Cinnamon

Method

Danish Dough

1. Into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add all of the ingredients for the dough. Start with the wet ingredients on the bottom and the dry on top as it makes it easier for everything to incorporate. 

2. Knead the mixture on a medium speed, for 6-8 minutes, until the dough feels smooth and elastic, passing the window pane test when you stretch a small piece of the dough. The dough is quite low hydration so initially may look quite dry but should pull together. If it does appear too dry, add up to 20g more milk to help pull it together. 

3. Remove the dough from the mixer and briefly knead it on the work surface. Shape it into a rough rectangle, then wrap it in clingfilm, but not too tightly as it will need some room to proof. Place it onto a baking tray and refrigerate overnight. Alternatively if you want to do this whole process in one day, you can chill it for 3 hours. 

Buerrage (Butter Block)

1. For the butter block, start by preparing your parchment paper. Take a large sheet, and with a marker, draw a 17.5x20cm square. Flip the paper over so the pen is facing the work surface.

2. Add the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the flour on top, and beat briefly, to combine them and there are no streaks of flour.

3. Scoop the mixture into the centre of the parchment. Wrap the excess parchment around the butter, folding the edges in to match the guides of the neat square you drew. It can help to tape the edges together to stop the parchment paper from moving around or opening up as you roll.

4. Flip it back over and use a rolling pin to roll the butter, pushing it to the edges and creating an even layer of butter across the rectangle of parchment. Place this in the fridge to chill for at least an hour or again, ideally overnight.

Lamination

1. When you are ready to laminate, remove the butter from the fridge, it needs to be 13-14C (55-57F) when you insert a digital thermometer. If it is too cold it will shatter when you start to laminate.

2. Just before it is at temperature, remove the dough from the fridge. Lightly flour it and roll it to just over double the length of the butter, 44cm, but the same width, 17.5cm.

3. The dough will be slightly curved at the top when you roll it out, so I like to trim the dough down, so that it is 40cm in total length. This then gives you a really neat rectangle to fold over your butter.

4. When the butter is at temperature, place it into the centre of the dough and then fold the edges of the dough so they meet in the centre of the butter.

5. Pinch the dough together to form a seam. Using a sharp knife, score the folded edges of the dough.

6. With this seam facing towards you, turn the dough 90 degrees so the seam is now horizontal to your body and give the dough a quick roll, to give it a little bit of width.

7. Turn the dough 90 degrees again so the seam is vertical in line with your body and begin to roll the dough. Working relatively quickly. Apply even pressure and roll the dough into a long even rectangle, flouring very lightly if needed.

8. Don’t focus too much on the length of the rectangle, but more on getting it into an even rectangle that ends up around 5mm thick (0.2”).

9. Once you are happy with the thickness and shape, dust off any excess flour with a brush, and if the ends of the dough have gone a bit wonky, cut them off so you have straight edges on either side.

10. Perform a single fold of the dough, where you take one-third of the dough and fold it up, then take the other third of dough and fold this over the top. This is called a ‘single fold or ‘single turn’.

11. Wrap the dough tightly in cling film, and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes, then into the fridge for 10 minutes.

12. Remove the dough from the fridge, and with the open seam facing you (i.e if you were looking at the dough straight on, you would be able to see where it has been folded over itself), use a sharp knife again, to score the edges of the dough where it is folded.

13. Turn the dough 90 degrees so the open seam is now horizontal to you and give the dough a quick roll, to give it a little bit of width.

14. Turn the dough 90 degrees again so the open seam is facing you again and begin to roll the dough. Roll the dough into a long even rectangle, very very lightly flouring it, just as we did in step 7.

15. Wrap the dough tightly in cling film, and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes, then into the fridge for 10 minutes.

16. Repeat steps 12-14 one more time, completing 3 single folds in total. Chill the dough in the fridge for 1 hour.

Cinnamon Pastry Cream

1. Into a medium bowl add the sugar, salt, cornflour/cornstarch and egg yolks. Whisk together for about 30 seconds, then set this to one side.

2. Meanwhile in a medium saucepan, add the milk and beans scraped from a vanilla pod. Place it over a medium heat and whisk occasionally until it is steaming.

3. Slowly pour the hot milk mixture over the egg yolks and whisk to combine.

4. Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook it over a medium heat, whisking constantly. Once it thickens and begins to bubble, keep cooking it for a further minute.

5. Remove it from the heat and pass it through a sieve into a clean bowl. Add in the butter and whisk to combine. Cover the surface with cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour. 

Danish Dough (Continued)

1. Remove the pastry cream from the fridge and whisk it for 1-2 minutes until it is smooth. Add it into a piping bag and set it to one side.

2. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and place 8-10 lightly greased ring molds (9x4cm)

3. Lightly flour the chilled dough, and use a sharp knife to score the folded edges of the dough to release the tension.

4. Roll the dough out, so that it is roughly 27-30cm tall, and 8-10mm thick. Don’t worry about the length.

5. Once you are at the correct thickness, trim the edges of the dough so you are left with a rectangle that is 25cm tall. 

6. Then cut the rectangle into 3cm wide strips.

7. Cut quite a large hole in the end of the piping bag, and pipe a thick line of the pastry cream down the entire length of each strip of dough.

8. Roll the dough on itself but not too tightly, then carefully place them into the ring molds.

9. Place the tray into the oven, switched off, and place a small cup of boiling water in the bottom. Change this every 30-45 minutes, proofing the twists until they have puffed up and the layers appear to be separating slightly. It can take 3-4 hours, but don’t worry too much about overproofing them as the dough is resilient. Once it is ready, it should have risen to the edges of the ring molds, with the layers looking like they are separating slightly.

10. Remove them from the oven and pre-heat it to 185C/365F fan assisted.

11. Place a silicon mat or piece of parchment paper on top and then 2-3 heavy trays on top. This will prevent the dough from rising out of the ring molds.

12. Once the oven is hot, load the trays into the oven, and immediately drop the oven temperature to 170C/340F. Bake the danishes for 35-40 minutes. Try to avoid removing the trays on top too soon, so try and look in the oven and see what colour the dough looks like. It should be a deep golden brown colour once they are baked.

13. Remove them from the oven, and remove the ring molds. Flip them over and place them onto a wire rack to cool slightly. 

Cinnamon Icing

1. Into a large bowl, add the icing/powdered sugar, salt, beans from a fresh vanilla pod and cinnamon. Slowly start adding milk and whisk the mixture, adding enough milk until you have a runny, glue-like consistency. 

2. Keep the danishes on a wire rack, but place a tray underneath.

3. Pour the glaze over the top of each danish, coating them completely. If you need, scoop up the excess glaze from the tray underneath, and re-use it to glaze any remaining danishes.

4. Place them back into the oven, just for 1-2 minutes, until the glaze goes slightly transparent.

5. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes then serve.

Note – the process can be quite long, that you end up finishing the danishes quite late which is not the ideal time to eat them (!). What I like to do is to bake the danishes, then wrap the tray tightly once they are cool and leave them at room temperature overnight. The next morning, I heat the oven to 175C/345F and just place them back in for 3-5 minutes, until they feel hot to the touch, then glaze them.

Alternatively you can freeze them once baked, and then just reheat them for longer in the oven (8-15 minutes).