Now that finally science is popular, there is a new saying
making the rounds: Everything has a reason and the reason is generally physics.
Well maybe a little chemistry too. The original recipe has been running as Overnight
Cherry Danishes. Calling these overnight may have been a mistake. I kept
looking at the recipe year after year, mostly in cherry season, and thinking that
they must be laborious, when in fact they aren't. The recipe is quite brilliant
actually. And it’s all science folks, at least the reason why it works, even
though it may have evolved by pure accident, for some random reason nobody knows or remembers. It had to be evolution pure and simple. The dough
rests in the fridge over night, that is quite true, but what’s so remarkable
about it is the minimal effort required to turn it into danishes!
You have seen something similar before, bakeries sell them
with a wide variety of pie fillings and call them danishes, but they are more
like very soft, very fluffy sweet rolls. These however were more aptly called
danishes, in this part I have to agree with the title, these are definitely more
like danishes than sweet rolls.
Commercial pie fillings make them even less complicated to
make. Plus they will be brighter, thanks to red food coloring. Sorry I couldn't
resist that. So despite what you may think this recipe makes a great weekend
brunch item for the working stiff. All you need is one small and one medium
sized bowl and a couple of cookie sheets. Literally just throw the ingredient
into a bowl, mix it up and place it in the fridge for the night and next
morning roll it, let it rise, spoon some pie filling on top and bake. The
drizzled icing is superfluous, not really needed, even though it could delight
a child, so yes it’s included as in the original recipe. Very nice from Taste of Home.
EASY CHERRY DANISHES
Danish:
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
6 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1 cup cold butter, cubed
1-1/2 cups lukewarm half-and-half cream
6 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 cup homemade cherry pie filling or 1 can cherry pie filling
Icing:
2 Tbsp soft butter
3 cups icing sugar
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
dash of salt
4 to 5 Tbsp half-and-half cream
- In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in milk.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.
- Cut in butter, using a pastry blender.
- Stir in cream and egg yolks to form sticky dough.
- Cover dough and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, divide the dough into quarters.
- Roll each quarter to an 18×4 inch rectangle and cut into 18 1-inch-wide strips.
- Twist two strips together and coil into a roll shape.
- Place on two parchment lined baking sheets.
- Repeat with remaining strips.
- Cover and let rise for 30-45 minutes.
- Using the end of a wooden spoon handle, make a 1/2-in.-deep indentation in the center of each roll. Fill each with about 1 tablespoon pie filling.
- Bake the danishes in a preheated 350F oven for 14-16 minutes, or until lightly browned.
- For icing, beat butter until fluffy and stir in sugar, vanilla, salt, and cream.
- Drizzle over top of danishes.
- Recipe makes 3 dozen, I cut it in half and made 16 small danish.
