Danish Dough

By Samantha Seneviratne

Danish Dough
Lisa Nicklin for The New York Times
Total Time
30 minutes, plus 6 hours’ resting
Rating
5(615)
Notes
Read community notes

This streamlined process for making Danish dough gives you flaky, crisp, buttery pastry with a fraction of work that the traditional method requires. The only trick to this recipe is planning for the considerable resting time. Break up the work over a few days to simplify the process. If you don’t have a food processor, cut the butter into ¼-inch pieces and chill until firm. Fold the cold butter pieces into the flour mixture and continue with the recipe as written. If you are using this dough to make our pear and almond Danish braid, add 1 teaspoon (2 grams) coarsely ground fresh cardamom to step 1, along with the flour, sugar, yeast and salt.

Featured in: Danish at Home: The Easier Way

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Ingredients

Yield:Enough for 9 or 10 small pastries, or 1 large braid
  • 1½cups/6¾ ounces/192 grams bread flour, plus more for the work surface and the rolling pin
  • 2tablespoons/24 grams granulated sugar
  • 2teaspoons/6 grams active dry yeast
  • ¾teaspoon/3 grams kosher salt
  • 14tablespoons/198 grams cold, unsalted butter (1¾ sticks), roughly cubed
  • 1large egg
  • ¼cup/60 milliliters cold whole milk
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)

233 calories; 17 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 17 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 3 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 123 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Combine the flour, granulated sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and pulse to combine. The butter should be the size of small marbles and peas. Transfer this mixture to a medium bowl.

  2. Step 2

    In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk and 2 tablespoons/30 milliliters water.

  3. Step 3

    Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold the mixture until it is evenly moistened. Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap, shape into a small rectangle, and wrap well. Chill for at least 3 hours, and up to 2 days.

  4. Step 4

    On a lightly floured surface, using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to an 8-by-15-inch rectangle. With a short side facing you, fold the dough in thirds like a letter, bringing the top third of the dough down, then folding the bottom third up. Use a bench scraper to help lift and fold the dough if necessary. At this point, the dough will be rough and shaggy with visible butter pieces; as you roll and fold the dough it will come together. Rotate the dough 90 degrees. Repeat the rolling and folding process, then rotate the dough once more and roll and fold again. As you work, dust the work surface, your hands and the rolling pin with flour as necessary. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

  5. Step 5

    Repeat the entire rolling and folding process one more time for a grand total of six turns. If the dough starts to fight you and become difficult to roll at any point, just pop it in the fridge for an extra rest. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Tip
  • If you are using this dough to make the pear and almond Danish braid, add 1 teaspoon/2 grams coarsely ground fresh cardamom to step 1, along with the flour, sugar, yeast and salt.

Ratings

5 out of 5
615 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

EC

Could you use the same dough to make croissants?

RogerO

I don't have a food processor, so I grated frozen butter sticks (on the big holes) and it turned out great.

RC

Hi,

Did you make sure to always turn the dough in the same direction after folding? If you don't always turn and fold in the same way and direction, then your layers will be crisscrossed and will not be able to properly rise in flakey fashion.

Nyla

Measuring ingredients by weight is preferred in baking because yes, precision is important. A food scale that measures in both grams and ounces costs as little as $25, but since you may not want to buy a scale just for this recipe, the volume measurements are provided as well.

Yosa

This recipe is the first time I have tried making a pastry and had it finish like a pastry! (not a brick, not a shredded pile of flour)

I have made it twice this week and it will be a baking standard for years to come.

Dominique

3 turns, let it rest for an hour and then another 3 turns. 6 turns total

Jeff K

The metric conversions are ridiculous. First, volumes are converted to mass. Second, the imprecise realative measurements are covered to the nearest gram. For example, 1 3/4 sticks of butter is converted to the ridiculously precise 198 g. You would require an analytical balance to achieve the precision indicated. Please covert volume to volume and round the other measurements to nearest metric standard--1 3/4 sticks of butter is approximately 200 g etc.

Amanda

When baking, exact measurements are key to consistent quality. Professional bakers appreciate this!

Foxy

Worked beautifully for croissants, chocolate croissants, and clementine curd filled danishes!

W. Sparks

If you don't have a food processor you can do the following in a mixer, mix all the ingredients as above except the butter. When dough sticks to dough hook and doesn't break away remove to floured surface. Knead dough to where it holds shape. Then roll out to a long rectangle shape take your refrigerated butter and grate it over top of the dough. Fold down the top to the middle and the bottom up to the middle to where both meet then fold them together. Then repeat the steps 6x refrig after each.

halS

I had the same problem. Step 5 says, "Repeat the entire rolling and folding process one more time...". The "one more time" is a little confusing.

Betsy Karpenkopf

Where do you live? It is very important to make this kind of pastry when the temperature is cool to cold. Otherwise the dough can be extremely sticky.

Gilmangi

This was utterly fabulous. I have tried many times to get the beautiful Danish "feel" to pastries but always ended up somewhere (unsatisfactorily) between cake and pie crust. Followed this, filled it with lemon/almond/cream cheese and it was sheer perfection. Legacy recipe for sure!

Zionita

For those of us who bake using a weight scale, I would rather have the precise measurement. You can round up if you would like.

Paul

A very bad recipe; followed directions to the letter but it needed considerably more flour than was in the recipe.

Lynn

This was exactly what I was looking for! I used the metric measurements and combined this dough recipe with the instructions from the Everything Danish recipe for my poppy seed pastry rolls. They turned out perfectly. I used a lemon glaze over the top to give them a nice sheen and added flavor. Nice and crispy on the outside, yet soft and buttery on the inside. Thank you!

Lemon curd danishes

Fantastic paired with the lemon curd recipe cheese danish filling. 5 stars!

Michelle

Do you activate the yeast in any way?

Vivian

I made Danish pastries using a very similar recipe. The major difference between that recipe and this one is fewer turns (3 turns vs. 6, plus folded dough in half before refrigerating and final shaping), and the ratio of butter to flour was less (1 stick per 1 1/4 c flour). Pastries came out very flaky. I agree with vt chef chef's comments re. number of turns. Also make sure that butter pieces are no less ~ 1/4 inch to get maximum flaking.

CL

Nice and flaky, good texture, but very bland. If I make this again I’ll add more salt to the dough and possibly spices to complement the filling.

Chef Diane

Can this dough be frozen prior to shaping/baking?

vt chef

there are too many fold and turns in this recipe (6), which is probably why it is not coming out flaky for a lot of people. 3 should come out better (despite being counter-intuitive, the problem is the layers become too thin and meld together, end up releasing too much butter)

Melinda

A great little dough for everyday pastries, however for special occasions like Christmas I’d make the Danish pastry dough the traditional way for extra flakiness and layers.

PASallen

For those of you who have a KitchenAid stand mixer: KA’s new pastry beater works great with this recipe. I make this dough entirely in the mixer.

hz

The dough was easy to work with and looked great (braided pear almond) but the finished baked pastry texture was disappointing... didn't turn out flaky or laminated for me... more cake-like (like crescent dough as another mentioned). Will try another danish dough recipe next time!

DM

Wonderful recipe, dough was flakey and delicious.

ANewMexican

I found that if I put the sugar and the milk together and then let the regular yeast hang for ten minutes in the milky sugar. It works! I’ve made this dough a bunch of times.

Helene

Tried to make croissants by rolling up triangles of rolled-out dough. The result tasted okay but it was not flaky at all, rather it had puffed up with lots of tiny holes in the crumb. Reminded me more of cake than of Danish. I wonder if that‘s because my processor sliced the butter too finely - the pieces were a lot smaller than peas and marbles. Anyway, I‘ve tried several recipes and I don‘t think there‘s really a shortcut to puff/Danish pastry.

Lynn

Question: ingredients list says 60ml MILK; recipe (step 2, I think) says to add 30ml WATER. Water or milk? Also, I never saw anything about the remaining 30ml of any fluid. Have I missed something?

Cris Waller

Step 2 says "In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk and 2 tablespoons/30 milliliters water." So milk AND water.

Lovely Betty

Would love a video for the rolling and folding process.

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