Grandma Tholen's Danish Pastry

 

Probably in the 50's my grandma's neighbor, from Denmark, taught her to make braided bread stuffed with almond paste and vanilla pudding.   Sometimes pecans as well. And then frosted with buttercream (or cream cheese icing) and maraschino cherries.  And we have called them Danish Pastries ever since!

Dough (This isn't the original recipe, but my mom started using this and what she does I do.)

2 T. dry yeast
1 1/4 c. warm water
3 eggs, well beaten
4 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. sugar
2 t. salt

Soften yeast in 1 1/4 cup warm water, let it stand until dissolved and growing.  Combine dissolved yeast, eggs, 2 1/2 cups flour, shortening, sugar, and salt. Beat until smooth.  Add remaining flour to make a soft dough.  Cover. Let rise rise until double. Punch down and refrigerate.  Roll out for Danish Pastry.

While dough is proofing, prepare the other ingredients.

Pudding

1 cup milk
1 egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons Flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat milk to barely boiling.  Previous to milk boiling, beat egg yolk with sugar and flour, when milk does boil, add a small amount of milk to egg and beat.  Add small amounts of milk, beating continuously, until completely mixed.  Let thicken and then set aside for pastry.  

Almond Filling

1/4 lb butter (113 g)

3/4 c sugar (156 g)

1/3 cup rolled oats (50 g)

2 teaspoons almond extract

Mix all ingredients together with a pastry blender.  Mixture will be grainy.

Frosting:  Make your favourite buttercream or cream cheese icing.  And cut in half a jar of maraschino (cocktail) cherries.  And break some pecans into bit if you would like.

Now it's time to assemble.  

Divide everything into six.  (I usually use a pizza cutter to divide the dough into six, and then just cut the pudding and filling into six parts.)

Roll into a rectangular share, 9 inches x 12 inches and about 1/2 inches thick.  Spread with pudding, almond filling and nuts.  Cut and braid as diagrammed below.

Let pastry raise until doubled, about 30 minutes.  Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.  Frost with icing and garnish with maraschino cherries.  Makes six pastries.  

Kitchen Update: Painted Cabinets

This is the story of how a something free off of gumtree ended up costing us £780.  And I'm not even mad about it!

We bought our kitchen second hand in 2013.  It was completely bespoke, with custom sized drawers and handles.  I thought it was really good quality, but I wanted to paint the cupboards.  Niall didn't, so we sanded back the doors and resealed them.  And that's how it has been for the past seven years.

I am so happy with our kitchen and the layout works for us.  However, the space above the fridge and next to it could be improved.  I told myself when I start working again (I stopped in February and then a whole mess of things happened, so it's just now that I am starting to look for work again) that we could get it changed.

I figured a 400 mm pull out larder unit would be a good option.  And for months I have been checking gumtree for one.  And then...magic!  One appeared for free.  Brand new, with a soft close Kessebohmer inset, which is so nice!  Niall and I picked it up that day and so it began.

We had a unit, but now doors.  And since our kitchen is bespoke and the wood has aged, there isn't a way to get a match.  I looked online and found some used cupboards about an hours away that were pretty close.  I bought those (£60) and we decided to paint.  But it was more door fronts than just the larder, so I realised I could get updates for the top of the fridge and the dishwasher.

I asked Niall to pick a color, and I would do the work.  So he chose a dark blue color.  I bought some additional cabinet carcasses from B&Q and talked to a joiner about coming to install things.  

The photo below is how the storage next to the fridge used to look.  And the larder unit, carcasses, and one of the new/used doors pre paint.

It took about a week to paint the cabinets.  Cleaning, sanding, priming, and two coats on each side plus drying time is the reason.  I started painting outside but then we started having rain every day so moved things inside.  It made the kitchen quite an obstacle course.  

I arranged for the joiner (carpenter) to come and was so excited.  It was a little chaotic doing up the kitchen while also living our lives, but we've managed.  And the second wave of lockdown happened when the rain storms started so it's not like we had any visitors.

The day the joiner came made me so happy.  He installed the larder unit, three cabinets above the fridge, a 600mm one next to the fridge and one above our other larder/dishwasher.

Once the joiner's work was done, I put on the painted cabinets and then started doing a whole host of other projects.  Things like building in additional storage drawers.  I made a list of everything that I needed to do and it was about 30 items long.

Last night I finished the list.  (Except for taking stuff to the dump and returning the tools to the shed.)  So here's the kitchen with its additional storage. 

Here's the storage above the dishwasher.

And the finished kitchen!

And for my own notes, here is the breakdown on cost.  

Cabinets/Cupboards (including hinges):  £335

Joiner:  £200

Paint:  £85

Other supplies:  £160

Total:  About £780

Also, Niall bought me a jigsaw as an early birthday present.  I didn't include that in the cost, but it has been such a good gift.  I love it!!