Happy Holidays!
I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe, and happy holiday season.
I’m going to take a few days respite; perhaps even the whole week, well except for today (master of the obvious). I’m off to spend a few days with the family, catch up on my blog reading, and get through what will be some intense days at the office; the clock is ticking on 2012. I suspect you’ll all survive without me in your life on a regular basis, but I bet you’ll miss my potty mouth. Who else talks so sweet and dirty to you?
Prior to my disappearing act, I wanted to leave you with a recipe for my world-famous (or really known only to my family) Danish Puff Pastry. Growing up, my mother made this every year for Christmas brunch. With the holiday nearly upon us, I was craving this delightful and delectable dessert pastry. Now, before you get all excited (because you should get excited), you need to know, there is nothing healthy about this one, unless butter and powdered sugar (the white devil) have suddenly become nutritious and vitamin dense overnight. Who knows; it could be a Christmas miracle; stranger things have happened.
Now that I’m all jacked up on sugar and experiencing a mad rush (picture Chris Farley in Tommy Boy, singing Maniac while simultaneously being hosed down), I’m going to project myself onto my whole family for two straight days. It should be a great time…for me anyway.
This lovely little gem is the perfect breakfast pastry on Christmas morning (or really any morning). The Hubby and I made a double batch on Sunday and then gifted them to all of our neighbors; suddenly being my neighbor doesn’t seem so bad. We did manage to keep one for ourselves though; hence, my sugar induced haze. I’m twitching and cackling as I type this.
So if you’re feeling frisky or the need for speed (i.e. sugar), go make this. Just don’t beat yourself up afterwards. One day isn’t gonna kill you, although if you’ve been on the clean eating train, this one may intoxicate you. Consider yourself warned.
If you are truly interested in this next part (the recipe), yes, there are three separate steps to this bad boy (in a good way). They are all super easy and more than worth the end result, which is a buttery dense like crust, followed by a soft melt in your mouth pastry layer and then topped with buttercream frosting designed to make you swoon. The final icing on the cake (other than the actual icing) is some chopped walnuts for a special crunchy finish.
Danish Puff Pastry
Crust Ingredients
-
1/2 cup butter, softened
-
1 cup flour
-
2 Tbsp water, lukewarm
Crust Directions
- Cut 1/2 cup butter into 1 cup flour. Sprinkle 2 Tbsp water over mixture and mix entire thing. Round into a ball and then divide ball in half.
- On ungreased baking sheet, roll each half ball into strips (12 inches * 3 inches). Keep strips three inches apart.
You’ll end up with two of these unless you double the batch like I did, and I’m telling you now, you should double it.
Puff Pastry (Middle Layer) Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup water
- 1 1/2 tsp Almond Extract
- 1 cup flour
- 3 eggs
Puff Pastry (Middle Layer) Directions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Add butter and water to medium saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and then reduce heat to low and quickly stir in almond extract and flour. Stir vigorously until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and beat in eggs all at once until completely incorporated, and mixture is smooth and glossy.
- Divide in half and spread evenly over strips.
- Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minute to 60 minutes until top is crisp and brown. Cool before frosting.
Frosting Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups confectionary sugar (White Devil)
- 2 Tbsp butter, softened
- 11/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 to 2 Tbsp warm water
- Chopped Walnuts
Frosting Ingredients
- Mix confectionary sugar, butter and vanilla. Add in 1 to 2 Tbsp of water until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency. Add more water if necessary.
- Frost pastry, and add chopped walnuts.
These pastries are absolutely magnificent, and with butter as a key ingredient in every single layer, how could they not be?
What’s your traditional holiday breakfast? Do you send bake goods to your neighbors? What’s your favorite dessert pastry?
Meghan,
If I didn’t give baked goods away to my neighbors I would not be able to fit out the door. The best part of having neighbors is that they watch my place while I’m gone *and* enable me to bake a ton of different cookies so that my Christmas cookie tray at home has a huge assortment but my jeans still fit in January.
The word Danish now has me jonesing for Tea Birkes. I have no idea how to pronounce it (if you’ve heard native Danish speakers you’d know exactly what I mean). It’s sort of like a rectangular croissant in that it’s buttery and layered, but the top layer is covered with poppy seeds (and white poppy seeds? more than just little round black balls). But wait, there’s more. You take this rectangular pastry, slice it in half (like you’d slice a croissant to make a croissandwich), put it on a kitchen appliance probably designed with this single function, and toast the inner–cut–sides. Then you spread butter (!) on the toasted sides and lay a wafer thin rectangle of chocolate on top of the butter. Then you return this to the appliance and heat until the chocolate has melted. Then you eat it. It’s awesome. Like a freshly made chocolate croissant, still melty, but with a bit of crunch from the seeds. Ready to go back to Copenhagen for more.
Merry Christmas!
Oh My! I need this croissant like thing of which you speak. Butter, chocolate, pastry layers…I’m drooling.
I love that you bake for the neighbors too; it makes me smile.
Merry Christmas Kirsten.
I literally laughed out loud at the Chris Farley reference. Merry Christmas! hahahah
Thanks; it’s really how I feel when I eat a ton of sugar now. Plus, that movie is a classic. Merry Christmas Jess!
You weren’t kidding about the butter! Haha! Reminds me of the cake I made last year. The buter was ridiculous… but oh, so good. Paula Deen = classic.
Merry Christmas!!!
I never kid when it comes to butter. 😉
Merry Christmas Laura!!
Sure is A LOT of butter.. but hey everyone deserves some extra goodness fromt ime to time =)
Hope you had a Merry Christmas!
I figure when you factor in how many slices of the pastry you actually eat, the butter content goes way down. Now, if you eat the whole thing, your arteries may be in trouble.
We had a great Christmas. I hope you and Joshua did too. 🙂
holy moly dude! butter makes everything better, in my opinion. paula deen, not so much. but at least we agree on the butter issue. and the fact that tommy boy is legend….wait for it….dairy! legendary! 😉
happy christmas darling!!!
I’m actually with you on the Paula Dean topic. I did another post so very long ago where I ranted about her. I’m not a fan for obvious reasons.
Merry Christmas to you too!
Merry Christmas and happy new year to you too Meghan! That butter meme is hysterical!
Hope you’re staying warm up there!!
XO
Thanks Caren. It’s getting chilly and we’ve gotten a bunch of snow, but all the more reason to have fires in the fireplace.
This looks fantastic Meghan! Great photography, too:) Have a great weekend!
Thanks Sunnie. You have a great weekend too.
Those look so sweet and amazing! I totally hear you about the sugar coma, so it’s been nice to have a few days at home filling up on homemade soup and veggies. Enjoy your time away. You certainly deserve it! Looking forward to seeing you when you come back : )
Hahha this looks delicious Meghan! I love your writing style. I have definitely been in a sugar coma for the last couple of days. Happy New Year!
Thanks Alaine. I love compliments when it comes to my writing. It makes my day. 🙂
Happy New Year to you too. Hopefully, you’re on the mend from your sugar coma. I’m finally seeing the light.
Homemade soups and veggies sound so delicious right now. I’m coming over. 😉
I took a blogging break only to focus solely on work. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself, and I ended up getting my work done without being crazy or ridiculously stressed. Basically, it was a good break.
This looks so delicious! I`m definitly trying this out~ Thanks for sharing the recipe 🙂
Cris recently posted…Baigli with nuts and poppy seeds
This is one of my favorite pastries. If you love almond flavoring, you’ll adore it too. If you make it, let me know what you think. I really appreciate getting feedback.