BUDD-ah. That’s what this one was mostly about. Buddah, as our Food Network buddy Paula Deen likes to say. There’s ‘buddah’ in this Danish Braid, and plenty of it. So, if you, like us, are a household of two and trying vainly to keep a leash on your fat and cholesterol intake what do you do? Substitute Benecol olive oil spread for butter, to work on lowering your cholesterol instead of raising it — and use just a bit less than the recipe requires. For some, it’s a gamble to substitute, but practice makes perfect, and this time it paid off in spades.
Yep, it’s time once again for another Daring Baker Challenge, my first in awhile, due to moving and a lot of other non-kitchen nonsense. It felt good to get back in the swing of things this week as I assembled the ingredients — no hand mixers or other accouterments, but this was a long, slow process and I had plenty of time to set up and clean up in between chilling the dough. This laminated pastry is something every croissant-lover wants more of, but it takes a lot of fridge time and cool hands to make it come out right. Fortunately, we’re now back in the land of cold weather — as I rolled out our dough, the rain drizzled down and the mists rose.
Perfect.
The detrempe came together easily, and because I kept mainly to the script, with a few small exceptions, I won’t repeat the recipe here, but you can find all the steps at KellyPea’s blog Sass & Veracity. I added a heaping teaspoon of our home made garam masala, and a whole vanilla pod to the dough, instead of the portion of a teaspoon of cardamom and half a pod of vanilla called for. I also added a splash of rosewater to compliment the cardamom, and the zest of three oranges, which made for an incredibly flavorful, fragrant dough. The olive oil spread worked as well as or better than butter, and because I turned the dough an additional three times more than the recipe required, the dough was incredibly tender, but not sticky, and puffed up beautifully.
For the filling, we used a combination of sweet-tart Braeburns and very tart Granny Smith apples, to preserve more of the shape and texture of the apple. We cut the sugar to a quarter cup, added a touch of complexity and bitterness with a bit of grapefruit juice in lieu of the lemon the called for, and then used pure vanilla extract instead of vanilla bean, mostly for the aesthetic reasons of confining the tiny black vanilla seeds solely to the bread (but also because we realized that the half-bean which was supposed to be left over in making the dough would have gone in here). We also cut out the butter and browned the apples in a stainless steel pan spritzed with olive oil. We really felt the filling didn’t need those four tablespoons of butter.
Once we got to the braiding bit, it was just a bit of wrap and stick, and we were home free.
The Danish was a slow starter in the rising department — because of that coldish weather once again — but once it got going, it was something to see. The baking filled the house with an amazing aroma, and when it finally came time to slice into it — Mmmm. A flaky, tender pastry. A tart-sweet filling. An immediate desire to eat both loaves, and an immediate understanding that it HAS to go to work with me on Monday or else.
For the record, I tried to share with the neighbor who held our FedEx package for us while we were in California.
He didn’t open the door.
I’m not going back.
Be sure to check out the rest of the Daring Bakers’ creations, over at the Daring Bakers Blogroll!
Oh – and, in case you’re like me and didn’t connect the dots: this is what is better known as a Danish. I didn’t catch that until I was eating a slice. Yeah.
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Great-looking braids and so glad to hear your substitutions worked!
Garam masala and olive oil, very interesting. I would of never thought. They look beautiful. Bet your glad the nieghbor wasn’t answering. 🙂
Yum. Your braid looks amazing. Good Job with the substitutions.
nice I love the butter replacement and am so happy that it worked so well.
There *was* a lot of butter in this, wasn’t there?
You did a marvelous job; your braid looks fantastic!
Oh that I could pop over and taste that right now!! You’re lucky I don’t live close…you wouldn’t have anymore left. Guess I’ll have to resort to making my own.
I would be curious to try that spread you used to reduce cholesteral. All about the health lately. It looks faboulous. I like spice addition to your dough.
Now that is a braid! Love the idea of substituting Garam Marsala too. And I wouldn’t have gone back to the neighbors either. If your danish was like my danish, it was all I could do to allow ANY of it out of the house 🙂
Yup, ya done DB and Paula Deen proud. PD would be tingling all over and all the buddah used around the world. Your braid is lovely.
If I die of a heart attack, it will be a 100% butter heart attack… I don’t have the moxie to substitute. Well done!
Great job with the olive oil, points scored :). Those slices look gorgeous!
Well YUM! I guess I got confused, and thought I was looking at seitan, but frankly, I’d much rather look at your gorgeous danish! And I LOVE your spice/rosewater idea! I have the rosewater for an attempt at Turkish Delight. Someday.
NO second chance for the neighbor . . .hehe!! cute. As soon as my two came out of the oven I raced one across the street! I am delighted to know you got such great results with Benecol! We use it all the time. Beautiful braid.
Yum, looks good. I love your additions, well done.
It sounds so delicious! Great job on this challenge!
That looks great! I love how you played with the dough – I love the addition of rosewater. very cool.
Your braid looks really nice, and a very interesting addition or the garam masala. Look the photos.
I love you braided it!
Awesome job . . .
And it took me a bit re: “danish”, too. 🙂
Love what you did with all the substitutions and addition. Must have been delicious!
Great job on your braid. It looks beautiful. I’m glad your substitutions worked for you.
Your braid turned out amazing! So pretty! And hey, sometimes we all need to use eggs. 🙂
Your dough sounds to die for – I’m actually considering whipping it up again, just so I can try your version!
Simply marvelous! How I wish I could bite into one of those beautiful slices! Great job!
Well done my friend! isnt it interesting how the Men bakers seem to have braided in and out while the ladies did theirs oh so neatly!! LOL. Great Job though!!
Great job on your braid! It looks wonderful and welcome back!
This looks so delicious!! Need to print it out and make it first thing when I am allowed to eat breads again!!!
Your braid looks great! I wondered how it would taste if I substituted olive oil for all that butter, and it looks and sounds like it was a success!
Nice job with the braiding and interesting take on the filling.
You did a beautiful job on your braid! I agree the olive oil did a gret job in the dough and would be fabulous in a savory version too.
Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go
Great job and too bad for the neighbor. He doesn’t know what he’s missing. Thank you for baking with us 🙂
Your braid looks amazing! The substitutions and slight alterations you made to the recipe sound interesting. You must have a lot of patience to do the extra three turns! Wonderful work!
Nice braid. I don’t know that we would have enjoyed the spice substitution, but its great that you did.
absolutely gorgeous! truly. love the lower fat and cholesterol tips and substitutions. will definately put them to good use. take care.
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