Another Danish Pastry Dough (light)

Danish pastries are not supposed to be weight-watcher-friendly.

And they are not supposed to be easy to make.

However, this danish is light(er) and easy(ier). But if you know me, less fat or less work can't make me feel interested enough, unless the taste. Yes, it is very delicious.

I have been using this regular danish pastry dough, and always love it. Probably because of this tangy strawberry preserve I made, or this comfortable spring weather, I desired for a pastry that could be light on palate. So based on that original recipe, I reduced 30% of butter and quit the heavy cream totally, then replaced with little creme fraiche and lemon zest.

Technique-wise, the author breaks through the traditonal method - the dough wrapped with a big block of butter and being pounded to flat - which doesn't exist anymore. Instead, the flour is simply mixed with chunked butter. Even one (painful) step is omitted, good understanding on how gluten behaves and good rolling skill are still essential. If you are very good at making pie-crust, I believe this danish is a beeze to you.

Recipe of Danish Pastry Dough - light version

yield 10 - 12 pastries

the recipe is inspired by Beatrice Ojakangas, a professional baker in America, and her excellent book, The Great Scandinavian Baking Book.

• 25 g fresh yeast
• 520 g flour
• 220 g cold butter (I used Irish butter which I think has the best flavor)
• 1/2 + 1/4 cup skim milk, lukewarm
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg + 1 yolk
• a pinch of salt
• 70g creme fraiche
• zest from a half lemon

How-to:

1. In a small bowl, whisk milk, sugar, salt, egg & 1 yolk, cream franchie and lemon zest. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, carefully break the fresh yeast into the flour.
3. Preferably doing this step in a very cool room if you can't work fast and efficient... cut the butter into 2-cm-thick, drop them the flour. Use a pastry blender to further cut the butter cubes until they have the size of kindney bean. Then add milk mixture and stir to combine. The dough should be sticky and very thick. Cover, and refridgerate for 4 hours or overnight.
4. For the rest of steps and photos, please refer the original recipe's direction (starting from the 4th step)
5. After the last rolling and resting finished, roll the dough to your desired thickness, mine was about 1 cm. Divide to individual-serving portion, create some pattern if you wish, spoon in some fruit preserve (any of your favorite filling). Cover the pastries and rest them for an hour.
6. In the meantime, pre-heat oven to 210F
7. Bake the pastries in a 210F-overnfor 5 mintues, then lower to 190F until they turn golden brown.

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