Team Kramer from Wauwatosa, WI (2017 Week 5: Pastries)

Baker

Team Kramer

Location

Wauwatosa, WI

Baking Challenge

Danish

Have fun giving your creation a name and please describe your recipe.

Cran Cherry Danish. After debating what shape we should go with we ended up with your basic round type Danish with a scoop of filling in the center and a drizzle of vanilla glaze on top. The filling was inspired by a recipe we love to make at Thanksgiving, a cranberry-cherry sauce (which is awesome on turkey sandwiches BTW). As we were cooking the cranberry-cherry sauce the kitchen for a moment seemed like Thanksgiving time, except for the fact that we were sweating in the heat and there was nary a football in sight.

Tell us about your pastry dough and final texture after baking. Are you happy with it?

We have never made pastry dough before and in the beginning everything was going oh so well. The dough looked great. We pounded the butter into a perfect rectangle and did the “book fold” several times. After coming out of the fridge the dough still looked and felt great. The recipe I was using called for cutting the dough into small pieces, then rolling them into balls and then flattening them into disks. And we think that was the problem. They really never puffed up. The rise before baking didn’t do a lot and once in the hot oven they didn’t rise too much either. And the layers were gone. We can hear Paul’s voice now…”they are a bit over baked and the flaky layers aren’t there.” But I think Mary would say are filling was “just lovely.”

Detail how you added a Wisconsin twist to your flavors or presentation.

We used cranberries and cherries for our Wisconsin twist, along with Wisconsin dairy products.

How did you do?

Feeling humbled.