Strawberry Danish Pastry

If you ever wanted to make strawberry danish at home, this is it! The dough is a gem of a recipe, made partially in the food processor and braided because it's the best way of making and eating a flaky, creamy and fabulous, breakfast pastry with minimal fuss.

Do you see the flakiness of the dough, the creamy filling, the baked strawberries inside? I can almost taste it just by looking at the pictures and wish we could all have it for breakfast every week.

The quick danish dough that I use is a miracle in itself, a recipe from Beatriz Ojakangas who wrote quite a few books and specializes in Scandinavian baking; and despite all her credits as a baker and author, I will advocate this single quick danish pastry recipe as one of the best things to ever appear in my baking universe. It's gold.

And finally, I love fresh strawberries, but I'm not particularly fond of baked ones. Or so I thought.

Because then this filling came to be - with almond cream, cream cheese, and lime zest - it entered the intricate pattern of this braid, baked till it puffed and the strawberries softened, got a tingle from the lime glaze, and suddenly boom!

Baked strawberries are at the top, first in the line. They sure earned it, with this recipe and with the Brown Sugar Strawberry Crisp one too.

Words elude me when I try to explain how incredibly amazing and delicious this strawberry danish braid is.

So, let's take it one step at a time, starting with the dough.

Easy Danish pastry recipe

If you love pastries as much as I do you'll go nuts about this quick danish dough recipe.

Though quick is a stretch probably in this tech time when we have instant access to so many things, this is the fastest way you can make it while still getting great results.

If you ever made a danish dough from scratch, you know exactly what I'm talking about. With this recipe, the first part is made in the food processor, so there's no more making a butter block, waiting for it to be the perfect temperature and then adding it to the dough rectangle.

Steps for the dough

1. You simply mix part of the dough ingredients together with the butter in the food processor. The crucial step is to leave the butter pieces the size of kidney beans (image 1). This is very important to achieve flakiness in the end.
2. The mixture from above is mixed with the rest of the ingredients which include the activated yeast (image 2).
   It's a very rough dough (image below, bottom) at first, very. You might think you need to knead it more, but you don't. You wrap it and it goes into the refrigerator like this for several hours.
3. Then comes the folding, or lamination. This is what makes it flaky. Each fold of the dough onto itself makes another layer of flakiness. This is the way croissants are made. The refrigeration time is essential for the dough to relax so you can roll it and fold it easily, and especially important when you have doughs with yeast.
4. It is folded a total of 3 times, with resting periods in between. The dough is rolled into a rectangle, short side parallels to the counter, and a third is folded from the bottom up and the other third from the top down. You give it a quarter turn to your right and that way you have like a flyer folded in three parts. That's a complete fold.
5. Below you can see how rough the dough with 1 fold (image 3) and how much smoother it is after 3 folds (image 4). You can see how the dough comes together with each fold and becomes less rustic and rough.

The filling

I choose to use fresh strawberries with almond cream (or frangipane as it's also called) and limes.

They are incredibly good together! The creamy almond is soft and a very traditional filling. The strawberries add sweetness and freshness, and the limes add a tang that balances the butter and sugar perfectly.

It's such an amazing synergy of flavors I was completely caught off guard when I took the first bite. I wasn't expecting it to be so good.

Making the braid

When the dough is laminated and ready to be used, it is rolled into a large wide rectangle.

It's important to have enough dough were to make the cuts and then fold each strip to the other side, covering most of the filling, making a criss-cross pattern. If the strips are too short, they will puff and open during baking and the filling will be too exposed. This will make it less creamy as it will be exposed to direct heat.

My top tips

• Pastry dough: make sure you process the butter until it's the size of kidney beans, not smaller. That makes a difference.
• Resting: the dough needs to rest in the refrigrator the hours stipulated so that it can bake and puff as it should.
• Glaze: you can use lemon or another citrus, or even liquor. But lime is a great partner to the other flavors.
• Fillings: you can use a good berry jam, or another berry instead of strawberries, quince jam or just cream cheese with powdered sugar instead of the almond cream.

Related recipes you might like:

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Strawberry Danish Braid

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews

• Author: Paula Montenegro
• Prep Time: 120
• Cook Time: 45
• Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
• Yield: 8 servings 1x
• Category: Bakery
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: International

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Description

Amazing homemade Strawberry Danish pastry! The dough is a gem of a recipe, made in the food processor. It's the best way of making and eating a flaky, creamy breakfast pastry with minimal fuss.

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

For the danish dough:

• 2 to 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• Large pinch salt
• ¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter, cold and cut into medium pieces
• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast (not instant)
• ¼ cup (60ml) tepid water (not hot)
• ¼ cup (60ml) cream, barely warm (not hot)
• A few gratings nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons (30g) sugar

For the filling:

• 1 ½ cups (230g) fresh strawberries, sliced
• ⅓ cup cream cheese
• ⅔ cups almond paste (recipe below)
• Zest of ½ lime

For the almond paste:

• 1 ½ cups (180g) whole almonds, lightly toasted if you like
• 1 ½ cups (250g) powdered sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1-2 teaspoons corn syrup (if needed)

For the glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• Juice of 1 lime
• Fresh strawberries (to serve)

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Instructions

For the quick danish dough:

1. Put 1 ¾ cups flour and salt in the work bowl of a food processor, fitted with the steel blade.
2. Add the cold butter, cut into chunks, and process until the butter is the size of kidney beans.
3. In a bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let stand 5 minutes until foamy, and then stir in the cream, nutmeg, egg, and sugar. Mix very lightly with a fork.
4. Transfer the flour and butter mixture to a large bowl; add the yeast mixture and mix lightly with a fork or spatula just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Similar to scone mixing.
5. Shape into a square, it will be very irregular, transfer to a plastic, wrap and refrigerate 4 hours or up to 4 days.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board; dust with a little flour. Flatten with a rolling pin to make a 16 to 20-inch (40x51cm) square.
7. Fold into thirds, top ⅓ down and remaining ⅓ up, making 3 layers. Turn dough a quarter to your right, as if it were a book, so that the large open part it on your right, and roll again.
8. Repeat the three folds two more times for a total of three times. Like puff pastry. This should result in a sort-of square. Wrap and chill the dough 30 minutes or as long as overnight.
9. When ready to bake, take the dough out of the refrigerator and transfer to a floured surface.
10. Roll into a 12x6-inches (30x15cm) rectangle. Place on a baking sheet that has been covered with lightly buttered and floured parchment paper or Silpat. What did we do before Silpat??
11. Spread the almond cream cheese filling, down the length of the center of the strip. Top with sliced strawberries.
12. Cut slanted or straight strips along both sides towards the center using a dough scraper or a pastry wheel. Be very careful and gentle when doing this; I slashed one of my beloved Silpats. Fold strips over the filling in a crisscross pattern.
13. Let rise 1 hour (more or less depending on the tº), just until the pastry appears puffy. It will not double. Sprinkle with sugar.
14. Turn on the oven to 375ºF/180ºC about 20 minutes before baking.
15. Bake about 20 to 25 minutes, until golden.
16. Frost with lime glaze and top with fresh strawberries cut into chunks.

For the strawberry cream cheese filling:

1. Mix room temperature almond cream with cream cheese until smooth.
2. Add lime zest and mix well.

For the lime glaze:

1. Mix powdered sugar with lime juice in a bowl until completely smooth.
2. If you want it thicker or thinner add more or less juice.

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Notes

• Pastry dough: make sure you process the butter until it's the size of kidney beans, not smaller. That makes a difference. It can be frozen. Defrost in the refrigerator, wrapped.
• Resting: the dough needs to rest in the refrigerator the hours stipulated so that it can bake and puff as it should.
• Glaze: you can use lemon or another citrus, or even liquor. But lime is a great partner to the other flavors.
• Fillings: you can use a good berry jam, or another berry instead of strawberries, quince jam or just cream cheese with powdered sugar instead of the almond cream.
• Keeping: this braid should be eaten the day it's baked.
• I made half the dough recipe, so you can easily double it. These braids freeze perfectly after baked, wrapped first in film and then foil. Warm them up before eating.
• Almond filling: you can simply mix ground almonds and cream cheese (half of each) for a simpler version.

Keywords: strawberry danish

Dough barely adapted from The Great Scandinavian Book, by Beatriz Ojakangas

Paula Montenegro

I'm Paula, a baker for more than 30 years and your designated recipe finder, sharing the best ones here, with simple ingredients + easy-to-follow instructions.

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