Apple Danish

Apple danishes will always remind me of happy lazy weekends, they are my ideal breakfast but something I too rarely get around to making.

Now is the perfect time of year for them, there are plenty of cooking apples around and the weather is getting colder – the perfect excuse for staying indoors with a baking project.

Things I have learnt from making apple danishes...

This makes a large batch of pastry which you can then split in half to make 6 danish pastries and keep the other half in the freezer for later. Alternatively, you can make the whole batch up to the point of shaping the pastries and adding the filling and then freeze them ready for baking later, as for croissants.
 

The dough is sticky and somewhat difficult to work with, but with less of the worry about keeping the layers nice and even like with the croissant dough.
 

There are lots of different ways you can shape danish pastries, but I find this one works best for keeping the filling in place, other methods seem to leak much more which seems a waste of yummy filling.

Apple Danish: makes 6

(adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess)

350g strong white bread flour

7g sachet of instant yeast

1 teaspoon salt

25g caster sugar

250g butter, very cold and cut into ½ cm slices

185 ml milk, at room temperature

1 free range egg, beaten

 

Stewed apple:

4 large cooking apples

1/3 cup sugar

3-4 tablespoons of water

Egg glaze:

1 free range egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons of milk

Sugar glaze:

100g sugar

60ml water

Icing:

100g icing sugar, mixed with 1-2 tablespoons warm water

• Put the flour, yeast, salt and sugar into the bowl of a food processor and whizz briefly to mix
• Add the chunks of butter and pulse until the butter is cut into small pieces but there are still visible lumps
• Tip into a mixing bowl then add the milk and beaten egg
• Stir briefly to combine before covering with clingfilm and leaving to rest in the fridge overnight or for up to 4 days
• Make the stewed apple by cooking all the ingredients in a pan until soft, leave to cool
• Remove from the fridge and allow the dough to warm up for half an hour
• As for puff pastry, give the dough four turns: roll out the dough, fold into thirds, turn 90° then roll out again and repeat three more times
• Cut the dough in half and wrap both halves in clingfilm
• Either chill the dough for 30mins in the fridge before making into pastries or place in the freezer for use at a later date
• Take the chilled half of dough out of the fridge and roll out to a large rectangle 1cm thick

 

 

• Trim the uneven edges and cut out six rough squares

 

• Cut out a square just inside from the edge leaving two opposite corners attached

• Fold the cut corners over to line up on the base on the opposite side

 

 

• Fill the middle with a small amount of stewed apple and place on a parchment lined baking tray
• Leave to rise in a warm place until puffy and then glaze with the egg wash
• Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 15-20 minutes
• Make the sugar glaze by heating the sugar and water until it boils then remove from the heat, allow to cool
• Brush the sugar glaze over the danish pastries whilst they are still warm, then leave to cool before drizzling a small amount of icing over each