Even though I started making the dough for the Danish braid on Friday, I ony had time to actually shape and bake the braid today. Time flies when you have two pre-schoolers 😉
I liked the prospect of making laminated dough a lot. It’s something I’ve never done and also something that is way down at the bottom of my to do list. But since Kelly of Sass & Veracity, and Ben of What’s Cookin’? choose Danish braid to be this month’s Daring Bakers challenge it suddenly went to the top of my list.
It is pretty straightforward to make but it is time consuming. This said it doesn’t mean that everything went the way it should though (as is usually the case). The butter couldn’t handle the pressure of the rolling pin and seeped out of holes at the folded side of the dough. I just kept on trying to make the best of it every turn. The end result was workable but some of the edges of the dough were messy and I decided to cut some dough off.
I used half the dough but the 15×20 inch rectangle was a bit too big to fit on my baking sheet so I halved the rectangle and made a smaller braid. I filled the braid with home-made red gooseberry preserves. From the other half of the dough rectangle I made rolls (but that didn’t go that well that the end result is photogenic enough to post 😉
My braid browned a bit too much on the bottom so this influenced the taste. My home-made preserve was rather tart (I made it with a 2:1 ratio fruit:sugar) and proved to be too tart for the braid 😦 Both the ‘brown’ taste and the tartness of the filling overpowered the taste of the dough so I didn’t taste much of the cardamom and orange zest that was is the dough. The braid was a bit tough, maybe due to the fact that it had to be kneaded for 5 minutes?
I really enjoyed making the dough but I will have to dive into making laminated dough some more before I do a new attempt. I still have half the dough in the fridge, if I have time I’ll make something tomorrow….
If you want to see how the hosts did, check them out here and here. You’ll find the recipe there too.
For the rest of the 1000+ Daring Bakers follow this link.
lindakovacevic 
It does look very photgenic. I want to reattempt as well. Goseberry jam sounds delightful.
Gosh Linda it looks perfectly lovely in the photo.
Heat and butter and laminated doughs do tend to disagree sometimes.
Lets see what comes at us for July.
I love the idea of the gooseberry preserves as the filling! This dough had a tendency to get tough because the AP flour with the 5 minute knead did develop too much gluten. I lowered my kneading time for the 2nd and 3rd doughs and it was much more tender.
Gooseberries! You did an amazing job!
Mmmmm, gooseberries…sounds and LOOKS absolutely delicious!!
I think your braid looks just amazing. I love its healthy brown color :-p Congratulations on an excellent job and thank you for baking with us 🙂
Yum!! That filling looks scrumptious! Good work!
Amazing pics and your braid looks yummy! Good job.
Your braid looks so good. I want to eat it. Yum and your photos are insane!!
Oh that’s too bad about the over-donness and the tartness. It does look good, though.
j
So beautiful and gooseberry preserves! How wonderful!
Fantastic! Once again, you did a great job! I love that luscious filling!
cheers,
Rosa
Sometimes things don’t go as we’d like but gooseberry preserves filling sounds fantastic and I am sure it tasted great. And it looks good too!
I can see where gooseberry preserves would be a bit tart – but hopefully you’ll try again, because that’s truly an original filling idea!
As to the braid being tough, maybe it was just in need of more resting between kneading?
Your braid looks awesome and filling sounds delicious! Yours is the only gooseberry I have seen so far!
I have to wonder whether you’re not too hard on yourself: this braid looks perfect, delicious, and I would love to eat some right now!
Red gooseberry filling – yummy! I actually should show this post to my husband who just insisted that gooseberries had to be green ;-).
I can relate to the time flying – two preschoolers too.
Alexandra
You’re so patient to have made these perfect braids, I’m amazed! And gooseberry jam sounds perfect in it!
linda, this braid looks absolutely perfect… and i love the red gooseberry preserves as the filling!
I know how you feel about over browned danish, but in comparison to one of my braids, yours looks just fine. I loved this challenge, but I’m with you, I’d like to do a redux on this one.
What a unique filling- I’ve only had green gooseberries, and never red. I can only imagine it tastes incredible thought, especially judging by those photos! Really, your braid looks so perfect, I’m rather jealous.
Delicious looking braid!
Your braid looks perfect! My braid got a little too brown on the bottom as well, even though I tried my best to keep it from overbrowning.
The butter also exploded out of my dough!! but I tried my best as well… though mine smelled soo much of orange and cardamom, you get within a meter of that thing and you can tell that it has orange and cardamom is quite nice!!
Still your braid looks reeeally nice!!! and I would love to have a piece since I really like the tartness of things.
I highly recommend baking some croissants with the leftover dough.
Love the perfect hue of your braid! The photos look enticing as always 🙂
Linda, the braiding on your dough looks so perfect. Love the caramelisation on top too. And I actually quite like my pastries to be not too sweet.
Dear Linda, your braid looks delicious! I’m sorry to hear all the trouble you went through making it, but I’m sure that I’d have really loved it if I tasted it.
Luv your braids and the filing sounds delicious!
Looks fabulous! Very precise and neat!
Oh, Linda!
It’s just gorgeous!
Mmm… gooseberries! I’m sorry this didn’t live up to your expectations a bit better, but it looks great! And it sounds like you learned some things in the process.
Hoe krijg je het toch altijd voor elkaar om je baksels er zo perfect afgewerkt uit te laten zien? Alle randjes netjes, recht afgesneden, elke laag even dik. Ongelooflijk en bewonderenswaardig.
Your braid looks so amazing even if it’s a tad burnt. Mine was burnt, and I didn’t use parchment paper. Did you use it?
Looks great! Gooseberry? WHat does that taste like? I don’t know if I’ve ever had it.
It is gorgeous though Linda! One of mine got rather hot too but on the top. I love your choice of filling!