You know what I hate? When I stumble upon this line in a recipe: refrigerate overnight. ‘Stumble upon’ being the key here. As in, surprise! Gotcha! You thought you’d have me in your belly this morning? Ha! Nice try. Let’s reconvene tomorrow, K? This past Sunday I was expecting my Auntie to arrive in the early afternoon. She was making a special trip to help me out with the kids, and I wanted to welcome her with something extra special. Nigella Lawson’s cheese Danishes, a recipe I had spotted in How to Be a Domestic Goddess the night before, sounded ideal for a number of reasons: the pasty is made in the food processor; the filling contains lemon zest and ricotta cheese, two of Auntie’s favorite ingredients; and at one point in the recipe Nigella notes that the cheese Danish is her all-time favorite. It was the intro to the recipe that got me. Nigella describes the practice of making this sort of pastry dough in the food processor as revolutionary not only because the dough comes together in seconds but also because it produces an authentic Danish pastry. She even includes a word of encouragement from Beatrice Ojakangas, the Scandinavian chef who taught her the method via Dorie Greenspan: “Don’t think you’re cheating by taking the fast track — this is how it’s done these days all over Denmark.” Fast track. I never suspected the phrase ‘refrigerate overnight’ to be in a ‘fast-track’ recipe. Lesson learned. And truthfully, I should have known better — these sorts of recipes almost always require a lengthy rest period. Or do they? Remember now, Auntie would be arriving around 2 pm. Perhaps I still had time. Perhaps the true test of the domestic goddess was making croissant-style pastries in one quarter the amount of time? I would have to make a few changes, the first being to give the yeast a little push — instead of processing it with the flour, sugar and salt, I would “bloom” it with the water and milk and a little bit of the sugar. The overnight refrigeration, too, would have to be condensed to two hours, and a 30-minute chill period, omitted. And most importantly, under no circumstances would I be allowed to throw a tantrum when the pastry did not behave, bake, or taste as I had hoped. Disposition of a true domestic goddess would foremost be preserved. When Auntie called to tell me she was passing IKEA — just 20 minutes out — I placed the Danishes in the oven. And when Auntie walked through my door, I pulled a tray of beautifully golden, feather-light, lemon-ricotta filled, flaky parcels from my oven. Truly, of all the baking efforts I have made over the years to transform my kitchen into one of my favorite cafes, none has succeeded more than this food processor Danish pastry — it was as if we were dining at 18th and Guerrero or 23rd and Lombard or 6528 Washington Street. These Danishes are spectacular. Now, do I advise taking this extra-fast-track route? For the sake of keeping stress to a minimum, maybe not. Because what is actually really nice about this recipe is that the dough in fact can be — wait for it — refrigerated overnight. What’s more, the dough can actually be refrigerated for as long as four days, which means if you were to make the dough today or tomorrow, cheese Danishes could, with little effort, be in your Saturday or Sunday — both even — mornings. It’s a beautiful thing. Planning ahead. Reading instructions. One day I’ll learn.
With a food processor, the dough comes together in seconds: It then rests in the fridge overnight or for as long as four days: In the meantime, make the filling, a mixture of ricotta, lemon zest, salt and sugar:
Assembling the parcels requires rolling and folding and filling and pinching:
The assembled Danishes make one last 1.5-hour rise before baking for 15 minutes:
I had a couple of comments/questions regarding the rolling out process and how to do it without adding too much flour. I hope this video offers some guidance: 4.9 from 7 reviews Notes: As noted above, the dough for these Danishes should rest in the fridge overnight. I have included notes below if you need to rush the process along — the Danishes can be made start to finish in as few as 6 hours. The filling amount listed below is for 6-8 pastries. Double it if you are making the full amount of pastries. Day-old pastries reheat quite nicely at 350F for 10 minutes or so.
1/4 cup (60 ml) warm water 1/2 cup (125 ml) milk at room temperature 1 large egg at room temperature 2 1/4 cups (286 g) all-purpose flour 1 package (2.25 tsp. | 7 g) instant yeast 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 tablespoon (25 g) sugar 1 cup (250 g) unsalted butter, cold, cut into thin slices
cheese danish:
1/2 quantity of the processor danish pastry 1 cup ricotta cheese (I used homemade bc it’s SO easy and SO delicious) pinch of salt 1 tablespoon lemon zest 6 tablespoons sugar 1 large egg, beaten 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
egg wash:
1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons of milk
make the danishes:
