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 variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...

) is a multilayered, laminated sweet pastry in the '' viennoiserie'' tradition. The concept was brought to Denmark by Austrian bakers, 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 croissants, it is a variant of puff pastry made of laminated yeast-leavened dough 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-leavened dough 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 culture ...

, milk, eggs,

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 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 Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil.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 orig ...

. 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 Sunflower oil is the non-volatile oil pressed from the seeds of the sunflower (''Helianthus annuus''). Sunflower oil is commonly used in food as a frying oil, and in cosmetic formulations as an emollient. Sunflower oil is primarily composed ...

Terminology

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

, Norwegian, and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, the term for Danish pastry is (or ), meaning "Viennese bread". The same etymology is also the origin of the Finnish and

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

("Viennese pastry"). In Vienna, the Danish pastry is called , referring to Copenhagen, 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 Exotic may refer to: Mathematics and physics * Exotic R4, a differentiable 4-manifold, homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the Euclidean space R4 * Exotic sphere, a differentiable ''n''-manifold, homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the ordina ...

names.

Denmark

Danish pastries as consumed in Denmark have different shapes and names. Some are topped with chocolate, pearl sugar, 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 ...

marzipan Marzipan is a confectionery, confection consisting primarily of sugar, honey, and almond meal (ground almonds), sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract. It is often made into Confectionery, sweets; common uses are chocolate-covered marzi ...

, 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 entertai ...

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 fro ...

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...

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 nam ...

, raisins, flaked

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

s, pecans, or caramelized toffee are placed on or within sections of divided dough, which is then baked. Cardamom 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 or dulce de membrillo. 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 A Danish pastry ( da, wienerbrød ) sometimes shortened to just Danish, especially in American English) is a multilayered, laminated sweet pastry in the ''viennoiserie'' tradition. The concept was brought to Denmark by Austrian bakers, where the r ...

with dulce de membrillo File:Danishjf1942.JPG, Danish pastries in the Philippines

United States

Danish pastry was brought to the United States by Danish immigrants. Lauritz C. Klitteng of Læsø popularized "Danish pastry" in the US around 1915–1920. According to Klitteng, he made Danish pastry for the wedding of President Woodrow Wilson 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. 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'':

"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, boycotted Danish goods. "Roses of Muhammad" ( fa, گل محمدی, ''gol-e mohammadī'', Muhammad flower) is a traditional Persian synonym for a variety of pink rose 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 trees ...

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