mega danish pastry

Friday, March 18, 2011

From the Kitchen of Pat Nieman

Mega Danish Pastry

This is Mega Danish because this recipe makes three good sized pastries....enough to share and still have some for the home team (Do you feel bad when you cook something yummy and your family asks, "Who's that for?")

First make this easy dough:

2 cubes butter, softened
2 pkg (or 2 T) yeast...I use SAF yeast
2 C warm milk
2 eggs
3/4 C sugar
1 tsp salt
6 C flour
Mix and knead about 5 minutes. Don't add much additional flour...you want a soft dough. Let rise while you make the fillings.


Custard:
(I usually make about 1 1/2 times this amount because I love lots of filling)

1 C milk
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 C sugar
3 T flour (I use Wondra)
1 tsp vanilla
Stir together and cook in microwave...let cool...I actually put this in the freezer to really cool it down. If it's warm you'll melt the almond/oat filling

Next...make the Almond/Oat filling:
(again, I usually make 1 1/2 times this amount)

Almond Filling:
3/4 C sugar
1 cube butter
1/3 C oats
2 tsp almond flavoring
Mix until crumbly.


When dough has risen, divide into three pieces and pat each into a large rectangle on a baking sheet.


Slice along each side at about 1 inch intervals. Then spread 1/3 of the custard down the center. Next crumble 1/3 the almond mixture on top of the custard.




Finally, braid the strips over the fillings, tucking the ends in so the fillings doesn't leak out while baking.

Let rise again; bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until slightly browned.

Frost with a powdered sugar glaze or thin cream cheese frosting.

These also freeze well and are great to make during the holidays when you want a nice breakfast treat that doesn't have to be made at the last minute.

Roasted Pepper Salsa

2 Anaheim peppers
2  Jalapeno peppers
1 Serrano pepper
2-4 cloves of garlic
2 Tomatillos
3 green onions chopped small (mostly the white part just a bit of the green)
salt
pepper
Diced tomatoes fresh or canned to equal about 3 cups with liquid (that is how I do it,  you can discard liquid if you prefer)
1-2 Tbsp Lime juice
Cilantro (I use a good handful roughly chopped)


Roast the peppers, tomatillos and garlic cloves in the oven turning the peppers as needed to get a nice roast on each side. You should see black and brown spots on the skin which you will peel later. 400 for 10 min per side to start, you can roast longer if needed.

When they are out of the oven pop the peppers in a brown bag and seal it up and let them sit till cooled then peel them (they should peel fairly easily by doing this) it's OK if some of the skin does not come off, I promise!

now, put on some food gloves and peel then dice the peppers small. I remove most of the seeds! If you like it hot and spicy feel free to leave some in....
DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE OR ANYTHING ELSE WITH PEPPER JUICE ON YOUR HANDS OR GLOVES.  That's in Caps to stress how important it is to NOT get pepper juice in your eyes or on your lips etc. It will hurt...this I can promise!

Mince up the garlic and toss in a medium bowl. (the roasted garlic will be very soft and yummy)
Add the finely diced peppers (you can also puree in a blender)
add the tomatoes and lime juice
add the green onions
season with salt and pepper
toss in the chopped cilantro
It always seemed to us that the salsa got spicier the longer it sat...

I used to puree the garlic,peppers and half the tomatoes then add the rest of the tomatoes but it turned out very green in color and we preferred the red. If you want to do a lot less mincing/chopping etc. you can do this it still tastes great!

OPTIONAL ADDITIONS

I have added in the past some grated zucchini, Poblano Peppers and a few other things I can't remember now, but all worked fine!