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A Danish pastry ( da, wienerbrød ) sometimes shortened to just Danish, especially in
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
) is a multilayered,
laminated Lamination is the technique/process of manufacturing a material in multiple layers, so that the composite material achieves improved strength, stability, sound insulation, appearance, or other properties from the use of the differing materia ...
sweet
pastry Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggests ...
in the ''
viennoiserie ''Viennoiseries'' (, "things of Vienna") are baked goods made from a yeast- leavened dough in a manner similar to bread, or from puff pastry, but with added ingredients (particularly eggs, butter, milk, cream and sugar), which give them a rich ...
'' tradition. The concept was brought to Denmark by
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populou ...
n
bakers A baker is a tradesperson who bakes and sometimes sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery. History Ancient history Since grains ha ...
, where the recipe was partly changed and accommodated by the Danes to their liking, and has since developed into a Danish specialty. Like other viennoiserie pastries, such as
croissant A croissant is a buttery, flaky, Austrian viennoiserie pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian kipferl but using the French yeast-leavened laminated dough. Croissants are named for their historical crescent shape, the dough is layered w ...
s, it is a variant of
puff pastry Puff pastry, also known as ', is a flaky light pastry made from a laminated dough composed of dough (') and butter or other solid fat ('). The butter is put inside the dough (or vice versa), making a ' that is repeatedly folded and rolled out be ...
made of laminated
yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...
-leavened
dough Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening ...
that creates a layered texture. Danish pastries were brought with immigrants to the United States, where they are often topped with a fruit or cream cheese filling, and are now popular around the world.


Composition

Danish pastry is made of
yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...
-leavened
dough Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening ...
of wheat
flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cult ...
,
milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modul ...
,
eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
,
sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
, and large amounts of
butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condimen ...
or
margarine Margarine (, also , ) is a spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The spread was or ...
. A yeast dough is rolled out thinly, covered with thin slices of butter between the layers of dough, and then the dough is folded and rolled several times, creating 27 layers. If necessary, the dough is chilled between foldings to ease handling. The process of rolling, buttering, folding, and chilling is repeated multiple times to create a multilayered dough that becomes airy and crispy on the outside, but also rich and buttery. Butter is the traditional fat used in Danish pastry, but in industrial production, less expensive fats are often used, such as hydrogenated sunflower oil.


Terminology

In Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, the term for Danish pastry is (or ), meaning "Viennese bread". The same etymology is also the origin of the Finnish and Estonian ("Viennese pastry"). In Vienna, the Danish pastry is called , referring to
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ...
, or .Utley, Derek (1999). ''Reis på engelsk: guide, ord og uttrykk, menyordbok''. Oslo: NKS-forlag. .


History

The origin of the Danish pastry is often ascribed to a strike amongst bakery workers in Denmark in 1850. The strike caused bakery owners to hire workers from abroad, among them several Austrian bakers, who brought along new baking traditions and pastry recipes. The Austrian pastry of '' Plundergebäck'' soon became popular in Denmark and after the labour disputes ended, Danish bakers adopted the Austrian recipes, adjusting them to their own liking and traditions by increasing the amount of egg and fat for example. This development resulted in what is now known as the Danish pastry. One of the baking techniques and traditions that the Austrian bakers brought with them was the Viennese lamination technique. Due to such novelties the Danes called the pastry "wienerbrød" (Vienna bread) and that name is still in use in Northern Europe today. At that time, almost all baked goods in Denmark were given exotic names.


Denmark

Danish pastries as consumed in Denmark have different shapes and names. Some are topped with chocolate,
pearl sugar Nib sugar (also pearl sugar and hail sugar) is a product of refined white sugar. The sugar is very coarse, hard, opaque white, and does not melt at temperatures typically used for baking. The product usually is made by crushing blocks of white s ...
, glacé icing, and/or slivered nuts and they may be stuffed with a variety of ingredients such as jam or preserves (usually apple or prune),
remonce Remonce is a cake-filling paste used in various traditional Danish pastries. It is made by creaming softened butter with sugar, and is sometimes flavoured with cinnamon (e.g. in cinnamon snails), cardamom, custard, marzipan, or almond paste. Re ...
,
marzipan Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar, honey, and almond meal (ground almonds), sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract. It is often made into sweets; common uses are chocolate-covered marzipan and small marzipan imitat ...
, and/or custard. Shapes are numerous, including circles with filling in the middle (known in Denmark as ''Spandauers''), figure-eights, spirals (known as snails), and the pretzel-like kringles.


Varieties

In Sweden, Danish pastry is typically made in the ''Spandauer''-style, often with vanilla custard. In the UK, various ingredients such as
jam Jam is a type of fruit preserve. Jam or Jammed may also refer to: Other common meanings * A firearm malfunction * Block signals ** Radio jamming ** Radar jamming and deception ** Mobile phone jammer ** Echolocation jamming Arts and ent ...
,
custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fr ...
, apricots,
cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour '' Prunus cerasus''. The na ...
,
raisin A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word ''raisin'' is reserved for the d ...
s, flaked almonds,
pecan The pecan (''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed in the southern United States, primarily in Georgia ...
s, or
caramelized Caramelization is a process of browning of sugar used extensively in cooking for the resulting sweet nutty flavor and brown color. The brown colors are produced by three groups of polymers: caramelans (C24H36O18), caramelens (C36H50O25), and c ...
toffee are placed on or within sections of divided dough, which is then baked.
Cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia. They are ...
is often added to increase the aromatic sense of sweetness. In the US, Danishes are typically given a topping of fruit or sweetened cream cheese prior to baking. Danishes with nuts on them are also popular there and in Sweden, where often icing, and, sometimes, powdered sugar and chocolate spritzing are also added. In Argentina, they are usually filled with
dulce de leche ''Dulce de leche'' (; pt, doce de leite), also known as caramelized milk, milk candy or milk jam in English, is a confection from Latin America prepared by slowly heating sugar and milk over a period of several hours. The resulting substance, wh ...
or
dulce de membrillo Dulce may refer to: Places *Dulce, New Mexico * Dulce Base, a supposed American secret military facility * Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica * Dulce River (disambiguation) People * Dulce (Mexican singer) (born 1955), Mexican singer and actress * Ana Dulc ...
. File:Kringle (6868378753).jpg, A slice of a ''kringle'' with remonce, a type of Danish pastry common in Denmark File:Danish pastry.JPG, Several types of Danish pastry in a bakery in Denmark File:Pecan and Maple Danish.JPG, Pecan and maple Danish sold in the UK File:Factura membrillo.jpg, Argentine facturas with
dulce de membrillo Dulce may refer to: Places *Dulce, New Mexico * Dulce Base, a supposed American secret military facility * Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica * Dulce River (disambiguation) People * Dulce (Mexican singer) (born 1955), Mexican singer and actress * Ana Dulc ...
File:Danishjf1942.JPG, Danish pastries in the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...


United States

Danish pastry was brought to the United States by Danish immigrants. Lauritz C. Klitteng of
Læsø Læsø ("Isle of Hlér") is the largest island in the North Sea bay of Kattegat, and is located off the northeast coast of the Jutland Peninsula, the Danish mainland. Læsø is also the name of the municipality ( Danish, '' kommune'') on that ...
popularized "Danish pastry" in the US around 1915–1920. According to Klitteng, he made Danish pastry for the wedding of President
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
in December 1915. Klitteng toured the world to promote his product and was featured in such 1920s periodicals as the ''National Baker'', the ''Bakers' Helper'', and the ''Bakers' Weekly''. Klitteng briefly had his own Danish Culinary Studio at 146 Fifth Avenue in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Herman Gertner owned a chain of New York City restaurants and had brought Klitteng to New York to sell Danish pastry. Gertner's obituary appeared in the January 23, 1962 ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'':
"At one point during his career Mr. Gertner befriended a Danish baker who convinced him that Danish pastry might be well received in New York. Mr. Gertner began serving the pastry in his restaurant and it immediately was a success."


Cartoon controversy

During the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2006, several religious Iranian groups advocated changing the name of the highly popular Danish ( fa, شیرینی دانمارکی, ''Šīrīni-ye Dānmārkī'', Danish pastry), given its name association with the source country of the offending cartoons. The Association of Iranian Confectionery Manufacturing designated "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad" as the new name for danishes made in the country as of 15 February 2006, although compliance with the proposed name in bakeries was mixed and short-lived. Related to this, many protesters in several Muslim countries, angered by the pictures of
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mono ...
, boycotted Danish goods. "Roses of Muhammad" ( fa, گل محمدی, ''gol-e mohammadī'', Muhammad flower) is a traditional
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
synonym for a variety of pink
rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...
flowering
shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from tree ...
.


See also

* Danish cookie *
Danish cuisine Danish cuisine ( da, det danske køkken) originated from the peasant population's own local produce and was enhanced by cooking techniques developed in the late 19th century and the wider availability of goods during and after the Industrial Rev ...
*
Doughnut A doughnut or donut () is a type of food made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and fran ...
*
List of doughnut varieties Doughnuts are a type of fried dough food. The following is a list of doughnut varieties. Variations and specialties by region The terms below constitute either names for different doughnut types created using local recipes, or for the local l ...
* Kolach * Kringle *
List of pastries This is a list of pastry, pastries, which are small buns made using a stiff dough enriched with fat. Some dishes, such as pies, are made of a pastry casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweetness, sweet or Umami, savory i ...
*
Pan dulce Pan dulce, literally meaning "sweet bread", is the general name for a variety of Mexican pastries. Bread was introduced in Mexico by Spanish colonists, settlers and immigrants; however, Mexican pan dulce as we know it today rose to popularit ...
(sweet bread)


Notes


References

*Cauvain, Stanley & Young, Linda S. (2007)
Technology of Breadmaking.
' Springer Science & Business Media. *Gisslen, Wayne (2013)
Professional Baking.
' (6th edition) John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.


External links


Danish pastry - base recipe - Danish pastry bar
Kvalifood, a non-commercial educational cooking website from Denmark.
BBC Danish pastriesDanish
{{pastries Danish cakes Danish pastries Danish cuisine Austrian cakes Austrian pastries Austrian cuisine Finnish cuisine Norwegian cuisine Swedish cuisine Sweet breads Foods featuring butter