Daring Baking! Danish Braid

Wow! This months challenge was a really fun one, laminated yeast dough. It was a lot of work, but really not that time consuming, another challenge that is best fitted around other things. I made the dough one weekend, then filled and baked it the next weekend.

Thanks so much to Ben and Kellypea for this delicious delight!

The dough is made, then chilled, and a butter block spread over it, taking care not to go too near the edges. It is then folded over and then re rolled several times to get the beautiful layers.


Its very important to chill the dough properly for at least 30 mins to an hour between turns. This ensures that the butter stays firm enough to give nice layers in the pastry. The layers weren't as pronounced as in a puff pastry but there was a lovely lightness, and they were visible on the corners of the pastry.

I divided the dough into two, and made an apple mincemeat braid with half and filled the other with frangipane, peaches and cherries.

The braiding wasn't too difficult once I'd persuaded the dough to roll out, it was a little stretchy, so it was quite tricky!

I then looked for a place that was 90f. Everywhere! It was stinking hot here in California at the weekend, so I put the braids in the garden and it was just the perfect temperature. I kept checking and they didn't look like they'd risen, but thankfully after ignoring them for a while, I realised that they'd risen beautifully.

They were then baked in a very hot oven, which was then reduced in temperature. They were looking like they were going to burn if I left them for the full time.

Please check out Sass and Veracity for the looong recipe!