Danish Pastry – Basic Dough

Making dough:

1. Crumble the yeast into the warm milk and dissolve while stirring. Put the flour, softened butter, sugar, egg and salt in a bowl. Mix with your hands and then pour in the yeast-milk mixture. Now knead everything well, shape into a ball and cover with foil and let rise for approx. 30 minutes in a warm place.
2. In the meantime, use a fork to mix the softened butter with the flour and then knead. Pour the mixture into a larger plastic bag and roll it flat until you have a square of 20 x 20 cm. The edges should be smooth. A ruler is of great help here. Cool this butter plate (with foil) briefly, but do not let it become too firm-
3. After the 30 min. Resting time, knead the dough again and beat it several times on the table so that any bubbles disappear. Then let rise again covered for 15 minutes. This time is usually enough to cool the butter plate.
4. Now roll out the yeast dough in a rectangular shape (approx. 25 x 40 cm) on a lightly floured surface. Place the butter square in the middle and fold into the rolled out dough. The butter must be completely enveloped in the dough. Now roll everything out again on a lightly floured surface to a rectangular shape to approx. 25-40 cm and place the 1st TOUR, i.e. fold in the sheet of dough from the narrow side to the middle and fold over the other side. So 3 layers were created. Put this dough packet in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
5. Now carefully roll out the dough package for the 2nd TOUR again to 25 – 40 cm, now fold both narrow sides evenly up to the middle and then fold both sides over each other. Now 4 layers have been created. Put the dough package back in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
6. So that the powder dough is nice and multi-layered, roll a total of 4 TOURS, i.e. the 3-layered one, cool for 30 minutes, and the 4-layered one, cool for 30 minutes.
7. The dough can now be processed. As stated above, I made mini croissants, pork ears and copenhagen out of them. Of course, you can also make just one variety at a time.
8. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (convection). Cut the baking paper for 3 trays.

Croissants:

1. Roll out the dough thinly and cut out even, pointed triangles. Brush with cream and roll up from the broad side. In the oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

Pig’s ears:

1. Roll out the dough thinly, brush with cream and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar. Roll up both sides evenly up to the middle and press a little against each other. Wrap in foil and put in the fridge again for about 30 minutes. Then brush the surface with cream and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Then quickly – as long as the dough is still firm – cut into 5 mm thick slices and place them on the baking sheet with a little space between them (they will still rise). Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

Copenhagener:

1. Roll out the dough thinly and cut out four or triangles. Brush with cream and fold in the tips of the corners up to the middle and press on. Put jam in the middle and in the corner slits and brush the surface of the dough a little with cream. For about 20-30 minutes, they can be a little darker than golden brown. After cooling, they can be coated with icing, depending on your preference.