Happy New Year! Nothing like kicking off a new year with some cream-filled pastries.
Let me just say right here that I have never made anything quite like these before and so my learning curve was quite steep. I learned a lot, however, and think that if I made these a few more times I could achieve better results. For now, I will just present to you my beginner’s version.
You start with some Danish Dough and some Vanilla Pastry Cream.
My dough was incredibly stiff and I gave up shortly before getting it into a perfect rectangle with square corners. But basically it should be a rectangle that you cut into 3-inch squares. If I had had another 20 minutes to let my dough warm up, I would have gotten there, I swear.
And then a dollop of pastry cream goes on the center of each square.
The edges get a coating of egg to help the dough stick together when they’re sealed.
Sealing these is difficult, I can’t lie about that. The pastry cream oozes out at every opportunity and once it gets on the edges of the dough square, good luck ever getting them to stick together. I did find that stretching the corners a bit helped keep the cream in place (but not by much).
I just had a helluva time. One thing I might try in the future is cutting the squares a bit larger (but using the same amount of pastry cream) and sort-of making a little crater in the middle of square with my finger tips so the pastry cream will settle in more.
As you can see, a few of my buns never sealed up – the pastry cream was just too unruly!
I took the sealed buns and gently rolled them on a piece of parchment paper as the MSBH instructs. This is difficult too – even with very gentle motions, the pastry cream would work its way out and the seams would burst open. I only achieved one perfectly smooth, round, seamless bun. I think this all would come easier with practice.
The buns are left to rise for a while and then baked. I was bracing myself for major explosions and burnt pastry cream everywhere, but I only had one bun rupture while baking and it didn’t cause a mess at all.
The baked buns cool completely before being brushed with melted butter and dipped in a bowl of sugar.
And that’s that!
The unsugared tops give the impression that there’s nothing sweet about these buns at all and in actuality, that’s true (I took a bite of one before the butter/sugar step). Neither the baked pastry or the pastry cream is all that sweet.
But with the sugar – wow! It drastically improves the look of the buns and adds a much-needed kick of sweetness.
I was expecting this awesome pocket of gooey pastry cream in the center of the bun but what I found instead was pretty underwhelming. The pastry cream bakes along with the dough so it dries out quite a bit. It becomes more of a pastry paste. And there’s just not enough of it (the recipe says 1 tablespoon per bun) to make its presence known.
I can’t imagine using more cream and still being able to seal the buns up, but the centers need something more. Maybe instead of a tablespoon of cream you could do a half-tablespoon of cream and a half-tablespoon of strong jam. Or perhaps just using a more strongly flavored pastry cream (like bourbon!). Or maybe just getting better at sealing the dough so you can double the amount of cream used. I don’t know.
Anyhow, as always, the Danish Dough bakes up beautifully. It’s so soft, flaky, and buttery. I love using it.
Hi and Happy New Year. I was poking around the internet and found your blog. I was impressed with your ambition, good Lord!! I just wanted to say that I planned on mentioning your blog on my blog, if you don’t mind. I recently made the Baking Powder Biscuits and was going to post about them and the book. I thought that anyone reading my blog might want to read about other recipes in the book that you’ve covered. I think you have done a really good job!! If you would rather I didn’t mention your blog in my post, just let me know. Thanks, Patience Patience.typepad.com
No problem! Thanks for the kind words.
This is awesome! All of your desserts look just like hers. I just received the handbook and am turning every recipe vegan – needless to say, it’s going to be a challenge.
Wow! That is going to be a challenge – are you going to blog about it? Some of the recipes, like the Coconut Cake, would be really fantastic vegan recipes, I think. I’ve never had a vegan pastry (croissant… danish… puff pastry…) so I’d love to read about how you’ll do it. Happy baking, Ashlae!
I made these buns this morning and had the same problem as you with getting them to seal. After throwing away a good third, I eventually just gave up on making sure they were completely sealed and rolled on the parchment. They still baked fine by skipping these steps.
These tasted like a sweet croissant. Since they were so time consuming, I doubt I will bake them again.
Glad to know I wasn’t the only one who had this problem! Happy baking, Brian!
I LOVE your blog! I found it looking for a lemon snap recipe. After reading your post I got the MSBH from the library. I made the lemon sugar snaps and had the same result as you; good cookie, not a snap. I cannot wait to see Martha’s birthday cake. Your pictures are beautiful!! Thanks for all your hard work. You are inspirational!
Thank you so much for the kind words, Heather! I was just thinking about how I need to post another recipe here, but the ones I have remaining are so intimidating (Martha’s Birthday Cake being one of the most intimidating!). Your comment has kind-of sparked a little confidence in me though… stay tuned.