Danish pastry dough is a combination of puff pastry, with many thin layers and a yeast dough. It's flaky, buttery and very soft too. It can be used to create so many different variations of pastries, like croissants, and filled with myriads of cheese, jam, fruit, chocolate, nut fillings, all of them shaped into all sorts of pastries and breads.
Danish pastry bread is absolutely amazing and it's so good, I don't mind making it from scratch, because it's totally worth it. It's a mixture of soft yeast dough with buttery and flaky puff pastry. In my mind, it'a a match made in heaven. Puff pastry is wonderful in it's own way, but danish dough is not as greasy and is so tender and flaky.
It's not as intimidating as it sounds to make your own danish dough from scratch. With a little bit of time, your patience will be rewarded. What can you make from danish pastry dough? The possibilities are endless. One of my favorites is a Strawberry Cheesecake Danish Braid, Danish Cheese Pastries (use the same recipe, using the danish dough instead of puff pastry) Almond Bear Claws, which I will share very soon, and much, much more.
Recipe from allrecipes.com.
Ingredients:
Butter Rectangle:
2 cups butter, softened
⅔ cup all purpose flour
Danish dough:
8 cups flour
4 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
2 ½ cups milk
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions:
Mix the softened butter with ⅔ cups flour until evenly combined. Divide the butter mixture in half. 
Roll out each half of the butter mixture into a 6x12 inch rectangle, in between parchment paper or wax paper. Chill until firm.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix 3 cups of flour with the yeast. 
In a small saucepan, mix the milk, sugar and salt. Heat it up on medium heat until the milk reaches 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the milk mixture, the eggs and vanilla to the flour and yeast mixture. 
Mix until smooth. 
Add the remaining flour, ½ a cup at a time until you have a smooth dough, kneading for at least 5 minutes at the end. 
Divide the dough in half, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place until it doubles in size, 30-60 minutes.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out each portion of dough into a 12x20 inch rectangle. 
Place the butter rectangle over half of the dough and fold the other half over it. 
Pinch of edges of dough together and roll it out into a 12x20 inch rectangle. 
At this point, fold the rectangle into thirds, like an envelope. 
Repeat by rolling out the dough again into a 12x20 inch rectangle and then fold it into thirds again. 
Repeat with the other portion of dough and the remaining butter rectangle.
Wrap each square of dough loosely in plastic wrap and place into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. If at any point of the rolling process the butter becomes too warm and soft, place the dough into the refrigerator to chill.
After chilling for at least 30 minutes, the dough will rise slightly. Roll the dough again into a 12x20 inch rectangle, fold into thirds and repeat again. Chill for another 30 minutes or overnight before shaping the dough and baking it.
Danish Pastry Dough
Danish pastry dough is a combination of puff pastry, with many thin layers and a yeast dough. It's flaky, buttery and very soft too. It can be used to create so many different variations of pastries, like croissants, and filled with myriads of cheese, jam, fruit, chocolate, nut fillings, all of them shaped into all sorts of pastries and breads.
- Prep Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Category: Sweets
Ingredients
Butter Rectangle:
- 2 cups butter, softened
- ⅔ cup all purpose flour
Danish dough:
- 8 cups flour
- 4 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 ½ cups milk
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 eggs, slightly beaten
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Mix the softened butter with ⅔ cups flour until evenly combined. Divide the butter mixture in half. Roll out each half of the butter mixture into a 6x12 inch rectangle, in between parchment paper or wax paper. Chill until firm.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix 3 cups of flour with the yeast. In a small saucepan, mix the milk, sugar and salt. Heat it up on medium heat until the milk reaches 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Add the milk mixture, the eggs and vanilla to the flour and yeast mixture. Mix until smooth. Add the remaining flour, ½ a cup at a time until you have a smooth dough, kneading for at least 5 minutes at the end.
- Divide the dough in half, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place until it doubles in size, 30-60 minutes.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out each portion of dough into a 12x20 inch rectangle.
- Place the butter rectangle over half of the dough and fold the other half over it. Pinch of edges of dough together and roll it out into a 12x20 inch rectangle.
- At this point, fold the rectangle into thirds, like an envelope. Repeat by rolling out the dough again into a 12x20 inch rectangle and then fold it into thirds again.
- Wrap each square of dough loosely in plastic wrap and place into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. If at any point of the rolling process the butter becomes too warm and soft, place the dough into the refrigerator to chill.
- After chilling for at least 30 minutes, the dough will rise slightly. Roll the dough again into a 12x20 inch rectangle, fold into thirds and repeat again.
- Chill for another 30 minutes before shaping the dough and baking it.
Is the Danish (puff) dough the same, or similar to, (French) croissant dough?
It's very similar, George. In fact, I've made croissants with this recipe.
Hello Olga
I follow every step, but the dough is tough, why? And how can it be fix?
I am having the same issue.. I cut the recipe in half (exactly) and it's a very tough dough.. I am waiting for it to rise but I am nervous about it! Lol
I'm so sorry to hear that, Brooke:(. Danish dough is hard to work with. It's such a bummer that you're having a hard time with it.
Your instructions were fine for me. I made this yesterday and my pastries are so tender and delicious! I am so happy to have found your site!
I'm so happy to hear that, Tara. Thanks for taking the time to write. Welcome!
Gorgeous Looking loaf !
hi olga! I've made a similar recipe twice now and each time my butter pokes through my dough after it chills in the refridgerator. I have a warm kitchen so I have to leave it in for at least an hour or else it sticks to my rolling pin. I know you want the butter to remain solid but my dough has lots of big chunks of butter when I roll it out. I defintely used room temp butter at first - this is only after I chill and roll out. Just wondering what I could do differently - or perhaps I shouldn't worry! The danish tasted great... just trying to perfect the process. Thanks in advance for your advice!!
Have you tried this recipe, Margaux?
I've had a similar problem when I tried to make Danish dough using other recipes.
Also, another problem might be a warm kitchen. The main thing is to keep trying. Practice really does make perfect:).
Hi Olga. Does the dough supposed to be hard? 8 cups of flour?
No, it's not supposed to be hard. It's a soft dough, just like any yeast dough. This recipes makes a large batch of dough. You can halve it if you'd like.
Hello Olga,
What temperature and time should this dough be baked? Thank you!
It depends what you will be baking, Angie. 350 degrees Fahrenheit - 400 degrees Fahrenheit in general.
Hello, in step 9 when you say "Roll the dough again into a 12x20 inch rectangle, fold into thirds and repeat again." do you mean that after folding it into thirds and then rolling it out the second time into a 12x20 inch rectangle, we should fold the dough into thirds before storing it? Should the dough be folded into thirds and then cut/used in recipes?
Hi Olga, thank you so much for this recipe.
I have a couple questions that I hope you can answer, first, what's the difference in taste/texture between this dough and the QUICK PUFF PASTRY recipe you also posted? I want to make danish pastries and since this one is a lot more work, I just wanna make sure it's worth it?
My second question is a bit of a troubleshooting problem, I've made this dough a couple times before and the butter square has always given me issues. Do you have any tips for mixing the butter and the flour without a mixer (I'm a poor college student haha)? And also once I try to get the butter to mix with the rest of the dough, it always melts and becomes a gooey mess, even if I refrigerate in-between. I think part of the problem is that the dough and the butter never really mix that well? How do you get the dough to absorb the butter so easily?
Sorry for all the questions and thank you!!
Hi Thais,
"Puff pastry and Danish pastry are made using similar recipes, however puff pastry contains no yeast. Puff pastry uses only steam to make it rise. The moisture in the puff pastry dough turns to steam, and together with the air folded inside, expands and pushes the layers upwards and outwards. Steam also helps Danish pastry to rise, however, yeast causes most of the rising action.
The texture of Puff pastry has many crispy layers and it is buttery, flaky and light. Danish too is light and flaky but it has a fluffier, more buttery texture.
About the butter square: When you roll it with the dough, it SHOULD NOT mix together. The whole point of this type of dough is to have many layers of butter in between. This is what will cause the dough to rise and be flaky.
I hope that helps.
Both of these doughs are difficult to make, so don't feel bad. It takes a lot of practice to get it right.
Great questions and great answer.
Hi 🙂
I'm form Taiwan. Thank u so much for ur wonderful recipes.
I have a question:
Danish dough: 8 cups flour
"Flour" means all-purpose Flour?
or Bread Flour or Cake Flour?
Thanks!!!
Whenever an American recipe does not specify what kind of flour is used, it is all purpose flour, Nina.
where do you get instructions fo r the final stage of rolling,filling and baking. Thanks. good photos
Joaquin,
In the introduction paragraph, I included two recipes with links that you can use this dough in.
Strawberry Cheesecake Danish Braid
Danish Cheese Pastries
Оль,этл слоенное тесто получается? (У меня англ не такои хороший:()
This is a mixture of "слоенное тесто" - puff pastry and yeast dough. It's not puff pastry, though.
Here's a recipe of very easy puff pastry, that is much easier to make than the classical recipe. https://www.olgasflavorfactory.com/miscellaneous/quick-puff-pastry/
Olga, Thank You So Much For These Wonderful Recipes. I Have A Question Concerning A Recipe For Russian Brioch. Can You Tell Me What cs Stands For? My Google Translator translated it for me And All The Measurements Are Metric Which Is Fine .But...cs?............ Got Me.... Any Help You Can Share With Me Would Be Much Appreciated, Judith
Hi Judith,
Unfortunately, I have no idea what cs stands for. Can you give me the recipe in Russian? I might be able to figure it out if I see it in Russian.
Hi Olga, what's the best way to freeze it and how should I thaw it? Thanks
Wrap it up really well in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. Just make sure it's airtight.
Thaw it on the counter or the refrigerator, making sure that it doesn't get warm if it's out too long on the counter; you don't want the butter between the layers to melt.
Hi Olga, I tried to do this dough, though I found the instructions a little bit confusing. . Both of the butter pieces needs to be placed in the same time over the dough, or just one?
Hi Lily! If you notice in the instructions, I wrote that you need to divide the dough into two parts. You will put each butter rectangle into each portion of the dough, so you will end up with 2 wrapped portions of dough.
But that makes no sense. 6x12 inch butter block. 12 x 20 inch dough rectangle?
The dough is rolled out way too big. Maybe a bit bigger than 12 x 12.
You need the room on the edges to seal the dough or your butter will not stay in.