Basic danish pastry dough

The look of my pastries may be misleading, they aren't croissants but simple danish filled with fruit preserved. If you haven't tried your hand at making danish pastry, you still don't know how to make one after you read through this post... I mean, if I wanted to learn how to drive, I wouldn't go to some one's blog and expect picking up all the skill from his/her hundreds-word post, would I? But two things better than learning to drive. One, it can be self-taught (I can do it so can you!!!) Go get some well-written books, like Joy of Baking, and read the whole pastry's chapter, from the first through the last word! Second, it doesn't hurt you or anybody if you keep failing (aka practicing). It's not unusual for us trying a few times before we can get our cookies totally right; please be extra patient to these advanced pastries. For those who are already skillful in making danish pastries, Beatrice Ojakangas' quick version is what I fregrently stick with. If you have a chance to make it, I'd like to hear your feedback too :D

Recipe courtesy Beatrice Ojakangas's The Great Scandinavian Baking Book

Yield: 24 servings

Ingredients:

• 14 g active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 3 1/2 cups King Arthur unbleached all purpose flour
• 330 g chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 slices. Get the butter with best quality & taste!
• 1/2 cup heavy/double cream
• 2 pinches ground cardamom
• 2 pinches of salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar

Directions

• Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in cream, cardamom, salt, eggs and sugar
• In a large mixing bowl, add flour and sliced butter, use a pastry blender to further cut the butter to the size of kidney beans
• Add the yeast mixture into flour mixture, combine carefully with a big rubber spatula, the mass is just moistened enough and hold together. Cover, refrigerate 4 hours or overnight
• To do this step, please ensure your room very cold: lightly flour the work table, turn out the chilled dough, pound and flatten to make a 16 - 20 inch square (photo upper left). Fold into thirds making 3 layers (upper right). Turn dough around and roll out again. Fold from the short sides into thirds. This should result in a perfect square (bottom left). Rest in refrigerator for half an hour, repeat folding and rolling one more time. Wrap and chill the dough 30 minutes or overnight before you proceed pastry making (bottom right)

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