First, a shameless plug. Come celebrate all things bread and flour at the Asheville Bread Festival this weekend, April 25-27! I’ll be vending at the Bread Fair at New Belgium Brewing on Saturday, April 26 from 8-11am. Come by and say hi and grab a pastry or twelve, made with some awesome locally-grown and milled flours, courtesy of Carolina Ground and Lindley Mills. Mmm, pastries.
End plug, onto post.
Gather ‘round, kids – it’s time to learn to laminate dough!
I wrote about danish dough in a previous post (Overnight Danish Dough Part I), which used a method for making danish dough similar to making pie crust: mix dry ingredients together, cut in butter, mix in liquid, and let sit overnight before rolling. This method still makes great danish dough with flaky layers, and I’ll still use it every once in a while.
However, these days I’m more inclined to laminate butter into my danish dough (I’ll talk about what that means in a moment) rather than cut it, for a few reasons.
One, I’ve discovered the magic of European-style butter. This butter has more butterfat than most American-style butter (80% versus 82%), and yes, this does make a difference in rolling, flavor, and flakiness in a positive way. The higher butterfat content, however, does not cut into pastry as well, as it tends to melt faster.
Two, laminating tends to make flakier and longer layers than cutting butter into dough, and the layers shatter when they’re done right. I fully expect danish layer shards to be all over the front of my shirt when I eat it, and besides flavor, is my #1 indicator that I’ve done it right when I’m sampling a batch.
Three, I’m building some incredible arm muscles from laminating dough. Go ahead – feel my biceps! Just kidding – this is the Internet. No touching!
Anyway, this is also part of, for lack of a better term, advanced pastry repertoire. If you’re looking to build up your baking chops, you should learn to laminate dough. It’s also the method for making croissant dough, if you’re into that sort of thing, although croissants take more fermenting and resting time between folds, but you get the idea.
Okay, cool, you say. So what, exactly, is lamination?
Lamination is a fancy term for folding and layering a butter block into a prepared dough, by repeatedly rolling out and folding dough over itself. Ever laminated a piece of paper? It’s the same concept – you’re layering the paper between two sheets of protective plastic, just as you layer butter between layers of dough.
So, rather than cutting the butter into small pieces throughout the dough (as in the original danish pastry method), we’re trying to keep the butter in as long and thin of a layer as possible to make sheets of shattering danish. Mmm.
Oh, and while you’re doing all of that rolling, you’re making sure that your dough and butter stay relatively cold, and that the butter absolutely, positively does not melt. Why? When making laminated pastry (such as danishes or croissants), it’s key to keep the two components – butter and dough – as separate as possible, so that when you pop the dough into a hot oven, the butter melts quickly, leaving space and air between layers of dough and thus, flaky layers in the final product. If the butter melts before going in the oven, you’ll end up with a soft, possible gummy pastry, with no layers. Sad.
The key is to keep your components cold while you work, and to work relatively quickly, but not in a rushed way. You can always put your dough back in the fridge or freezer if things start to melt or feel greasy, and continue working after cooling them down.
All this being said, I truly believe anyone can make laminated dough. I’ve had both experienced bakers and absolute beginners in class (literally, more than one student in my danish class has said “I’ve never baked anything before in my life”) that all have made incredible danish dough, just by following directions. Which means, of course, that you can, too!
Do yourself a favor and get a bench scraper and a good solid rolling pin. You’ll thank me later.
Now let’s celebrate bread this week by making danish dough. Ready, set, laminate!
Danish Dough (Laminated)
Make and fill flaky, buttery danish dough for all of your fika needs! For best results, use high-quality (ideally European-style) butter. You can also soften your butter before making the butter block for easier rolling - just make sure it’s room temperature and not melting!
you will need:
- 1 ½ c unsalted butter, chilled or slightly softened at room temperature (see note above)
- 4 ½ tsp dried yeast (2 packages)
- ½ c warm water (105-115 degrees F)
- ½ cream or undiluted evaporated milk, room temperature or warmed
- ½ tsp ground cardamom (optional)
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- ¼ c sugar or 2 tbsp honey
- 3 ¾-4 c all-purpose flour, plus more for sprinkling
Directions
- In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water, and allow to sit for five minutes. Add cream, cardamom, salt, eggs, and sugar, and mix well. With a wooden spoon, mix in 3 cups of the flour, and beat until smooth and elastic. Stir in ½ c more flour and beat until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and does not absorb more flour easily (your dough may look shaggy – this is okay!). Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight (8 hours).
- Slice butter into ½ inch thick lengths and place between 2 pieces of parchment paper in a rectangle or square. Using a rolling pin, roll out the butter to make an 8-inch butter block, fusing the pieces together without breaking them. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes until very firm and cold. (You can do Steps 1 and 2 in either order – just make sure each component is very cold before proceeding to Step 3.)
- Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface, knead lightly until smooth, and roll out into a 16×8-inch rectangle (roughly twice the size of your butter block). Unwrap chilled butter block and place over half of the dough. Fold the other half of the dough over the butter block and press edges to seal.
- Roll dough out to make as long and thin a rectangle as possible, bursting bubbles, resealing any holes, and keeping the butter from cracking or breaking as much as possible. Dust with additional flour if necessary and, using a bench scraper, fold into thirds like a letter, and roll out into a rectangle again. Fold rectangle into thirds (dough will end up a square shape). Repeat the rolling and folding 2-3 more times; butter will flatten and turn streaky, but shouldn’t soften or melt. (If your butter becomes soft or begins to melt, place dough in the refrigerator or freezer until cold again, and continue.) Chill at least 30 minutes before filling and shaping.
The Crunchy Baker 
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