Quick Danish Pastry Dough

Total Time: 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup milk, scalded and cooled
• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces unsalted butter, chilled
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature

Recipe

• 1 whisk yeast into water.
• 2 wait 1-2 minutes, then whisk again.
• 3 whisk in milk.
• 4 combine flour, sugar and salt in food processor and pulse to mix.
• 5 cut 4 tablespoons butter into thin slices and add to processor.
• 6 pulse to a fine texture, but do not allow to become pasty.
• 7 cut remaining butter into 1/2 inch cubes and add to processor.
• 8 pulse exactly twice, for 1 second each time.
• 9 remove dough from processor and place in mixing bowl.
• 10 whisk eggs into yeast mixture and add to bowl.
• 11 position a rubber spatula so its blade is flat and parallel with the bottom of the bowl.
• 12 repeatedly dig spatula down to the bottom of the bowl, while turning bowl.
• 13 repeat until dough comes together. dough will be soft and sticky.
• 14 press plastic wrap against surface of dough and refrigerate 1-2 hours.
• 15 scrape chilled dough onto a floured surface and sprinkle flour over the top of the dough.
• 16 press dough into a rectangle about twice as long as it is wide.
• 17 starting at the narrow edge farthest from you, firmly press dough with a rolling pin in parallel strokes close to each other.
• 18 if there are sticky pieces of butter on the surface of the dough, seal them with a pinch of flour.
• 19 clean off anything stuck to the rolling pin before continuing.
• 20 repeat pressing motion from the close to the farther narrow end of dough.
• 21 press once in the width. you should now have a 1/2 inch thick rectangle.
• 22 sprinkle flour under and on top of dough.
• 23 roll away back in length, and once in the width, without rolling over ends, to make a rectangle 18 inches long and 8 inches wide.
• 24 fold the two narrow ends in toward the middle, leaving a 1 inch space in the center.
• 25 fold top to bottom to form 4 layers.
• 26 reposition dough so folded edge is on your left.
• 27 repeat rolling and folding procedure.
• 28 wrap in plastic and refrigerate a minimum of 2 hours and a maximum of 12 hours before using.
• 29 use in the danish pastry recipe of your choice.