I’m excited to show you how to make a variation of Danish pastry dough today. It’s a quicker method to real Danish pastry and an adaption of several trusted sources: Cooking Illustrated, Joy of Cooking, and pastry master Beatrice Ojakangas. I combined all of the recipes I studied to produce a shortcut version of the famously flaky buttery dough.
This is a Shortcut Homemade Pastry Dough
This is not the traditional method of making real danish pastry. This dough is usually laminated several times between layers of butter, similar to how we prepare homemade croissants and croissant bread. Here we are working the butter directly into the dough using a food processor. We’re still rolling out and folding the dough, just as you do when you laminate dough with butter, but we’re not folding it up with a separate layer of butter. I use the term “shortcut” loosely. This dough still takes at least 5-6 hours total with 2 rounds of refrigeration. Pastries made from this dough are just as buttery, tender, and flaky. I usually make individual breakfast pastries from this dough, but another option is a beautiful pastry braid like this blueberry cream cheese pastry braid or today’s raspberry version.
Follow the Pastry Dough Recipe Carefully
Before you begin to make this raspberry pastry braid, review my pastry dough recipe. The recipe takes some planning ahead. Certain ingredients must be at room temperature, certain ingredients must be warm, certain ingredients must be cold. Temperature is imperative to the success of your pastry dough. If you’re new to working with yeast, reference this Baking with Yeast Guide where I include practical answers to common yeast questions.
How to Make a Raspberry Pastry Braid
Because of all the chilling, this pastry is a wonderful recipe to begin the night before and serve the next morning. Or even prep the dough a few days in advance so your work is cut down the day of serving. I include freezing and make-ahead instructions below.
Raspberry Filling
Though you could certainly use store-bought raspberry jam or preserves, I love making the raspberry filling at home. You need fresh or frozen raspberries, sugar, cornstarch, and water. That’s it! The filling must cool down before using, so feel free to get started ahead of time. Creating danish pastries at home is totally doable. Take some time to read through the instructions before you begin. That will make the whole pastry-making-process much easier for you. You can do this!
