Here is the Danish dough to try for March's meeting. I might suggest personally selecting either Jo's recipe or this one. Please do note that the recipe is geared for a professional environment and does not give the same explicit directions that we saw in last month's croisssant project.

The formula itself is from Special and Decorative Breads by Alain Couet and Eric Kayser. I have added some directions to it and reduced the yield.

Danish

Bread flour 17.5 oz
Milk 7 oz
Fresh yeast .9 oz
salt 2 tsp
sugar 1.75 oz
eggs 2
cardamom, ground 1/2 tsp
nutmeg, 1/2 tsp

Butter for turns, cool (1/4 weight of dough) 8 oz

Place all ingredients in a mixer with the hook. Mix for 7 minutes. Place in a greased bowl and cover with plastic. Let rise at room temp. for 1 hour, or for 12 hours in the refrigerator.

Place the butter in the mixer with the paddle, and mix until it is uniformly soft but still cold. You should not feel any lumps of colder butter. On a piece of plastic wrap, press the butter to a square, about 6x6".

Dust your work surface with flour. Place the dough on the surface and press to a square, about 8x8" Have the dough thinner in the corners. Place the butter in the center of the square but turn the butter so that the corners of the butter are facing the center of each side (you will have a diamond of butter on the dough). Pull each corner of dough up and press together to seal the butter in.

Begin your turns. We will perform 3 single turns with 20 minutes rest between each turn.

The turns are performed as followed (or follow the directions from croissant- it's the same method.)

Use your pin to roll the dough to a 12x 18 rectangle. Brush off the excess flour, and fold the dough, letter style, into thirds. Take the right third and fold it in, then pick up the left third and put it on top. Be sure your corners are square. Place the dough on a parchment lined sheet pan, and cover with plastic. Mark the tray with turn one complete. Refrigerate for 2o minutes.

Repeat this turning two more times. Each time place the long side of the dough closest to your stomach. Roll and fold.

When you are finished you may freeze the dough, or let it rest in the cooler for up to 12 hours before you roll it out.

Cut and shape as desired.

Let proof, covered, for one hour. Brush with egg wash, then bake in a 400 oven to 15-20 minutes. (In all honesty, this recipe states to bake them at 450-475, but it seems a bit hot. Eggy dough will brown very quickly. You can try it but watch it really closely!)

If you do not know how to shape these, please let me know. There are hundreds of options. At the last meeting, I think we mentioned that everyone should try to finish them their own way so we have some variety.

This dough is used for sweet pretzels, cream horns, bear claws, coffee cakes, as well as your usual individual pastries. Have fun!

Summary of Croissants

Thanks to all who came to the croissant meeting, even if you didn't bring croissants! We enjoyed everything.

The recipe came from The American Boulangerie, by Pascal Rigo (San Francisco: Bay Books, 2003).

The general feedback on croissants was positive, and most people would make them at home. Overall, the dough seemed very stiff, and the directions for turning the dough were unclear. We also wondered why you would egg wash a product and leave it sitting uncovered for two to three hours. The egg wash usually goes on immediately before baking to avoid a skin forming, or the product is put into a proof box and rebrushed before baking.
The recipe would have benefited from the two following items.
a. better editing
b. simple line drawings or basic photos to illustrate the techniques instead of lengthy paragraphs

However, no one seems completely daunted by laminated doughs. A few people are going to adjust the moisture content to ease the rolling of the turns. Next month, we will be making danish.