Eggless Danish Pastry

 I was supposed to be posting this 31 days back for the August month’s Baking Eggless group challenge. But I had my brother’s marriage and then came the mega Blogging Marathon and I have been postponing it. If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you may be familiar with my Baking Eggless Group. A group of bloggers will try to convert an egg based recipe into an eggless one. We take up a dish per month. And the challenge for August was Danish Pastry. Danish pastry is so much like croissants. It is a yeasted dough laminated with butter to form crispy layers. When you take a bite, the inside will be soft and the outer layer is so crispy. It also has fillings. There are so many varieties of filling options for the danish. Danish pastriy’s origin is trace to Denmark but now it is so famous all over the world. I have once tasted danish in a cinema theatre but it was no where near what I made at home. It didn’t even have those beautiful layers. The positive side of being a food blogger is that you gather knowledge about the authentic versions only to know that whatever we get here in bakeries in the same name are never the same. And my husband never ever remembers the name of dish I make. After a month when I talk about it, he will give me a blank look. And the reason he gives is, if you make one dish a month, I can remember its name but if you make 30 dishes a month, how am I supposed to remember all? OK, I think I can accept it the fact. But still it would be nice if I can talk about it with someone.  Sruti remembers most of my dishes and when I was typing for the post, she was asking why I haven’t posted Danish even after a month? How cool is that?  So I have atleast one member who remebers what I make. 

The Danish pastry I planned had a beautiful shape. And when I shaped the pastries I made sure that the shape was perfect. But as this is an yeasted dough, it rise in 15 minutes. And all the shaping went away leaving just a square of the pastry. But however the shape is, the taste was awesome. It was so buttery, flaky and soft in the middle. I also loved the paneer filling. This is the ofurth time I am trying the laminated dough. The very first time, I tried the puff pastry, It had so many faults. Butter oozed out of the dough. But I somehow patched it up and created my first amazing buttery pastry. The second time I made croissants. This time it was better than the first. The third time I made croissants again and by that time I got the hang of working with laminated dough. I didn’t struggle at all. And for danish it was like breeze. And I didn’t have any problem with the butter oozing out. I felt that the pastry turned out perfect. So if your first time dough didn’t turn out good, do not be discouraged. Some techniques take a lot of practice to make them perfect. 

Recipe Source: Joe Pastry

Makes 8 squares

Ingredients:

Milk-2/3 cup

Sugar-2 tbs

Instant Yeast-1 1/2 tsp

Flour/ Maida-2 cups

Salt-1/2 tsp

Curd-1/4 cup

For The Butter Filling:

Butter-1 cup

Flour-2 tbs

For The Filling:

Crumbled Paneer/ Cottage Cheese-1 cup

Sugar-6 tbs

Butter-3 tbs

Milk-1/4 cup

Pinch of Salt

Orange Zest-1 tsp

Procedure:

Cream together butter and flour.

Place it on a baking paper and shape it into a rectangle.

Cover and refrigerate until firm.

Meanwhile make the dough for the pastry.

In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, yeast, salt and curd.

Add milk and form a soft dough.

Knead the dough for 5 minutes.

Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.

Now punch dough down and roll into a rectangle double than the butter rectangle.

Place the firm butter on one side of the dough rectangle.

Fold the dough and seal edges.

Now with a roller press the dough and butter to ensure that there is no air trapped inside. If there is any air, then while rolling it will try to escape and then the butter will ooze out. So pressing the dough into butter is a very important step.

Now roll it into a long rectangle.

Fold it like an envelope.

Place the overlapped edges facing you and roll it again into a rectangle.

Again fold it into three.

Place it on a dusted baking paper and fold to close.

Refrigerate until firm.

Now repeat the folding twice more.

Refrigerate again until you are ready for baking.

In a blender, grind together all the filling ingredients to make a thick paste.

Now roll the pastry dough into a thin rectangle and cut into 8 squares.

Place filling inside each square and fold the corners on the filling.

With the remaining ropes all along the sides, make a criss cross pattern on the folded pastry.

Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 175°C.

Place the prooved pastries in oven and bake until golden.

Remove from oven and serve them hot or warm.

P.S:

The important point to be noted while making laminated dough is that both the dough and butter must be of the same consistency. For that you need to refrigerate the dough between rolling and folding. I refrigerate for every fold as I live in a hot place. 

If the butter is harder than the dough, place it on counter to bring it back to the dough consistency before rolling. Otherwise the hard butter will cut through the dough.

If the butter is softer than the dough, it will ooze out of any small gap thus making your laminated dough messy.

Eggless Danish Pastry

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Ingredients

  

Ingredients

• Milk-2/3 cup
• Sugar-2 tbs
• Instant Yeast-1 1/2 tsp
• Flour/ Maida-2 cups
• Salt-1/2 tsp
• Curd-1/4 cup

For The Butter Filling

• Butter-1 cup
• Flour-2 tbs

For The Filling

• Crumbled Paneer/ Cottage Cheese-1 cup
• Sugar-6 tbs
• Butter-3 tbs
• Milk-1/4 cup
• Pinch of Salt
• Orange Zest-1 tsp

Instructions

 

Procedure

• Cream together butter and flour.
• Place it on a baking paper and shape it into a rectangle.
• Cover and refrigerate until firm.
• Meanwhile make the dough for the pastry.
• In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, yeast, salt and curd.
• Add milk and form a soft dough.
• Knead the dough for 5 minutes.
• Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
• Now punch dough down and roll into a rectangle double than the butter rectangle.
• Place the firm butter on one side of the dough rectangle.
• Fold the dough and seal edges.
• Now with a roller press the dough and butter to ensure that there is no air trapped inside. If there is any air, then while rolling it will try to escape and then the butter will ooze out. So pressing the dough into butter is a very important step.
• Now roll it into a long rectangle.
• Fold it like an envelope.
• Place the overlapped edges facing you and roll it again into a rectangle.
• Again fold it into three.
• Place it on a dusted baking paper and fold to close.
• Refrigerate until firm.
• Now repeat the folding twice more.
• Refrigerate again until you are ready for baking.
• In a blender, grind together all the filling ingredients to make a thick paste.
• Now roll the pastry dough into a thin rectangle and cut into 8 squares.
• Place filling inside each square and fold the corners on the filling.
• With the remaining ropes all along the sides, make a criss cross pattern on the folded pastry.
• Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 175°C.
• Place the prooved pastries in oven and bake until golden.
• Remove from oven and serve them hot or warm.

Notes

P.S:
The important point to be noted while making laminated dough is that both the dough and butter must be of the same consistency. For that you need to refrigerate the dough between rolling and folding. I refrigerate for every fold as I live in a hot place.
If the butter is harder than the dough, place it on counter to bring it back to the dough consistency before rolling. Otherwise the hard butter will cut through the dough.
If the butter is softer than the dough, it will ooze out of any small gap thus making your laminated dough messy.