peeled, cored and chopped
80ml water
100g sultanas
1 quantity Danish pastry dough,chilled
Flour for dusting
2 medium eggs, beaten
For the orange icing (optional):
200g icing sugar
2 tbsp water
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
Put the apples and water into a saucepan, bring to a simmer and cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes until the apples are soft but still holding their shape. Stir in the sultanas and leave to cool.
Line four baking trays with baking parchment or silicone paper.
Cut the rested dough in half. Roll out one half on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle, about 35cm x 20cm. Cut in half lengthways to make two 10cm-wide rectangles. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Spoon the cooled apple mixture along the length of each rectangle, leaving the edges clear and dry. Brush the long edge closest to you with beaten egg, then fold the opposite edge over the apple filling to enclose it in a long, thin case of dough. Press the edges of the dough together firmly. Cut each strip into four or five pastries.
Place four or five pastries on each baking tray and put each tray inside a clean plastic bag. Leave torise at cool room temperature (18–24C) until at least doubled in size, about two hours.
Heat your oven to 200C.
Using a sharp knife, make diagonal slashes on the top of the pastries to expose the apple filling. Brush the pastry surface with beaten egg. Bake for 15–20 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
For the icing, if required, stir the ingredients together until smooth. When pastries are slightly cooled, brush icing on top of each one.
