[Elise] Danish Braids

This last minute addition for February, Danish Braids, was a little bit of a reach for me. But oh, was it worth it. The final result was something straight oaut of a bakery. Buttery and flaky, oozing with a rich chocolate filling. The recipe I used was very detailed which came in helpful, having never done anything of this magnitude before.

To start, the dough was made  by carefully mixing wet and dry ingredients, precariously on my kitchen table.

I put this initial ball of dough (detrempe) in the refrigerator while I mixed two sticks of butter with a 1/4 cup flour (beurrage). These both chilled for around a half hour.

The detrempe is rolled out to about 1/4" thick, and the beurrage is spread over two thirds of the dough. The left third is then folder over the center third, and the right third over that, creating alternate layers of butter and dough. This is one fold. The whole thing is then chilled for a half hour before rolling out and folding again in the opposite direction. In total, the dough is folded four times. The final time the dough is left to chill overnight. This process is very much like that for puff pastry. As far as I can tell, the main difference is that Danish dough uses yeast, while puff pastry does not. The use of cardomom as well 

THE NEXT MORNING:

 After a night of chilling, the fourth fold is ready to be portioned in two and rolled out.

First thing to make is the filling. This could also be done the night before, depending on the kind of filling and how much time it needs to cool. It is important that whatever you use as a filling be more solid than liquid. I ended up making a quick chocolate ganache (with one cup of cream and two cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips) and whipping it after it had chilled for about a half hour. This worked out really well.

The assembly:

First the folded dough was cut in half (I rolled it a little bit first to make sure both halves were about even)

So many delicious flaky layers!

Next the dough is rolled out, and the outer thirds are cut at an angle in one inch strips. The middle third is loaded up with filling.

Then the top and bottom edges are folded, and the strips are "braided."

 

Finally, the finished Danish Braids are placed on a baking sheet lined with parchament paper, and glazed with an egg. 

And then finally, baked at 400 F for 10 minutes, and 350 F for another 7.

My goodness, YUM. While the amount of effort rules this recipe out for most weekends, it is absolutely scrumptious and totally worth it for special occasions (I think U.S. v. Canada gold medal hockey counts, right?)