Danish Pastry

This is a Christmas tradition in my husbands family, as long as he can remember they have had this on Christmas morning. The recipe came from Germany while my husbands uncle was stationed there. This is a fitting way to start off this blog, by having a recipe from one of the best cooks I have ever known, my mother in law. A few years back, we made over 30 pastries and I was 8 months pregnant with my first child. Crazy, but it was worth it cause everyone enjoys them so much.



Basic Dough
1 Cup butter
2 Cups warm milk
¾ C Sugar
2 Tablespoons yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
2 eggs
6 Cups flour (it takes more, keep adding a little bit at a time until you can barely handle the dough without it sticking to your hands as your mix).
Method
Place butter and sugar in four quart mixing bowl, pour heated milk over it. Let stand while you mix yeast with ½ cup warm water and 1 Tablespoon sugar. Sir and let stand for 5 minutes.
Add eggs to yeast and other mixture. Add salt and sifted flour. Beat together, no kneeding. Cover with cloth and let raise for 1 ½ hours in warm place. Punch down and let raise for 45 minutes. Roll and shape as desired. After shaping let raise for 30 minutes. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes for smaller cakes and 25 minutes for larger cakes. Makes 3 ½ dozen cinnamon rolls or three large pastries.

Cream Filling*
1 Cup milk
1 egg yolk
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 Cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1 Teaspoon vanilla
Blend sugar, and milk, when boiling sir a little milk mixture into beaten egg yolk. Blend together and cook 1 minute. Add vanilla. Cool. To avoid scorching the filling heat it to a boil in a double boiler, or as I do the microwave.
*I make 1 ½ times cream for each batch of pastries.

Almond Filling
½ Cup butter
¾ Cup sugar
2 Teaspoons almond extract.
Mix all ingredients together and set aside.

Glaze
Beat 1 egg white, brush pastry with it. Sprinkle crumble mixture on top.

Crumble Mixture
¼ Cup butter
½ Cup flour
½ Cup sugar
¼ Cup finely chopped walnuts
Crumble together until very well mixed.

Icing
1 lb of powdered sugar
Hot water
Almond extract to taste
Mix enough water into powdered sugar until it is thin enough to glaze over pastry. Dribble this icing while the pastry is warm.

This will make 2 large of 4 small pastries. Divide dough into parts. Roll out dough into rectangle. Spread cream filling in a thin layer. Drop almond filling by small half teaspoons on top of cream filling.

At each side of filling make cuts 2” apart, making cuts 2” long into the dough, making sure that there are the same amount of strips on both sides. Lace strips, tuck ends underneath. Place on a greased baking sheet. Brush with glaze then sprinkle crumble mix on top. Bake. While still warm drizzle with icing. Decorate with cherries and pecans.