Vanilla almond danish pastries

I have had a weakness this week for danish pastries piled with think custard and slivered almonds, drizzled with crisp white icing trails and dusted with icing sugar....mmmmmmmmmmmm....

After trying the offerings of Sainsbury's and Tescos I tried my own and the results, especially eaten straight away are inconceivably superior...though I must state in deference to my Master Baker Almost-Brother-in-Law that I did not compare any from a fresh bakery *handslap*

As you can see above I always feel the need to serve cakes and pastries on one of my little treasured mismatched plates to add to a sense of occasion but I am betting they are just wonderful off any china (remind me to road test some later ;)

250g plain flour

250g strong white flour

7g sachet fast-action yeast

50g golden caster sugar

2tsp salt

150ml whole or semi-skimmed milk

1 large egg, beaten, plus extra beaten egg to glaze

250g pack lightly salted butter, not fridge cold but not soft, cut into 8 even slices

A good few spoonfuls of cold homemade thick custard...or a 150g tub

2 large handfuls slivered almonds

icing sugar

lemon juice

1. Mix together the dry ingredients, then stir in the milk and egg until you have a smooth, slightly sticky dough. Knead for 1 min, using a little flour, until just smooth. Put into an oiled bowl, cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hr until doubled in size.

2. Flour your surface, then pat or roll the dough out to a rectangle, 1cm thick. Lay the butter slices out over the middle of the dough, in a rectangle. Fold the pastry over the top, bottom and then sides until the butter is completely hidden. Press the edges down.

3. Roll the dough out to a 50 x 30cm rectangle, first tapping out the dough with the rolling pin in gentle ridges, so that you can tell the butter is being squashed out evenly inside the pastry, before rolling properly. Turn dough 90 degrees, then fold the right third over and the left third over that. Do this three times, chilling for 15 mins after each roll.

4. Cut the dough in half, into 2 squares. Roll one piece of dough to 35 x 35cm. Cut into 9 squares. Roll up the four corners of each until you have rough circles with curled edges, sort of like little croissants

5. Fill each with a good spoonful of custard and sprinkle with slivered almonds.

6. Once shaped and filled, let the pastries rise for 30 mins until puffed and doubled in size. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Brush with beaten egg, make sure you pinch any edges together again, then bake for about 20 mins until golden and risen.

6. Beat together 1tbsp icing sugar with a small amount of lemon juice until smooth, adding more juice or sugar until you reach a thick stiff consistency. Drizzle this icing liberally over the pastries and sieve over more icing sugar.

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Comments

[Memoria]

I love making laminated dough! Your danish looks yummy! Good job.

[Kaitlin]

This sounds amazing! The picture is making me drool... Yum!

[Jessy]

Your pastry looks marvelous. The photo is beautiful as well.

[Ann]

Your Danish looks delicious. I love your photo.

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[penny]

Yummy. Like a cup of tea it always taste better served on proper china!

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Really good, a lot of my friends would love this, gonna let them know about it right now. Cheers!

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This is a very good idea! Just want to say thank you for the information, you have to share. Just continue to write such a position.

[Ed Hochhalter]

So mouth-watering! Yummy! It's seems so easy to make, huh. And I think I can ask my wife to make this one for me, now that I'm fully okay after a dentist appointment. =DD

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[רופא שיניים]

Wow.. Yummy post. I like pastries much specially with almond. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I will try out this one.

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