What is a real Danish pastry?
There are a few ways in which you may have been introduced to a Danish pastry. Perhaps you are aware of what English speakers call “Danishes,” which in America are sometimes even filled with cheese. Or maybe you’ve visited Denmark and been to a lovely bakery and tried some of the classics, like kanelsnegle or spandauer. Possibly, like us, you’re Danish and grew up eating these on special occasions, or when a family member would pop down to the local bakery and pick up some morgenbrød for breakfast. Regardless of how you came to this post, let us introduce you to the Danish pastry.
Intro to Danish pastry dough
The funny thing about Danish pastries is that in Danish, they’re actually known as wienerbrød or “Vienna bread.” This is because Austrian bakers originally brought the method to Denmark, where it was then popularized and spread around the world. You may be wondering: how is Danish pastry dough different than puff pastry dough or croissant dough? Well, Danish pastry dough is leavened with yeast, so it has a different texture than puff pastry dough. It then has more eggs and sugar than croissant dough, which also gives it a slightly different texture and taste. Ultimately, it’s very buttery and flaky but with bit more structure than a super flaky croissant.
Types of Danish pastries
There are a lot of different types of Danish pastries, but let us introduce you to a few of our favorites! The classic is a kanelsnegl, or cinnamon roll. These are made either with regular yeasted dough or it can be made with this dough! It turns out so delicious and crispy with a beautiful cinnamon flavor. We also love a Danish classic, the spandauer, filled with a marzipan filling and topped with custard or jam. This is also known as the baker’s bad eye in Danish because the custard could resemble pus, which is a pretty disgusting but funny advertisement! Finally, we love tebirkes, a pastry filled with marzipan, butter, and sugar, and topped with a nice coating of poppy seeds. If you have the chance to try any of these pastries, definitely do!
This Recipe vs. Our Original
We actually already have a Danish pastry dough recipe, but this is a slightly tweaked alternative, with enough changes that it made sense to list it separately! It uses less butter and more flour, making it easier to work with and laminate the dough. There is also no overnight rest for the dough, which means you can do everything in one day! In total, it should take about 6 hours from start to finish, which is a lot quicker than our original recipe. There’s no significant different in texture and taste, but if you want more of a bakery-quality buttery pastry, then our original recipe would be best. This recipe is for those of you that want a quicker and slightly easier method!
Ingredients
The ingredients for this pastry dough are simple. It starts with a dough made with yeast, water, sugar, flour, eggs, and salt. The only specialty item you will need to get is European style butter for the lamination! The type of butter is important, because European style butters tend to have a higher fat percentage. This means they’re less likely to crack when laminating, which means less likelihood of leaking during baking! If you’re in doubt, you can google the brand and usually they state the percentage of butter fat somewhere on the website. You’re aiming for a butter that has at least 83% fat percentage, if possible!
Instructions
Now, we’re calling this an “easier” recipe, because the tweaked recipe is easier to work with and takes less time. But the steps for laminating this dough are essentially the same as the other version we’ve posted! After you combine the ingredients for your dough, let it rise for an hour. Towards the end of that time, make a butter block (basically just combining sticks of butter to make an even square of butter). When the dough has doubled in size, you can begin the lamination process! Encase the butter block you’ve made in the dough and start rolling! With less butter in the recipe from our original, it will be easier to roll out. After laminating the dough three times with some resting in the fridge in between, you’re ready to shape the pastries. You can reference whatever recipe you’re making for the shapes; see a full list of our recipe with Danish pastry dough below:
Our Danish Pastry Recipes:
- Spandauer (Danish Pastry with Custard or Jam)
- Tebirkes (Danish Pastry with Poppy Seeds)
- Kanelsnegle (Cinnamon Rolls with Wienerbrødsdej)
- Frøsnapper (Danish Pastry Twists)
- Chokoladesnegle (Chocolate Snails with Danish Pastry Dough)
- Wienerbrødsstang (Danish Pastry Slices with Marzipan Filling)
Final Proofing
The final proofing is definitely an important step, but with less butter in the dough, it should rise slightly faster (*in theory*). After the dough has proofed and become light and airy (for this recipe, it usually takes around two hours!), it’s time to bake! After 15 minutes, you should have beautifully golden pastries, with a nice flaky exterior and a soft interior. We hope you give this recipe a try – hopefully it helps that it’s do-able in one day! Let us know if you get a chance to make this pastry dough in the comments!
Watch Our (Original Recipe) Video
While this video is actually for our other (longer and slightly more difficult) recipe, it’s a great visual aid if you need to see a demonstration of the lamination process:
“Easier” Danish Pastry Dough
Ingredients
PASTRY DOUGH
- 2 tsp instant yeast (2.25 tsp active dry yeast, 17.5g fresh yeast)
- 150 ml warm water
- 50 grams sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp salt
- 400 grams all-purpose flour (plus extra for kneading and rolling out!)
- 226 grams European (high fat %) unsalted butter; chilled (for laminating the dough; we recommend at least 83% butter fat, which you can usually find either on the package or by looking up the brand on Google!)
- 1 egg for egg wash
Instructions
- Bloom yeast in warm water with about 1 tbsp of the sugar in the recipe (we usually measure the sugar out ahead of time and sprinkle some of it into the measuring cup with the yeast and water). If you're using instant yeast, this step can be optional – if in doubt, check the package directions of the yeast you are using!
- Let sit for 5-10 mins until frothy. If nothing has happened in that time, your yeast may be expired. You can try to add a little bit more sugar and wait a little bit longer, or you can start over with fresh/new yeast.
- Add remaining sugar, eggs, yeast mixture, and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl.
- Mix together well.
- Start adding flour while stirring/mixing until fully incorporated using either your hands or a spoon.
- Once the flour is incorporated, knead for around 5 minutes until the ingredients have come together. You can add more flour as needed while kneading – the end result of the dough will still be somewhat sticky, but it should still come together into a ball!
- Cover with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let rise at room temperature for around one hour. In the meantime, follow the steps below to make a butter block!
- While the dough is rising, prep your butter block for lamination. Make sure that you are using a high fat percentage European style butter (aim for at least 83% butter fat) – butter with too much water content will be difficult to work with and may result in butter leakage! We leave the butter out at room temperature for around 10 minutes so that it's a little easier to work with.
- Start by placing your measured out butter on a long piece piece of plastic wrap; then place another piece over the top (you can also use parchment paper!) and hit (or just press down) with a rolling pin along the length of the sticks of butter to slightly soften it.
- Then roll out the butter so that it forms a thin rectangle about 12 inches in length.
- Remove the top layer of plastic wrap. Fold the bottom third of the butter over the middle third.
- Then, fold the top third down over the bottom (that you just folded up).
- This process basically helps to eliminate any gaps in the butter and make it easier and more pliable to work with; plus, it's practice for lamination! Turn the butter block 90 degrees and place it back down on the plastic wrap.
- Add the plastic wrap back on top of the butter, and repeat this rolling and folding process for the butter; depending on the consistency of your butter, you may have to repeat an additional time. The butter should be able to fold without breaking – that's when it's ready for lamination.
- Shape the butter into a square about 6 inches by 6 inches. We usually just do this by pressing the sides/edges with our hands, then rolling over the top with the rolling pin to make it even. Keep it wrapped in plastic. If it's getting too soft, pop it into the fridge for 5-10 minutes.
- When your dough is done rising, turn out the dough onto a well floured surface and shape into a square that measures about 8 inches by 8 inches.
- Place your butter block on top of the dough square, on a diagonal so the corners touch the mid points of the dough edges.
- Fold in the dough corners towards the center (sort of like an envelope).
- Pinch the edges to seal the butter block inside the dough.
- Now you start the lamination! Turn the dough 45 degrees and flip the dough over so the seam is on the bottom. Make sure you have plenty of flour on your surface and also on the top so your rolling pin does not stick. This is very important, because any sticking could tear the dough, affecting the lamination!
- Roll out your dough into a rectangle that is at least 16 inches in length.
- Fold the rectangle like a letter: bottom third over the middle…
- …then top third over the bottom, making sure to dust off any excess flour between the folds.
- Once you've folded the dough, wrap the rectangle in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. You just want to give the dough time to relax before your second lamination and prevent any rising of the dough, keeping the temperature of the butter consistent during the process as well.
- Take the dough out of the fridge. Turn your dough 90 degrees from how you were rolling it out last time, so that the first fold you did is at the bottom and the top of the dough.
- Roll out into a rectangle again that is at least 16 inches in length (closer to 20" is better!) and repeat the letter fold. Keep making sure that you have a well floured surface, and flour on the top if needed. If the dough is not rolling out easily, let it sit for 10 or so minutes and return to it. If it's still giving you trouble, you can also return it to the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
- Once you've reached the right length, repeat the fold: bottom third over middle third…
- …then top third over bottom third. Wrap this in plastic wrap and return to the fridge again for 15-20 minutes.
- Complete your last lamination by doing the same thing as before: turning the dough 90 degrees from the previous fold, rolling to at least 16 inches in length and repeating the letter fold (bottom third over the middle third, then top third over the bottom.
- Once done, put in fridge for another 15-20 minutes.
- Now the dough is at the stage where you can make any of our danish pastry dough recipes! Check out our recipes for spandauer, tebirkes, frøsnapper, kanelsnegle, chokoladesnegle, and wienerbrødsstang for additional steps and fillings!
- You can also make croissants/other shapes with just the pastry dough; the remainder of this recipe will cover those steps!
- Roll out your laminated dough. We cut ours in half when it has reached about 16 inches in length again to make it easier to work with! Return the second half to the fridge to roll out after you've shaped the first half of the pastries.
- Roll out to between 3/16 inch and 1/4 inch thickness. If the dough is hard to work with and it springs back when you roll it out, leave it to rest for about 10 minutes and return to it.
- Trim the edges of the dough; you should be left with a rectangle that measures about 9 inches by 14 inches. You can always roll up the edge pieces into swirls and bake them so there's no pastry wasted!
- We like to divide the dough into swirls and croissants. Lightly run your knife along the length of the dough, an inch apart, to mark three 1 inch strips.
- With the remaining rectangle, mark a line across the dough 1/3 of the way down the length of it, and 2/3 of the way down. Then, mark a line across the diagonal of each rectangle, creating 6 triangle shapes.
- Now that the rough outline has been marked, cut along the marked lines, leaving you with three long strips and 6 triangles.
- To make croissants, stretch the triangles so that they form more of an isosceles triangle shape. Then roll up the dough from the long end to the short.
- To make snails, roll the strip up into a circle.
- Transfer the shaped pastries to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, placing the croissants with the tip side touching the parchment.
- To "glue" the tip of the snail/swirl shape or the croissant to the rest of the dough so it doesn't unravel, place a little bit of water where you want it to stick together and press the dough together so it sticks.
- Cover the pastries on the baking tray with plastic wrap and set aside.
- Repeat the rolling and shaping process with the second half of the dough. Place the rolled pastries on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap.
- Now leave your shaped pastries to rise for at least 2 hours, perhaps longer. Note that one of your baking trays will likely be about 15-20 minutes ahead of the other one; this is totally fine, since you can bake them one at a time!
- Look at the difference between the previous picture and the picture below! This is a very important step, because under-proofing these means butter leakage (we are speaking from experience!).
- You'll know the pastries are ready when they feel super light and airy (almost wobbly when you touch them) and have doubled in size. Another test is to poke the dough, and if it leaves an impression, feels like you punched out some air, and doesn't spring back immediately, it should be ready. Note: if your oven has a proofing setting, it is too warm for the butter; however, you can put the pastries in the oven (turned off!) to proof with the light on for a more controlled environment (no drafts, consistent temperature, etc.)
- With about twenty minutes of proofing time left, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 C).
- Egg wash the pastries.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes on the center rack or until golden brown! If you want to bake both at once, you can; it just may take a little bit longer, and you may have to swap the racks part of the way through baking! We do prefer doing it one at a time for more consistency.
- Remove from the oven and bake the second tray of pastries. Let the pastries cool on a wire rack when done. Best enjoyed the same day, but if you pop them in the toaster oven to reheat over the next few days, some of the crisp exterior will return! We keep ours at room temperature for a few days, but you can also keep them in the fridge. You can even freeze them to enjoy later.
