Have you ever wanted to make homemade Danish for a special breakfast or brunch?  Start with my easy Danish Pastry Dough!  I’ve broken the recipe down to be super-simple and there’s even a video tutorial so you can follow along.  You’re moments away from the most butter-y, flaky, fruit-filled treat ever!

How to Make Homemade Danish Pastry- easy to follow video and recipe on Baking a Moment

I am declaring this the summer of bucket-list baking!

Is there something you’ve always wanted to try?  But maybe you’ve been a little afraid?  Maybe there are a lot of steps, or maybe it’s just a little bit complicated?

I’ve got lots of items like that.  Some I’ve yet to tackle and a few that I took the plunge on.  Know what I’ve found, most times?  It’s not nearly as bad as we build it up in our minds to be.

How to Make Homemade Danish Pastry- easy to follow video and recipe on Baking a Moment

Every time I’ve ever had a Danish at a coffee shop or bakery, I’ve always been a little let down.  They always seem to be a bit heavy, and kinda soggy.  There’s only one solution, and that’s to make it homemade, from all the best ingredients, and fresh from the oven.

But ugh.  I had heard about that butter square.  How you have to create a square of butter, encase it within a yeast dough, and roll and fold it over on itself a hundred times to get all those flaky layers.  Are you kidding me???  The though of it was exhausting.

Well, I finally just got up and did it.  And guess what?  It wasn’t hard at all.  The dough itself is as simple as mixing dry with wet, and the butter square took me all of about five minutes.  Nothin’ to it!

The final product is light as air and super butter-y.  I used the best ingredients I could get my hands on, including Irish butter from Kerrygold.  What an incredible result!  The flaky layers are to-die-for.  On Friday I’ll tell you all about the filling and garnishes, so stay tuned!

How to Make Homemade Danish Pastry- easy to follow video and recipe on Baking a Moment

I do a lot of talking in this video tutorial.  I’m not really sure how I feel about that, but rather than typing out the step-by-step, I’m just going to let it speak for itself.  I hope you enjoy, and let me know if you give this a try!

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3.44 stars (48 ratings)

Easy Danish Pastry Dough

Servings: 18 pastries
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Chill Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Have you ever wanted to make homemade Danish for a special breakfast or brunch? Start with my easy Danish Pastry Dough! I've broken the recipe down to be super-simple and there's even a video tutorial so you can follow along. You're moments away from the most butter-y, flaky, fruit-filled treat ever!

Ingredients

Instructions
 

  • Cut a half a tablespoon of butter off the ends of each stick of butter, and set aside.
  • Cut each stick of butter in half, then cut each half stick lengthwise.
  • Line up 4 butter rectangles side by side on a sheet of lightly floured parchment.
  • Dust with flour, and fold the parchment up and over the butter.
  • Use a rolling pin to lightly pound/roll the butter to a thickness of about 1/4-inch.
  • Repeat with the remaining 4 butter rectangles.
  • Refrigerate the parchment-wrapped butter squares.
  • Place the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.
  • Cut in the reserved tablespoon of cold butter, rubbing between your fingertips to fully incorporate.
  • In a large liquid measure, stir the milk, water, egg, and vanilla together.
  • Add the liquid ingredients into the dry and stir together.
  • Knead the dough for approximately 7 minutes in a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment.
  • Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll/pat into a rough rectangle shape. (Ideally, the short side of the rectangle should be about the same length as the long side of the butter square in step 2. The long side should be about 3x the length of the short side of the butter square.)
  • Place one of the butter squares in the center of the dough rectangle.
  • Fold one side of the dough over the butter, and top with the remaining butter square.
  • Fold the other side of the dough over the second butter square.
  • Pinch the sides of the dough together to encase the butter within the dough.
  • Roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1/2-inch, then fold the dough into thirds, like a letter. Repeat, two more times.
  • Wrap loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (or for a minimum of 1 hour).

Notes

Click here to see how to shape, fill, and bake this dough: Blackberry Ginger Danish.
Calories: 180kcal, Carbohydrates: 17g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 6g, Cholesterol: 36mg, Sodium: 170mg, Potassium: 48mg, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 340IU, Calcium: 15mg, Iron: 1mg
Cuisine: Danish
Course: Breakfast, Brunch
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