Danish Pastry
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 1/2 ounces fresh yeast or 2 envelopes (1/4-ounce each) active dry yeast
- 4 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup unbleached, all purpose flour
- 3 1/2 sticks (14 ounces) cold unsalted butter
- Heat milk to luke warm, about 100 degrees.
- Remove from heat, pour into a bowl and whisk in yeast.
- Set aside while preparing other ingredients.
- Place flour, sugar and salt in bowl of food processor fitted with metal blade; pulse to mix.
- Add the 4 tablespoons butter and pulse until butter is absorbed and mixture is powdery in appearance.
- Add eggs and milk mixture and continue to pulse until dough forms a ball.
- If the dough refuses to form a ball, add up to 3 tablespoons more flour, one tablespoon at a time, pulsing once or twice between each addition.
- To mix by hand, combine flour salt and sugar in a bowl and stir well to mix.
- Rub in butter by hand, being sure to leave mixture cool and powdery.
- Beat eggs until liquid and add to flour mixture along with yeast-milk mixture.
- Stir vigorously with a rubber spatula to form a dough.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rest 5 minutes.
- Scrape dough to floured surface and fold dough over on itself 6 or 8 times, sprinkling with up to 3 tablespoons more flour if dough is very soft.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 to 8 hours.
- After the dough has chilled, prepare butter: Place half the flour on work surface and place butter on it.
- Scatter remaining flour on butter and pound the butter with a rolling pin to soften it to a malleable consistency.
- Scrape butter together and form into a cylinder.
- Immediately remove dough from refrigerator and press in into a 6 by 12-inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface.
- Distribute dabs of butter in a 6 by 9-inch rectangle at the closer end of the dough, covering dough as completely as possible.
- Fold the top (unbuttered) portion of dough down over the middle section and the bottom (buttered) portion up to cover it.
- Position the dough so the fold is on the left and roll the dough back to its original size, flouring the surface and dough as necessary.
- Fold both short ends in to the middle of the dough and fold again at the middle, making 4 layers.
- Reposition the dough so that the fold is on the left again and repeat rolling and folding.
- Double-wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate dough several hours or overnight before using.
milk, yeast, unbleached, sugar, salt, cold unsalted butter, eggs, unbleached, cold unsalted butter
Taken from www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/danish-pastry-recipe.html (may not work)