Pineapple Cream Cheese Danish Braid

 

Sometimes a craving strikes me and I have to make it as soon as possible.  That's what happened the other week when all I could think about was a Cream Cheese Pineapple Danish Braid.  I'm a total sucker for anything pineapple because it's my all-time favorite fruit. 

 

For the Danish dough I used a recipe that I've made before on this blog.  It's super simple and requires no electric appliance whatsoever, just your hands.  For the cream cheese and pineapple fillings I used these recipes.

The only caveat I would say when it comes to making any kind of laminated dough is to be prepared for quite a bit of non-activity.  There's a lot of down time involved because the dough needs to chill in between all the turns and also proof just before baking.  In total, the process to make this particular braid spanned three days. 

 

Danish Pastries

My friend Julia and I attended a class recently at Baking Arts in San Mateo to learn how to make Danish Pastries.  I'm no stranger to laminated dough, having made croissants, puff pastry and kouign amman before, but never have I made Danish which is made from an enriched dough with eggs.   I was happy to learn something new!

Prior to class the instructor had pre-made and shaped a batch of the dough so that we could see what it would look like before going in to the oven.  Then he showed us how to finish off the baked pastries by brushing on sugar syrup and then piping a flourish of icing.  During the class we students made the dough from scratch and laminated it with a block of cold butter.  We then took the thrice-turned dough home to finish off later.

Because I was anxious to see how my Danish would turn out I woke up really early this morning to finish the recipe.  This dough is super easy to roll out which makes it nice to handle when it's time to cut your shapes.  I made a few pinwheels and with the rest of the dough turned them in to snails.

The key with Danish is that the finished pastry is brushed with a sugar syrup that gives them that beautiful shine and gloss.  Now I was definitely skeptical when the instructor repeatedly told us to be really generous when brushing on the syrup.  I assumed it would make the finished pastry too sweet, but I was wrong.  Even with a double coating of the syrup the Danish was just right.  I'll undoubtedly be making this recipe again...next time I think I'll try a savory version. 

Kanelbullar (Swedish Cinnamon Buns)

Have you heard of hygge?  When the weather turns chilly hygge is all the rage.  But what exactly is it?  In a nutshell, hygge is the art of being "cozy"...think candles, cashmere and warm fireplaces.  On a cold, dreary and grey day I have to say there's nothing better.  The Bay Area was bracing for a major storm this weekend (it's ok, we need the water!) and nothing sounded better to me than staying at home and baking.

I love a good cinnamon bun and the Swedish version, Kanelbullar, has been on my to do list for a while.  They evoke not only hygge, but also fika, the Swedish slang for coffee breaks.  To be perfectly frank I was really drawn to them after seeing this gorgeous photo on Edd Kimber's (aka The Boy Who Bakes) Instagram feed.  There was something about the twisted treats topped with pearl sugar that looked so appealing...I had to make them!

I found the recipe for the kanelbullar on SwedishFood.com.  The dough is similar to any other cinnamon bun recipe except it has the addition of cardamom, a very popular spice used in Scandinavian baking.  The other distinction is how the buns are shaped.  Rather than being rolled up in a log and cut the dough is stretched, twisted and shaped in to a striped round.  I found a great video here on YouTube that shows you how to do this. 

 

These kanelbullar are so good!  Straight from the oven I devoured two of them as they were the perfect accompaniment to a hot cappuccino.  Storm, schworm...I say bring it on!  I'll be inside gettin' hygge with it.