Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Danish Braid - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 43rd installment. The recipe is Danish Braid.
What a fun recipe to bake! I really liked trying some techniques that were new to me, including the low-effort flaky pastry (food processor plus simple rolling and folding), and the microwave fruit jam and confectioner's cream fillings.  I made raspberry and cream filling, which was delicious.  Another practical aspect of this recipe: you can prepare it mostly the day before, get up in the morning at a reasonable hour, shape and bake the braid, and still have your fancy pastry for breakfast (rather than brunch).

 I didn't watch a video of this, so I was a bit clueless on the filling quantities, and I think I used a bit too much of the fruit filling.  The recipe did say "you might not need all the filling", but I wasn't clear on how much was too much, until I did it.  I also think my cream filling wasn't quite thickened enough, because the two fillings ran all over the place when I was shaping it (the pretty photo is above, and the scary photo is below :-):

It did bake up pretty well (although with a bit of burning sugar smoke coming from the liquid on the parchment) and held together once it was cool.  I wasn't quite sure how to close off the ends - I think that next time I would leave a little space within filling, so I can fold it over better.

 One warning to anyone who hasn't tried this yet - you need to chill the pastry dough overnight before rolling and folding, and then again after rolling and folding, so some planning is in order.  I had not planned ahead very much, and didn't have time to do the first overnight chilling. I did let it go for 6 hours in the fridge, so it was quite cold when I got to rolling and folding it, and it seemed to be a bit soft, but not too difficult to roll.  I did wonder if the yeast would have developed more if I had left it longer in the fridge.

 Fortunately I made the full recipe of dough, and put half in the freezer, so I will have another shot at perfecting this :-)
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8 comments:

  1. Tomato ThymesOctober 15, 2013 at 8:30 AM

    Looks wonderful. Great photos.

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  2. Pennylane4647October 15, 2013 at 9:33 AM

    Beautiful!!! The raspberry/cream filling sounds amazing...and I was also nervous about how much filling to spread onto the dough because I did not watch the video either. Tasted great either way!

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  3. oneclevermomOctober 15, 2013 at 9:52 AM

    Yum, the raspberry cream looks delish!

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  4. Liz That Skinny Chick Can BakeOctober 15, 2013 at 12:57 PM

    I made the raspberry and cream version, too! I was yummy...as yours must have been, too! Well done!

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  5. Have Apron....Will BakeOctober 15, 2013 at 8:23 PM

    Great looking Danish bread! And raspberry would be yummy. I already used the other half of the dough, to make pinwheels tonight. And yep, just as good as the Danish braid!

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  6. smarkiesOctober 15, 2013 at 11:20 PM

    Looks great! The scary photo is part of the process we all go through! :)

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  7. loavesandstitchesOctober 17, 2013 at 8:45 AM

    Looks pretty and yummy! This one was fun.

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  8. Cathleen | My Culinary MissionOctober 18, 2013 at 11:07 PM

    Raspberry and cream sounds perfect. I ended up using an apple filling. The instructions in the book were not clear at all - non-existent actually, in regards to closing the ends; I fudged it myself.

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