Buttery, flaky, light-as-air homemade Danish dough is easier than you think with this easy recipe. Perfect for all your sweet Danish breakfast cravings, this recipe isn’t a quick fix but it is simple to make.
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Want to know how to make Danish pastry? The easy way? I did too, so I created this Danish pastry dough recipe that takes just ½ an hour of hands on time and just another 20 to turn it into buttery, flaky breakfast pastries.
Easy Overnight Danish Rye Bread (rugbrød)
You can also see my bear claw pastry where the pastry is adapted from this recipe but has a slightly different method (a little more like croissant dough).
I can’t begin to tell you how amazing this recipe is. It’s easier than a traditional Danish dough but every bit as delicious. This recipe was actually adapted from my blueberry cinnamon roll dough.
Ten stars! … This was a HUGE success at the office. I’ve already been warned that they will be requested again and again and again. Bring it! This recipe is so easy that I won’t mind making them many times. Ed Anderson
Havrebrød (danish Oat Loaf)
Heads up, this post is loaded with information so here’s a table of contents to get you where you need to go or hit the jump to recipe button at the top to go straight to the recipe.
Laminating dough is the process of rolling butter into dough, then folding and rolling a number of times to create layers. Puff pastry is a type of laminated dough and so is Danish pastry dough. As the butter is not worked into the dough but rolled through in layers, it melts, creating steam as it bakes which lifts and creates the layers.
While not laminated in the traditional way (aka a slab of butter gradually rolled directly into the dough), I use a simplified method (mainly because patience isn’t my thing) and this Danish pastry still results in perfect flaky, Danish pastries.
Homemade Starbucks Cheese Danish
Danish pastry is a yeasted, buttery pastry of many layers. Used most often for sweet breakfast or dessert pastries, it’s cooked until crisp and flaky on the outside, while the centre stays soft.
Danish pastry was created in Denmark but it translates to Vienna Bread – this is because it was created by Austrian bakers in the 1840s (source).
Danish pastry ingredients are very few and very simple. You just need 7 ingredients and, if you’ve made bread before, you likely have all of them on hand.
An Apple Cheese Danish Dessert Recipe » Not Entirely Average
While this recipe is very easy to make and only needs ½ an hour of hands on time, I don’t want to give the impression that it’s a quick recipe overall. This dough needs chilling time but further down in this post, I’ll give you tips on how to have it ready ahead of time so all you need to do on the day is bake.
When you’re ready to turn your homemade danish dough into Danish pastries, roll the dough out, cut it into shapes, fill and bake. It’s that simple.
A simple square with the corners pulled in will give you a classic shaped pastry or cut rounds like the picture below.
Danish Pastry Recipe
The baking temperature and time for Danishes will depend on what size you make them and what you bake them in. For instance, if you bake a family sized Danish it will require different temp / time to a palm sized Danish or a Danish cooked in a muffin tin. So it will depend on your creation.
While this post focuses on making the base pastry itself, check out the recipes I’ve linked in the section above to help you create your own baked Danishes.
Yes, this is an easy recipe – not difficult to make and no special equipment required – however, it’s not a super quick recipe. Chilling and resting the dough is vital and there are three stages of this.
Soft Danish Bread With A Kick
This sounds long winded but you can have breakfast pastries in the oven first thing in the morning, pinky promise! Delicious, buttery Danish pastries, made from scratch, ready to eat for breakfast? Yes and please. So here’s how you do it.
For instance, I made the dough first thing on a Saturday morning (15 minutes). I went about my day then about 4pm I did my roll and folds (15 minutes). An hour later, I assembled my batch of pastries and put them on baking trays in the fridge, covered (20 minutes).
When I woke up Sunday, I turned the oven on and baked them and had fresh baked Danish pastries for a sweet and delicious breakfast treat.
Bakery Style Cheese Danish Recipe
Danish pastries can also be baked from frozen. Assemble then place on a baking tray and place in the freezer. Once solid, wrap them well and place in an airtight container. Unwrap, then place on a baking tray and bake from frozen.
Yes, you can freeze Danish pastry dough. Form it into a smoothish rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Wrap 2-3 times in plastic wrap and store flat in the freezer for 2-3 months.
Frozen Danish pastry should be thawed overnight in the fridge. On the other hand, if you have already assembled your Danish pastries, they can be baked from frozen, but may take an extra 3-5 minutes.
Danish Sour Dough Rye Bread
There are so many methods to folding Danish pastries. A very simple method is actually no fold at all. Just cut out circles of dough, make an indent in the middle and add a filling. Another simple way is to cut squares, then fold the corners into the centre.
Other methods include braids and pinwheels among many more and I aim to add a post in the near future with a bunch of Danish pastry shapes you can make with this dough.
The difference between Danish pastry and puff pastry is essentially yeast and egg. Danish pastry is leavened whereas puff pastry is not. In addition, Danish has egg in the dough. Danish dough is layered like puff pastry but is crisp on the outside whilst being soft on the inside as opposed to puff pastry that is crisp all the way through.
Danish Rye Bread (rugbrød)
If you try this homemade sweet danish dough, please take a moment to leave a rating and comment below. I love hearing from you and it helps other readers too! You can also take a photo and tag @ on Instagram.
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Buttery, flaky, light-as-air homemade Danish dough is easier than you think with this easy recipe. Perfect for all your sweet Danish breakfast cravings, this recipe isn’t a quick fix but it is simple to make.
Fruity Cheese Danish
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Have you tried this recipe? Don’t forget to leave a rating and comment below and let me know how it was! I love hearing from you. Nutrition information is approximate and derived from an online calculator. The brands you use may cause variations.
This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission for my referral, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting Sugar Salt Magic.This is a variation of classic Danish pastry dough. Instead of laminating the dough with separate layers of butter like we do with homemade croissants, we’re working the butter directly into the yeasted dough. We still get a wonderfully flaky and buttery layered pastry! From this dough you can create a pastry braid or individual breakfast pastries.
Danish Sourdough Rye Bread (rugbrød)
I’ve studied, tested, and retested plenty of homemade pastry dough the past month. (And I’ve gone through a few pounds of butter in the process!) The resulting dough is a quick-method to real Danish pastry. It’s an adaption of several trusted sources: Cooking Illustrated, Joy of Cooking, and pastry master Beatrice Ojakangas. I mish-mashed all of the recipes I studied and made my own version of this flaky, buttery dough.
Danish pastry is made from flour, yeast, milk, eggs, and copious amounts of butter. The texture is similar to croissant dough, but tastes sweeter (and has the addition of egg in the dough). Like croissants, typical Danish pastry dough is rolled out thinly, then folded with a layer of butter to form multiple layers.
This is a shortcut version—it’s not the traditional method of making real danish pastry. Here we are working the butter directly into the dough using a food processor. We’re still rolling it out and folding the dough, just as you do when you laminate dough with butter, but we’re not folding it up with a separate layer of butter. Does that make sense?
Homemade Pastry Dough (shortcut Version)
I use the term “shortcut” loosely. This dough still takes at least 5-6 hours total with 2 rounds of refrigeration. Pastries made from this dough are just as buttery, tender, and flaky. You could compare this to store-bought puff pastry, but it’s worlds better. Crispier, more buttery, flakier,
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