Plum Danishes
 
Recipe and instructions for making this classic danish pastry using an easy laminated dough filled with plum compote.
Ingredients
For the dough:
  • 14g active dry yeast
  • ½ cup (125ml) lukewarm water (as close to 100°F as possible)
  • 3½ cups (440g) all purpose flour
  • 1½ cups (330g) chilled unsalted butter, cut into chunks
  • ½ cup (125ml) whipping cream
  • 1 pinch of cinnamon
  • 1 pinch of nutmeg
  • 2 pinches of salt
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup (50g) + 1 teaspoon sugar
For the plum compote:
  • 5 plums
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • Sugar to taste
  • ¼ cup (60ml) water
Method
Prepare the dough:
  1. Dissolve the yeast and the one teaspoon of sugar in lukewarm water and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, eggs and sugar. In a large mixing bowl, add flour and chunks of butter, use a pastry blender, two knives, or an electric mixer with a dough-hook attachment to further cut the butter to the size of kidney beans. Add the yeast mixture into flour mixture, combine carefully with a big rubber spatula, until the mass is just moistened enough to hold together. Cover, refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. To do this step, please ensure your room very cold: lightly flour the work table, turn out the chilled dough, pound and flatten to make an 18-inch square. Fold into thirds making 3 layers vertically and horizontally to get a square. Roll out again and repeat folding. Cover/wrap and let chill in refrigerator for half an hour, then repeat rolling and folding one more time. Wrap and chill the dough 30 minutes.
Prepare the plum compote:
  1. Chop up the plums and add to a pot with the other ingredients. Cook on medium-low heat until soft. After rolling the dough out once more to create an 18 inch square, and cutting it into sixteen squares, divide the filling among the squares. Brush the sides of the squares with an egg-wash (an egg and a tablespoon of water mixed together), fold two corners into each other, brush the top with the egg-wash, sprinkle with some sugar (I used brown sugar), and bake until golden brown at 350°F (about thirty minutes). If you're unsure when they're done, cut off a piece of the dough while they're baking... if it has a strong yeast taste they're not ready.
Recipe by IronWhisk at http://www.ironwhisk.com/2011/10/plum-danishes/