The Daring Braid of Goodness

I finally decided about a month ago that I really wanted to join The Daring Bakers group. I've been following them since conception and really looked forward to see what new challenges each month would bring. Since moving to Brooklyn almost two years ago I've become more and more interested and slightly obsessed with cooking/baking delicious foods. Before I came here I thought Apple bees/outback/olive garden had really good food, little did I know how nyc would open my eyes to all of the possibilities that come with the thoughtful creation and combination of quality ingredients. This pursuit has refined my taste and desire for real food made with love.

So, as I take a leap to the country in just over a month, I know I need to improve my culinary skills and that is where the Daring Bakers comes in.

I have to say, when I first found out that June's challenge was a danish braid I was very nervous and excited and curious. Could I possibly make a Danish? I love cream cheese danish, words cannot describe how many danish's I've consumed. Again, I seriously doubt I would have ever attempted to make one myself, ever. It never would have crossed my mind, that I could actually make one with my own two hands.

With all that, let me begin...

The ingredients:
I didn't have any difficult finding ground cardamon, it was $5.99 through fresh direct and I already had the vanilla beans from a recent ebay purchase.

My kitchen is seriously lacking, I don't have a standing mixer, and the mixer I do have is from the 1970's. I don't have a rolling pin (used a wine bottle.) I have about 16 inches of counter space. I have a one sided sink. My kitchen is tiny. And I don't have air conditioning. Not that I'm complaining or anything. I feel like I should win some sort of culinary award for achieving pastry goodness in my seriously lacking kitchen.

My Kitchen Counter:
I did a lot of research before I started putting the dough together. There were words used in the recipe that I had never heard of such as: Laminated dough – is layered dough created by sandwiching butter between layers of dough. Detrempe – ball of dough. Beurrage – butter block. And turn – each “fold & roll” of the dough produces a single turn in a 3-step process where the dough is folded exactly like a business letter in 3 columns. Each single turn creates 3 layers with this method.

I watched the method for laminated dough about ten times, I read the recipe thoroughly, and shakily made my way through the each step slowly and carefully. I started putting things together on a Monday. One of the requirements was to make the fillings from scratch so I decided that my braid would be cream cheese, with black cherry filling, streusal topping and vanilla bean icing. Pretty standard fillings for a danish.

I've never made a pie filling before, so I was amazed at how easy it was. Seriously easy and so good. I made it with frozen black cherries, sugar, water, corn starch, vanilla and a little lemon.
The next day I started making the dough, which seemed like an all day adventure. I can't tell you how nervous I was putting the butter block on the dough. Shaking would be a more accurate description. I started to gather all of my ingredients and realized that my orange was not grating at all. So, I popped it in the freezer and then grated the peel. Much easier!
Following the instructions I created a "fountain" which was really a flour well/wall to hold the wet ingredients. I really wish I would have created the well in a very big bowl. My untrained hands were so not ready for the liquid to start running everywhere. Literally escaping the flour mixture. I was also not prepared for how sticky everything was going to be. But, I just kept going, mentally coaching myself "its okay...don't give up...we'll get through this...COME ON!" And I did.
I finally got my dough together. Let it sit. Spread the butter block on it and followed the turns as instructed. I did have the same issue that some other people had with butter squirting out and getting everywhere. But by my second turn the dough was much better and easier to work with. After every turn it got easier and easier. The dough was a little elastic-y, but I just let it rest a little and it got easier. My raw dough did not have the layered appearance, which I'm still not sure how that was created or if I did something wrong. I'm was a bit confused about the rolling our process after each turn.


On my fourth turn, I divided the dough into two parts, rolled out thin and folded in half and wrapped for the freezer. I froze until Thursday and let the dough thaw in the refrigerator until Saturday morning.

On Saturday I took the dough out, and began assembling. I used a ruler to make the cuts for braiding. My measurements were slightly off, but I made sure the dough was 1/4 of an inch thick. I then made my cream cheese filling. I didn't follow any particular recipe, just cream cheese, one egg, vanilla and sugar. I just sort of guesstimated with that. And then put my cherries on top.


And then I added a streusal topping of brown sugar and butter. I'm still not sure if I should have added this before or after baking.

I baked it, for ten minutes at 400 degrees and about 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees. When it was done, I drizzled the vanilla bean icing and let cool for as long as I could stand not eating it!






With the leftover frozen dough, I made cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing.

Overall, it was a success. I've never had a better danish in my entire life. Seriously, this is up there with most desserts. Josh and I ate an entire braid (not a good idea) throughout one day. It was too good. The dough was savory and flaky. I kept saying "this is like a real danish, it tastes like a real danish, only better". I would definantly make this again, my mom already made requests for Christmas. I've been very braggy about my braid, I'm so proud of it. The cinnamon buns were equally delicious, while not too pretty, they were so good I had to throw them away. I knew it would turn into eating all of them, I have no self control and neither does Josh!

Thank you Kelly and Ben for a delicious challenge. You can find the recipe on Kelly's blog. And you can follow other bloggers on The Daring Bakers Blog Roll.