More Layers & Behind The Curtain Dessert Challenge

Just as my life is getting a wee bit busier I decided to join another group ~ Behind The Curtain Dessert Challenge.  BTCDC is a blog hop.  

Each month we are given a couple of ingredients and we post a recipe that uses those ingredients.  This month's ingredients are almond paste and pastry dough.

Since I have been working with Danish pastry dough I figured perfect time to use a batch of dough!  I made what some may consider a classic Danish coffeecake but it is perfect for dessert also.... I love things that blur that line!

Let's get going!
Once again I have used Joe Pastry's recipe and techniques for making these Danishes.
The recipe can be found here.
The laminating process is here.
Based on The Classic Coffeecake.

I started with making almond cream cheese filling.
My cream cheese and almond paste were both at room temperature.  And I thought, never actually having worked with almond paste, that I could simply cream the two together with my hand mixer.  This was not the case at all.  The almond paste was much stiffer than expected.  So I took a fork and mashed up the paste then blended it with the cream cheese.
I added the rest of the ingredients to the mixture, whipped it for a minute and then set it aside.  There were still small blobs of the paste in the cream but not large enough to be a taste issue.

Got out my Danish dough and cut the piece in half to make two pastries.

Oh how I love seeing all those LAYERS!!  Yes i know it is like a layerfest at my house lately.  Trust me when I say there have been no complaints!

I rolled out my dough into a rectangle - or at least it was close to that shape once I whacked off a wavy edges.

I spread a generous amount a Bing Cherry jam onto half of the dough (made by your's truly *wink*).  Be sure to leave an edge without the filling.  This edge is needed for your eggy glue line.

I decided that piping the almond cream onto the pastry would be easier.... so bagged and went to work.  I made three lines of the almond cream.

Next I moistened the edges with egg wash (one egg white whisked with a splash of water).  Then I folded the plain side over the filled side.  Smooshed down the edges for a nice tight seal.

Now came the task of picking up and moving the pastry to a parchment lined baking sheet.  I was such a pansy with this one!  I thought I would never get it onto the sheet and that it would survive would be a miracle.

Ok, fine!  It really was not a big deal.  It survived, I survived and even the dog that was under my feet survived!

Once on the sheet pan I cut vents in the top and egg washed it.  Set it aside to work on the second pastry.

My son decided that chocolate sounded good to him and me being the awesome mom I am, agreed!

Made a quick chocolate filling of 3 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate and half an ounce of butter.  Microwaved until all melted and mixed together.  

Rolled out the second piece of dough, spread the chocolate filling on and piped on the almond cream.

Folded it over, transferred, vented and egg washed.  Time to let the pastries just hang out for about 45 minutes. Preheated the oven to 400 degrees and gave them a final egg wash before going into the oven.  

As soon as I put them into the oven I turned the temperature down to 375 degrees and baked them for just under thirty minutes.  Took them out of the oven when they were awesome brown and crispy-flaky looking.

Let the cool before applying the icing and slicing.

Filled Danish

by My Sister's Table

Components:

the Danish dough

the almond cream ~ recipe below

jam of choice or chocolate filling

the icing

Begin by making your almond cream.  Set the cream aside to work on your dough.

Roll your dough out into a rectangle   Spread or pipe your filling(s) onto one side of the dough, leaving a sealing edge.  Egg wash the edges, fold the dough over and press down the edges to seal.

Transfer the pastry to a lined baking sheet.  Cut vent holes in the top with scissors or a sharp knife.  Egg wash the top of the pastry then allow to rest for about 45 minutes. 

While the pastry to proofing preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

At the end of the 45 minutes egg wash the pastry again and put into the oven.  Turn down the oven to 375 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes, turning halfway through the bake time.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before icing and serving.

Almond Cream

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 ounces tube almond paste, at room temperature

1/3 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp. brown sugar

dash of fresh ground nutmeg

Using a fork smash and break up the almond paste.  Using a hand mixer, beat together the almond paste and cream cheese.  Once as mixed as can be, there will be small bits of the paste throughout, add the rest of the ingredients and beat until combined.

Printable recipe here.

Enjoy!

: )

Venturing into Danish...

Well I tried and was successful at croissant dough now it was time to venture into the world of Danish dough.  The techniques for working with the dough is pretty much the same as croissant but there are more turns resulting in more layers.

Once again I have used Joe Pastry's recipe and techniques for making these Danishes.
The recipe can be found here.
The laminating process is here.
Now the fun part - shaping/baking.
The icing.

I made a triple recipe of the dough. Since the laminated dough can be frozen why not make extra?  Then you have some ready for yumminess to be made!

Here is my dough with the block o' beaten butter laid out and ready to go.  (Please don't take note that my block of butter is not sitting on the dough in the correct orientation. I picked it up and turned it the correct way and forgot to retake the photo ha!)

After the resting, turning and refridgerating the dough was split into three pieces.  Two pieces were wrapped ( boom, boom, pish ~ pretty fly eh?! O.o ) and put into the freezer.  The last piece I rolled out to get ready for becoming awesome.  Now Joe says to give the pastries an added goodness to spread a layer of buttercream frosting onto half the dough.  Well I could have made buttercream up for this but I was feeling a bit lazy and had in the fridge some cream cheese frosting.  Figured what the heck live dangerously - case in point the attempt at rapping!  So the cream cheese frosting was spread onto half of the pastry sheet.

Folded the dough over and trimmed up the edges.  Got out my ruler and...

...cut strips about 1/2 an inch wide.  This actually got a bit tricky as the layers of dough slid around because of the frosting.  I don't think I put too much on but it wasn't a stiff frosting, it was left over from cinnamon rolls.  So it was that luscious gooey cream cheese frosting. 

I waggled the strips like the instructions said and I used one set of fingers to hold down and end and the other palm to twist the strip and you roll it.

What is that hand saying? Well it is saying "oh my goodness what a mess these are making!  The frosting is gooing out all over the place!"

Well we have come this far hands just make the knots!

Knots be made.

Well I'll be... they aren't looking too bad.  

I ended up with 21 knots of doughoo (technical word for the dough that is filled and covered/rolled in gooness.)  The odd number is the reason for my spacing.

Used plastic cups to hold the wrap up off of the knots.  Into the refrigerator for an overnight rest.

In the morning I took them out and let the rolls sit on the counter for about an hour.  To come to room temperature and finish the puffing.

Now it was time to add the jam.  I took a picture of what was going into the rolls.  Then changed my mind on flavors.  Just imagine that the Triple Berry actually says Blackberry and we are all on the same page.  

And yes these are my home made preserves. :)

Top to bottom we have Blackberry, Bing Cherry and Peach Apricot.  Time to give them an egg wash and into the oven for a nice bake for about 15 minutes.

Out of the oven and just hanging out on the rack waiting for their 'mwah' kiss of extra yum.

& There they are with the "five finger" icing drizzled all over them.  Not too much - just enough to take them over the top.

Blackberry

Peach Apricot

Bing Cherry

Now I know you can do it ~ go make some Danishes!

Enjoy!

:)

Cheese-Filled Sweet Braid

I get it!!

I completely understand now why bakers are up so early.  Because then they actually get their brunch braid done before lunch time!  I was up plenty early but didn't decide to make this until around nine o'clock in the morning.  Maybe I should have had more than one cup of coffee.  O.o

Ingredients into the mixer.  Mix, switch to hook and knead for about 5 minutes.

Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for about an hour.  It won't get all big a sassy but will be puffy and quiet.  

Divide the dough in half and roll out one piece.

A ruler and pizza cutter will come in handy with the next steps.

First cut out the first "strips".  You won't want these to bulk up your ends.

Now you want to cut strips on the two sides.  I wasn't measuring!  Want perfect go to Ikea. I was just using the ruler as a spacer and straight edge so my braid wouldn't be completely special.

Once I cut the wide strips I went back and cut in between to create skinnier strips.

Added the filling and fold in the end caps.  This is kind of important, if you don't do this the goo will be all over your baking sheet.

Time to start braiding!  Oh wait that would be complicated and it isn't.... just criss cross the strips.

I found the dough got stickier as it sat while I criss crossed and took pictures.  I tried to be smart and use my pastry scraper to get the last couple of strips up off the parchment.  Yeah ummm that didn't work. I've had easier time of getting the darned 3m stickum strips off the wall!

The last strip just gets tucked under the end.  Not too shabby!

When doing the second one I got smart and used the edge of the ruler to imprint a line from one end to the other to use as a guide for how far to cut the strips.

This braid I left the strips wide. The criss crossing went much quicker and I think I like the look a bit better.

End tucked.

Let them rest and then brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with sparkle sugar.

Baked and cooling.

Smel-o-net where are you?!

These were tasty but it just seems to need something.  Maybe next time I will add a little bit of fruit.  KA's recipe calls for Fiori di Sicilia or vanilla.  The Fiori di Sicilia would be very good but my son is not a fan of the flavor so I opted to use the vanilla.

Cheese-Filled Sweet Braid
~ adapted from the King Arthur recipe ~


Dough
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
2 ounces lukewarm water
4 ounces lukewarm milk
2 ounces butter, softened
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 ounces sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg, lightly beaten
12 3/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Filling
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3 1/2 ounces sugar
3 tablespoons King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla

The following are KA's directions. I have made comments in them on how I executed the bread and italicized the comments. 
Dough: Combine all of the dough ingredients, and mix and knead them together -- by hand, mixer or bread machine -- till you've made a soft, smooth dough. I used my mixer.  First mixing with the paddle then switched to the dough hook, kneading for about 5 minutes. Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until it's puffy (though not necessarily doubled in bulk).

Filling: While the dough is rising, prepare the filling by mixing all of the ingredients together till smooth. Chill till ready to use.

Assembly: Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface, and divide it in half. The oil didn't work for me.  The dough was very sticky so I used flour and the dough behaved much better.  Roll each half into a 12 x 8-inch rectangle. At this point I moved the rolled out dough to a sheet of parchment paper.  I am not sure I would have had success moving the braid once done without destroying it. I cut my strips using a pizza cutter before spreading the filling onto the dough. Spread half of the filling lengthwise down the center third of each rectangle. Cut 1-inch-wide strips from each side of the filling out to the edges of the dough. Fold about an inch of dough at each end over the filling to contain it, then fold the strips, at an angle, across the filling, alternating from side to side.

Baking: Allow the braids to rise, covered, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, till almost doubled in size. Brush with a glaze made from 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water, and sprinkle with sparkling white sugar, if desired; then bake the braids in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven, and cool on a wire rack. Yield: 2 braids.

Enjoy!

:)