Danish pastry dough Recipe

2      envelopes     active dry yeast
     1/2  cup           very warm water
     1/3  cup           sugar
     3/4  cup           milk -- cold
   2                    eggs
   4 1/4  cups          sifted all-purpose flour
   1      teaspoon      salt
   1      pound         butter
                        flour  for work surface

Carefully read TIPS FOR THE BAKER at bottom of recipe before proceeding.

1. Sprinkle yeast into very warm water in a 1 cup measuring cup. ("Very
warm" water should feel comfortably warm when dropped on wrist.) Stir in
1/2 teaspoon of the sugar. Stir until yeast dissolves. Let stand,
undisturbed until bubbly and double in volume, about 10 minutes. Now you
can tell the yeast is working.

2. Combine remaining sugar, milk, eggs, 3 cups of the flour, salt, and
the yeast mixture in a large bowl. Beat with electric mixer at medium
speed, for 3 minutes (or beat with spoon for 3 minutes). Beat in
remaining flour with a wooden spoon until dough is  shiny and elastic
(dough capable electric mixer is fine, this is an old recipe!). Dough
will be soft. Scrape down sides of bowl. Cover with plastic wrap.
refrigerate 30 minutes.

3. Place the sticks of butter 1 inch apart, between two sheets of waxed
paper; roll out to a 12 inch square. Chill on cookie sheet until ready
to use.

4. Sprinkle working surface heavily with flour, about 1/3 cup; turn
dough out onto flour; sprinkle flour on top of dough. Roll out to an 18"
x 13" rectangle. Brush off excess flour with a soft pastry brush.

5. Peel off top sheet of wax paper from butter; place butter paper side
up on one end of dough to cover 2/3 of the dough; peel off remaining
sheet of waxed paper. For easy folding, carefully score butter
lengthwise down the center, without cutting into the dough. Fold the
third of dough which is not covered with butter over the middle third of
the dough to enclose the butter completely. Turn dough clockwise so the
open side is away from you.

6. *Roll out to a 24" x 12" rectangle using enough flour to keep dough
from sticking. Fold both side ends in to meet in the center of the dough
(creating a folded edge at both sides of dough). Fold in half to bring
the two folded edges together and create four layers of dough. Turn
again so the open side is away from you.

* Repeat rolling and folding this way two more times. Keep the dough to
a perfect rectangle by rolling straight up and down and from side to
side. When it is necessary, chill the dough between rollings. Clean off
the working surface each time and dust lightly with flour. Refrigerate
dough 1 hour or more (even overnight, if you wish) to relax dough and
firm up butter layers). Cut dough in half. You can see the buttery
layers, which when baked become flaky and crisp. Work with only half the
dough at a time. Keep the other half covered and refrigerated until
ready to use.

At this point  use dough to make pastries like Cheese Danish,  Almond
Crescents etc. See individual recipes.

** TIPS FOR THE BAKER:
It is important to keep butter enclosed in dough.  If it oozes out,
immediately sprinkle with flour and if dough becomes too sticky to
handle it is probably because the butter has softened. Just chill 30
minutes before continuing rolling and folding.

Use more flour than you would normally use for rolling out pastries,
then brush off excess with a soft pastry brush before folding or
filling; this way flour will not build up in the pastry.

Since the dough is very rich, it is best to let pastries rise at room
temperature . Do not try to hasten the rise by using heat; doing so
would melt the butter. This would ruin the texture of the pastry.

If using margarine (NOT recommended because of changes in the water
content in recent years) which is of a softer consistency than butter,
refrigerate 20 minutes  between each rolling.

For freezing: Place shapes pastries on cookie sheets. Don't brush with
egg or sprinkle with toppings until ready to bake. Cover with foil or
plastic wrap and freeze.

To Bake from frozen state: Remove Danish from freezer the night before
and place in refrigerator. Next morning, arrange on cookie sheets, 2
inches apart. Let rise at room temperature, away from drafts until
double in volume, about 1 1/2 hours. Brush with egg wash, sprinkle with
toppings; bake following individual recipes.

For refrigerating: Place shaped Danish on cooky sheets; cover;
refrigerate. To bake simply remove from refrigerator, let rise and bake
as above.

Formatted and shared by dianne@olynet.com