Daring the Danish Braid
I was fortunate that my first three Daring Bakers challenges were all cake-related and not unfamiliar territory. I knew my luck would eventually run out and that one day I’d come across a dough challenge. Well, that time finally arrived when this month’s challenge of a Danish braid was announced by Kelly of Sass & Veracity and Ben of What’s Cooking?. I think I’ve attempted cooking with yeast perhaps once before. It may have been in my childhood or teen years, but it was enough of a failed experience to have turned me off from working with yeast.
My initial reaction was to skip this month’s challenge, as after all, this is mostly a site about cakes. But my husband who has a lot of faith in me really wanted me to try this. And after perusing so many scrumptious and successful braid after braid completed by other zealous Daring Bakers, I decided to give this a go.
Braid, pre-baked
I decided upon a cream cheese/egg filling and fresh blueberries, topped with raw sugar and sliced almonds.
Nothing novel here, but I’m glad I “rose above” my fear of yeast and ventured out of my cake comfort zone! Thanks to Kelly and Ben for hosting! To see what other Daring Bakers have done, please visit the Daring Bakers Blogroll.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:53 am
I’m glad you didn’t skip it either, your braid looks fantastic!
June 29th, 2008 at 3:30 am
okay, so this is totally gorgeous. your pastry is SO flaky; I bet it was delicious.
xx fanny
June 29th, 2008 at 8:00 am
This looks fantastic and well done for “rising” to the challenge!!!
June 29th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Glad you didn’t skip this one and beat your yeast fear! It looks great!
June 29th, 2008 at 11:35 am
So glad you did this because, my, your braid looks AMAZING. I’ll have to try the raw sugar topping myself!
June 29th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
GORGEOUS danish – looks so delicious…mmmm….blueberries!!
June 29th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
your braid looks like it came from a seasoned pro! you did a fabulous job, it looks delicious!
June 29th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
great job. love the blueberry and cream.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
You did a great job braiding this. The filling looks rich and delicious, too :). Great photos!
June 29th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Fabulous looking filling. I did cream cheese also with strawberry jam. I would have loved the fresh blueberries also.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
See – you are a DARING baker! Great job proceeding and not skipping this challenge. I bet you and your husband enjoyed this a lot!
Alexandra
June 30th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
You braid looks so flaky and delicious!
June 30th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Your braid looks great! I also had to face my yeast fear with this recipe 🙂
July 1st, 2008 at 10:54 am
It really does look great. Isn’t it awesome, how DB is expanding our baking horizons? 🙂
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:48 am
lovely! did you find the filling was sweet enough? I used fresh raspberries with some cream cheese and white chocolate, but it didn’t quite meet my sweet tooth factor
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Thank you, all, for your kind comments!
Flying Quiche, I used sugar, butter, eggs, etc. in my cream cheese filling, so it was sweet enough. Also, the sugar sprinkled on top really gave it that extra sweetness.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:58 am
That looks seriously good. I made mine with a similar filling, except berries aren’t in season here, so I used a cherry jam instead.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I’d say you can stay lucky because your braid looks fabulous! Well done.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Great job! I love the filling peaking out of the top picture.
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 am
Your braid looks great!!! I’m glad you tried the braid. For me, dough is easier than cake, maybe we’ll pull you over to our side 🙂