Rough Danish dough

Today is Friday...that means baking day! I felt like making a chocolate croissant, so I went with this Danish dough recipe. The process is similar to making a croissant with the constant folding the dough and rising; talk about a lot of work! But I knew that the end result would be worth it...and it was! The original recipe calls for some ingredients that are called by different names in the U.K. so I added the more common names below.

Rough Danish Dough

Recipe found on http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/mar/09/homemade-danish-pastry-recipes-lepard

Fast acting yeast = instant yeast
Strong white flour = bread flour
cold double cream = heavy cream
caster sugar = granulated sugar

Nutritional Analysis:

per pastry: 385.4 calories, 26g fat (16g saturated, 1.2g polyunsaturated, 6.9g monounsaturated), 32.8g carbohydrates, 1.1g fiber, 5.4g protein.

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

Being in America, our version of the metric system consists of cups and ounces, not grams and liters, so the first step was to convert the units. I recommend a scale for this recipe since a lot of the conversions weren't whole numbers (i.e. 50g bread flour = 1.76 ounces). Once you're ready to start, activate the yeast in warm water (specifically 100 - 110 degrees Fahrenheit.) and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then add the bread flour and let it sit for an hour at room temperature. After 60 minutes, the starter will have tiny bubbles like below. 

Although the recipe calls for 300g of 00 flour, I used bread flour and it turned out great. After you add the remaining ingredients, I had to add an additions 2 tbsp of milk because the dough was a little dry. It should come together quite easily; do not worry about the chunks of butter, they will will be incorporated into the dough after you roll it. When you are folding the dough, simply fold into thirds. Make sure to dust flour on the counter and on the rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking.

For the third fold, the dough will be harder and more stubborn to roll out. Don't be afraid to be aggressive! Use those arm muscles to roll out the dough! When you are ready to roll and shape, the dough will be elastic and even harder to roll out. If too difficult, let it sit covered for 10 minutes and it should be easier. I only had chocolate chips on hand, so I skipped the chopping chocolate step and sprinkled them on the dough, 2 cm above the border. Roll tight, sprinkle more chocolate, and continue rolling so you are left with a log. 

Make sure the seam is on the bottom of the log so the dough stays closed. Despite the recipe saying the yield is 8-10 pastries, I only got 6 even though they were 7cm long. Depending on how warm it is, the proofing time can differ; however, for me it took about 1 hour (it was 85 degrees today!) Look how nice and big they look! 

Bake and voila! The pastries puffed up even more in the oven! These danish pastries were so buttery and delicious, probably not as flaky as they would have been if 00 flour was used, but still o so good!