Raspberry Danishes
Flaky golden pastry, creamy creme patisserie, tart raspberries and sweet lemon icing. These raspberry danishes are a delicious treat for your next brunch!
Ingredients
Dough
- 125 g plain flour
- 125 g strong white bread flour
- 7 g fast action dried yeast
- 30 g caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 225 g unsalted butter chilled
- 60 ml milk lukewarm
- 60 ml water lukewarm
Creme Patisserie
- 250 ml milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg yolks
- 100 g caster sugar
- 25 g cornflour
Topping
- Raspberries
Glaze
- 1 large egg
Icing
- 100 g icing sugar
- juice of 1 small lemon approx. 25ml
Instructions
- To make the dough: Put the flours, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl and mix to combine. Dice 125g of the butter into small pieces and add to the bowl. Mix roughly, ensuring you don’t break up the butter too much. Add the liquids and mix again until a rough dough forms. Tip out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly until the dough is uniform. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, put the remaining butter into the freezer.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out into a long rectangle three times as long as it is wide – roughly 15x45cm. Take the butter out of the freezer and and coarsely grate it over the bottom two-thirds of the dough. Fold the top third of the dough over the middle-third, then fold the bottom third over the other-two thirds as if folding a letter. This is your first turn. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and turn the dough 90 degrees so that the open ends are facing you. Then repeat the rolling, folding and chilling process twice more, giving the dough a total of three turns. Wrap the finished dough in clingfilm and put in the fridge overnight.
- For the creme patissiere: Place the milk and vanilla extract into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium-high heat. Meanwhile, put the egg and yolks in a heatproof bowl and whisk in the sugar and cornflour until smooth.
- Pour the boiling vanilla milk over the egg mixture, whisking constantly to combine. Pour this mixture back into the pan and return to a medium heat. Whisk constantly until thickened, cooking for a few minutes extra to remove the taste of the cornflour. Pour the cooked creme patisserie into a heat-proof bowl and press a sheet of clingfilm onto the surface to stop it forming a skin. Then place into the fridge to chill overnight.
- In the morning, roll the chilled dough out on a lightly floured worksurface to a square roughly 40x40cm. Then cut into 16 equal squares (10x10cm). On each square cut diagonally from each corner, then fold one corner from each triangle into the centre to create a star shape (see picture above). Then place them onto lined baking trays, leaving a little space between each and lightly cover with clingfilm. Leave to rise for about 2 hours until doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan. Then take the creme patisserie from the fridge and beat together until pliable again. Spoon a dollop onto the middle of each pastry star, then top with 2-3 raspberries. Finally, beat the egg and using a pastry brush glaze over the exposed pastry of each star. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden, then leave to cool.
- For the icing: Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together in a small bowl. Then using a pastry brush drizzle over the pastries.
Notes
Pastries are best served same day.