Danish Braid... the parchment makes all the difference

My first ever challenge for the Daring Bakers Club was this month's Danish Braid. This is something that I would have NEVER attempted to bake on my own without prompting from the Daring Bakers group. It was certainly a challenge! :) Here is my journey...

It started off with making the dough. I didn't have any fresh cardamom but I used dried and along with the rind from an entire orange and the orange juice in the dough it made my hands, kitchen, refrigerator, EVERYTHING smell wonderful. The smell of this dough actually reminded me of Paska, a Mennonite Easter bread from my heritage that is near and dear to my heart. I love the orange flecks of zest that you can see in the dough in the picture below.

So, I mixed the dough at 5pm on Friday evening and for the next 4 hours tended to it by chilling it, rolling it out, spreading it with butter, folding it back up, refrigerating it again, rolling it out, folding it up... etc. Wow, were my arms ever tired by the end of the night... its a darn good work out & lesson in patience!

The butter block

Ok, so the rest of the pictures were taken the next morning (I woke up at 8 am on my Saturday morning to construct these monstrosities/masterpieces) So, the dough had been tended to so carefully and then chilled all night, I watched the Julia Child's video on constructing these braids, read over the instructions numerous times, thought I had it all down pat but I managed to forget a MAJOR detail while putting the danishes together... I FORGOT TO CONSTRUCT THE BRAID ON THE PARCHMENT... ahhhhhhhhhh. This was SO frustrating... My first braid was a blueberry ricotta filled danish... I started braiding at the end which you can see didn't turn out very well but towards the middle of the first braid and towards the end I managed to get the hang of things... only problem was that at this point I realized that I forgot to do all of this on parchment... this is a vital detail in the danish making process because moving the raw, filled, constructed braid onto parchment is HARD... see for yourself below

trying desperatly to move the braid onto the parchment... common braid!

Success! Below is a picture of the braid moved onto parchment... looking a tad scary though if I do say so myself... at this point I was almost crying... all of that hard work and elbow grease creating this amazing dough for the final product to look like THIS. BAH! I just kept telling myself 'It'll still taste good and I have a second braid to redeem myself with'

The scary end of the braid- eek... oh well...there is always round two right?

So, after a coffee and calming myself down I made the second braid... This one was a Peach Passion fruit Ricotta filled braid. Other than the uneven widths of the strips that I cut (as you can see below) I think it looked pretty darn good... nicely tucked in ends, beautiful braiding... oh, but do you notice something VITAL missing?! A vital DETAIL?!?! AHHHHHHHHHHH I DID IT AGAIN!!! I forgot to make it on the parchment paper... AGAIN. Can you believe it?! Ok, so if anything I believe that this proves that on Saturday mornings I NEED to sleep in till noon. I just dont function well early in the mornings on weekends... its just not in me! :)

Carefully moving the braid on to the parchment. The reason why the parchment is so vital is because the braid is like 15" long and when its on the nice parchment paper its so easy to move from the counter to the baking pan & oven ... when its not on the parchment paper its nearly impossible.
Got the braids onto the parchment and letting them proof for a couple of hours I decided to make a thin, drizzly icing to top them after they were baked along with a sprinkling of sliced almonds and an egg wash to coat them with before the were popped into the oven to make them shiny and pretty.
I actually didn't have a pan long enough to bake these babies on so I just put another big piece of parchment on the rack in the oven and slid them on there... it worked well!
Baking... Still baking...
I was so nervous- this is where I was pretty much the entire time that they were in that oven!

And the final product!!!
TA-DAAAAAAA!

Peach Passion fruit & Ricotta Danish Braid drzzled with classic Icing & sprinkled with sliced Almonds.

Blueberry & Ricotta Danish Braid drizzled with classic Icing & sprinkled with sliced Almonds.

this is the good half...






I would say that, although difficult, this challenge was a success!! I was VERY happy with the end results (as were various friends and family who sampled the finished product) I wish I had pictures of them all sliced up but they went from the oven into peoples mouths litterally within 10 mins. Ive never had a Danish hot out of the oven and it was amazing... mmmmm I'm salavating just thinking about it. I would have never made this on my own but I am VERY glad that I was challenged to do so because it felt so great to conquer this and, despite my setbacks, it turned out beautifully. Can't wait for next months challenge!