What is wienerbrødsdej?
Hi everyone! If you’ve been following along with recent recipes on our blog, you’ll know that we just shared a base recipe for wienerbrødsdej, or Danish pastry dough. Our recipe includes a YouTube video that gives detailed visual steps for each part of the process. In case you are new here (welcome!), wienerbrødsdej is the laminated and yeasted dough that is used to make a lot of Danish pastries, like kanelsnegle, tebirkes, and spandauer. It is also used to make today’s recipe, a wienerbrødsstang!
Vienna Bread
Wienerbrød is the name of Danish pastries in Denmark, and this translates to “Vienna bread.” This is because despite the popularity of “Danishes” all over the world nowadays, Austrian bakers were actually the first to bring this method of baking to Denmark. Once baked, the dough is super flakey, with delicious layers of butter that make the pastry just melt in your mouth. Think of the best croissant you have ever had – that’s the same type of dough as wienerbrød dough!
We now have two pastry dough recipe on our website: the 6 hour faster version and the original, overnight proofing version! Either one is delicious, and while laminating dough is a bit of a project, it’s a great activity for the weekend!
Today’s Recipe
A wienerbrødsstang is a long “stick” pastry that is filled with a marzipan, sugar, and butter filling. It is then topped with an egg wash and some flaked almonds and cut into slices. The end result is a sweet almondy filling encased in the most delicious layered pastry dough. Making it homemade is certainly not an easy feat, but it is a huge accomplishment and fit for the best bakery in the world! Try it out and let us know how it goes in the comments below.
Wienerbrødsstang (Danish Pastry Slices with Marzipan Filling)
Ingredients
PASTRY DOUGH
- 1 portion wienerbrødsdej *or you can use the easier recipe below! You only need one portion, so choose one to use!!
- OR 1 portion "easier" wienerbrødsdej (danish pastry dough)
REMONCE (MARZIPAN FILLING)
- 100 grams marzipan (you will have extra if you follow our recipe, so you can cut the amounts from that recipe in half if you want!)
- 50 grams (4 tbsp) softened butter
- 50 grams (1/4 cup) sugar
TOPPING
- Chopped almonds
- Pearl sugar (optional)
- 1 egg for egg wash
Instructions
- The night before baking, begin preparing the pastry dough by following the steps in our wienerbrødsdej recipe. The next day, you will continue the laminating process as described in that recipe.
- The next day, follow the lamination instructions in the danish pastry dough recipe.
- While your dough is resting between folds, mix the ingredients for your marzipan filling in a bowl. Mix together really well, until you have a smooth paste.
- Once you have completed all the laminations and steps in the wienerbrødsdej recipe (up to the shaping part) and the dough has rested, start rolling out your dough. Roll the dough into a 20 by 6 inch rectangle, then cut that in half; Roll each of the two halves into rectangles that measure 8 by 15 inches.
- Spread half of the marzipan filling on one rectangle down the center, leaving about 1-2 inches of exposed dough along the long edge of the rectangle.
- Fold the short edges in one inch and press down.
- Fold the long edges towards the center of the pastry, leaving about 1 inch of exposed marzipan in the center, and press down the edges.
- Repeat this with the other half of the dough.
- Place each pastry on its own baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap.
- Now leave your shaped pastries to rise for at least 2 hours, perhaps longer.
- Look at the difference between the previous picture and the picture below! This is a very important step, because under-proofing these means major 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 and doesn't spring back immediately, it should be ready.
- Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 C).
- Once your pastries have risen, press down the long seams gently to encourage it to stay together when baking. Egg wash the tops and sprinkle chopped almonds and pearl sugar (optional) over the top.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. You can either bake both sheets simultaneously if you adjust the oven racks, or bake them one at a time.
- Once they are done, let the pastries cool on a cooling rack. Cut into slices and enjoy!
we. found the dough not flaky enough–almosttoo cakey…could you help us please.. we are willing to ory again.. perhaps our dough was too thick.
Hi! Yes, I’d love to help you figure out what happened. What were your layers of lamination like in the dough before baking? Could you clearly see the butter and dough in separate layers? It sounds like possibly your butter got too soft and combined too much with the dough, so it ended up more like a brioche instead of a flaky pastry. If not, it’s also possible that they were underproofed and some of the butter leaked out in the oven, which might explain why the dough ended up without any flakiness. Did you notice any puddles of butter while they were baking?