My Mom knows all about my love affair with danish. Not just any danish, but those rings of delicate and eggy pastry that are filled with cinnamon goodness and studded with buttery walnuts all topped with a sweet glaze. Sigh.
Every single time I go visit her, she says,
“Guess what I bought for you?”
“Danish?”
“How did you know?”
I love her dearly.
I’ve always thought that if I ever made my own danish, I’d use my recipe for Armenian Easter Bread (Choereg) as inspiration. It has that texture that I love. For the filling, I’ve used apple butter. It adds so much to this danish. It’s sweet with a hint of cinnamon and gives the danish a moist center. I’m so happy with the results. I think you are going to love this!
Apple Butter Danish Ring with Apple Spice Glaze
1 cup non fat milk, warmed in a microwave for 1 minute and a half
1 package instant yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup apple butter
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (plus a bit extra to sprinkle over top)
Apple Spice Glaze
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of fine salt
1 tablespoon apple butter
3 teaspoons milk
In a medium bowl, combine the warm milk with the yeast and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Allow to sit for about 5 to 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Set aside.
Add the melted butter and eggs to the milk mixture. Stir to combine.Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and using a sturdy wooden spoon or spatula, fold in until combined and no bits of flour remain. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to sit for one hour.
On a heavily floured surface, turn the dough out and sprinkle the top with a bit of flour to keep your hands from sticking. Knead until smooth and roll out into either one large rectangle, about 10×20, or two smaller ones (see Notes below). Spread the apple butter over the top, then sprinkle on the raisins and walnuts. Begin rolling up from the long side into a log. Carefully (it’s tricky!) move the log onto a well greased pizza pan, seam side down. Bring the ends together to form a ring and pinch them together. Using a sharp knife, cut into the ring, leaving a few inches of the center intact. Continue cutting all around the ring every one or two inches. Separate each slice a bit and turn up each section slightly.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees while you allow the danish to rise for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Place the pan in the center rack of your oven and bake for 25 minutes.Remove and allow to cool completely on the pan while you prepare the glaze.
In a small bowl, combine the glaze ingredients and whisk until smooth. Once the danish has cooled, drizzle over the top.
Notes:
- Unless you are entertaining a large crowd, divide the dough in two and make two danishes. The whole recipe makes a giant one! Bake the smaller danish for 20 minutes. If you make two, you can wrap one up without the glaze and freeze it for a month or two. You can actually freeze half of the glaze as well in a zipper bag.
Scrumptious! My favourite Danish are Bearclaws
Thanks so much, Margaret! Mmmmmm…Bearclaws are delicious! :)
Mmmmm! I’m making apple butter today with the last fruit from our orchard trip- I might have to make this Danish for Christmas morning!
Thanks so much Jill! Homemade apple butter sounds AMAZING! I may have to make some too!
Follow up: I made a large danish instead of splitting it- 12 people (9 adults, 3 kids) devoured it! I’m glad I didn’t split it. It was incredible. I used about 1 cup of apple butter, and cooked it on my pizza stone (don’t have a pizza pan). Will definitely make this again.
For what it’s worth, I use this All Day Apple Butter recipe from All Recipes and love it. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/All-Day-Apple-Butter/ I don’t measure my apples, just fill the crockpot completely, and I usually use mostly Fuji with a few Pink Lady thrown in and don’t have any issues with sweetness- you COULD cut the sugar a bit, but I usually just add more cinnamon and nutmeg
Jill, thanks so much for sharing your experience and that Apple Butter recipe! So sweet of you! I must give that a try. I love using it in my baking. I’m so glad you liked the Danish!
Is it just me or is the ratio of liquids to solids totally wrong resulting in a soup of gluten rather than a dough?
I’m sorry to hear you had that experience, Paula. I’d check to see that you’ve measured your flour properly. This dough can be a bit wet, that’s why I specify kneading on a heavily floured board, but by no means is it supposed to be a soup of gluten. This method gives you a light and flakey dough without adding a ton of butter. Hope that helps!
YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love anything with apples and cinnamon! This is such a pretty danish, it looks like a flower! My guilty pleasure is ice cream!
Thank you Jennifer! I love apples and cinnamon too…they are like comfort food!
Coffee cakes like this are one of my favorite things on earth! It looks so moist and that filling and icing – I want a slice right now. My favorite guilty pleasure is gummy candy.
Laura, we must be soul-mates! ;) I’m so with you on the coffee cakes and gummy candy! Thanks so much for your sweet comment!