The Classic Sweet Roll

As ubiquitous as this style of Danish is, it’s one of the more complex to make. I learned to make them putting in an extra fold and layer of buttercream. That makes the end product both richer (of course) and flakier. If you’d rather not do that part (though it’s a nice way to use […]

READ ON

The Envelope

This is a slightly different “envelope” than the one I talked about in the cheese Danish post. It isn’t my best shape, I’m baker enough to admit that. However never let it be said I didn’t show you every Danish I know how to make. Most of the time when you see these they’re filled […]

READ ON

The Bear Claw

Call me crazy, but when somebody offers me a pastry called a “bear claw”, I actually expect to see something that looks, at least a little, like a bear’s claw. Hence my years of confusion going into doughnut shops and encountering amorphous blobs of fried dough that bore the name. I swear to you I […]

READ ON

The Pinwheel

Here’s another very simple one that anyone can do in the comfort of their own living room: the pinwheel. As with the cheese Danish, start by rolling out about a pound and a half of dough into a rectangle about a quarter inch thick (the exactly dimensions aren’t important. Starting with a rough square… …cut […]

READ ON

The Cheese Danish

This shape is perhaps the easiest of all the Danish types, being just a simple packet made from a dough square. The filling is simplicity itself, something that I almost always just improvise. The rough proportions are as follows: 8 ounces cream cheese 1/4 cup sugar 1 egg yolk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon […]

READ ON

The Snail Roll

Like classic sweet rolls, these too are fixtures of the Danish counter. The reason (probably), because the shape is so darn versatile. There are chocolate chip snails (like mine above), cinnamon sugar snails, cinnamon sugar and raisin snails, walnut and cinnamon sugar snails, pecan snails, almond filling snails and any-kind-of- jam-you-can-possibly-think-of snails. And none are […]

READ ON