On Food and Cooking

bread dough and added even more layering
butter, thus making a lighter, crisper pastry
than the original. They also used the dough to
surround a variety of fillings, notably remonce
(butter creamed with sugar and often
including some form of almonds). Danish
pastries are made in essentially the same way
as croissants. The initial dough is moister and
softer, includes sugar and also whole eggs, so
it’s sweeter, richer, and distinctively yellow,
and it isn’t given an initial rising. Often more
butter or margarine is used for the
laminations, and the dough may only be
turned three times, so the layers are fewer and
thicker. Danish pastry dough is often used as a
container for sweet or rich fillings, or rolled
out, covered with a combination of nuts,
raisins or flavored sugar, rolled up, and cut
into spiral cross-sections. Once the final
pastry is formed, it’s allowed to rise until
about doubled in volume (again, at
temperatures that keep the shortening solid),