Photo Credit: Kati Baker

DANISH

I got this recipe from my neighbor Charles. More than forty years seperate us in age but he is my cooking soulmate. We can and do talk about food for hours. He says that his taste buds have gone the way of the rest of his body-------down hill, but I keep bringing offerings from my kitchen because if he's eating it, I'm not! And my butt tells me that is a good thing. He says getting old sucks (he also says he not exactly sure what that means but the grandkids say it and it's bad) but I'm glad he's got a few years on him because I love listening to the great stories about his time in the airforce (he was a navigator on a B-52 during WWII), from his years in academia in Michigan and Arizona and his missions for his church.




The basic dough can be used to make danish or cinnamon rolls or fruit tarts. I will try to have pictures of all of these at some point.

Basic Danish Dough

1/2 lb of butter (plus an additional 1/2 lb butter)

2 cups warm milk

1 cup sugar

2 T. yeast

1/2 warm water

1 T. sugar

2 eggs

1 t. salt

6+ cups of pastry flour

1 large t. vanilla**




Cut the butter in approx. 2 T. size pieces and place in a large bowl, add the 1 cup of sugar and the salt. Warm the milk in the microwave on high for 2 minutes and pour over the butter and let cool slightly. Mix the yeast with the warm water and 1 T. of sugar and let proof. Lightly beat the eggs in a small bowl and add to the milk mixture. Add the yeast mixture and the vanilla and mix until just blended. Add 2-3 cups of pastry flour and beat until smooth. Add the remaining flour using a spoon until the dough is firm but still sticky. Cover and let rise until double.



Remove the dough from the bowl and add just enough flour until you can work with it but do not knead! The dough should be very soft. Divide the dough in half and roll into a rectangle. Spread butter (about 1/3 of a stick) over 2/3 of the dough. Fold the uncovered third over 1/2 the covered portion and then fold the remaining portion down. Roll into a rectangle again and repeat above procedure. Repeat a third time but after folding do not roll out. Cover the dough and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Do the same with the remaining dough.




Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll into a rectangle. Starting on the short side, cut 1 inch strips. Using both hands start in the center of the strip and roll both hands in opposite directions to twist the strips and form a rope and then coil in a circle tucking the end under. Place on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until double in size. At this point you can use the bottom of a glass to create a depression in which to put fruit or cheese before baking. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven as soon as they begin to brown.




Plain danish can be dipped in icing and then nuts or just drizzled with icing. I usually drizzle the filled pastry with icing.

Cheese Filling

8 oz of cream cheese

1 egg

Powdered sugar

Cream the cream cheese with the egg and add sugar to taste.

Icing

3 cups of powdered sugar

2 T. butter melted butter

Milk

Almond flavoring or vanilla depending on your filling


Mix the sugar and melted butter and 1-2 t. of almond flavoring. Add just enough milk to make icing of a consistency that will drizzle off the end of a spoon.




*Pastry Flour

Mix 1/4 measure of cake flour with 3/4 measure regular flour.



**This is what was written on the original recipe that Charlie gave me. I was a little confused because what is a large teaspoon? Is it large compared to the miniscule ones from the Ukraine? They just didn't know the symbol for tablespoon? What????? I just add a tablespoon to my dough and it works well. You can do what you want.