Name: STRAWBERRY LIME ALMOND DANISH BRAID
Prep time: 2 h
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 2 h 45 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Scandinavian
Ingredients: 2 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; Large pinch salt; 3/4 cup 170g unsalted butter, cold and cut into medium pieces; 1 teaspoon active dry yeast (not instant); 1/4 cup 60ml tepid water (not hot); 1/4 cup 60ml cream, barely warm (not hot); A few gratings nutmeg; 1 egg; 2 Tbs 30g sugar; 1 1/2 cups 230g aprox. fresh strawberries, sliced; 1/3 cup cream cheese; 2/3 cups almond paste (recipe below); Zest of 1/2 lime; 1 1/2 cups 180g whole almonds, lightly toasted if you like; 1 1/2 cups 250g powdered sugar; 1 egg white; 1 teaspoon almond extract; 1-2 teaspoons corn syrup (if needed); 1 cup powdered sugar; Juice of 1 lime; Fresh strawberries (to serve)

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This strawberry lime almond danish was a given.

Almost two months since buying them for the first time, I’m still much in awe with the sweet, incredibly red strawberries I keep buying, asking the fruit guy every single time if they’re really good, as good as the last ones he sold me, or where those just a lucky batch not to be repeated until the last month of summer.

His confidence when selling them, even if it’s still winter here, telling me to take as many kilos as I want because they’re that good, followed by my mmm…I don’t know answer, together with a lip frown, rooted in years of never finding those fresh peaches from my childhood or truly ripe kumquats with their acid sweetness ever again; yet returning home with at least a pound of strawberries, here I am once more, raving about this strawberry danish braid, a huge emphasis on the berry part. HUGE.
Can you believe I’m not giving the last batch of frozen sweet cherries a second thought these days?

This is my September post for the Twelve Loaves challenge, the bread baking group started by the talented Lora of Cake Duchess (with an extra very special thanks to the wonderful Renee of Magnolia Days who is always available to keep the group on its tracks), where we pick a theme each month and bake whatever we fancy, yeasted or not, as long as it’s in the bread category, so muffins, scones, and such are part of it too. Maybe you remember the cinnamon sugar challah, the whole wheat mountain bread or the mind-blowing cheese pesto filled naan. Today it was farmer’s market, and as you can see a trip to the market produced fresh strawberries and limes. There is lime in the filling and the glaze and the red berries inside and out too.

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.

When I first started this blog, and didn’t have a clue about photography, and a bunch of other stuff as it turned out, but I was eager to share this quick method of making Danish dough will all of you, so I posted a prune-filled one, which is really good, but considering the number of good food blogs and pictures going around, those older posts look so dated it’s easy to overlook them and their recipes.

So I’m printing it again here in the hopes that you will make it, despite your fear of yeast, laminated doughs, and baking in general. It is a danish pastry after all, so it does imply a little extra work, but the results are so.much.better than you can ever imagine.

And finally, I’m not particularly fond of fresh strawberries.

What?

Yes, considering they appear at the same time as blackberries, peaches, figs, raspberries and other fruits and vegetables I’m forgetting now, they always get pushed to the end of the line.

But 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!

Strawberries are at the top, first in the line. They sure earned it.