Home-Made Danish Dough (Plunderteig)

Danish dough (Plunderteig) is the happy marriage of two other favorites of mine, yeasted dough and pâte feuilletée (puff pastry dough). It is the dough a lot of the famous German pastries are made of, and also croissants. The yeasted dough aspect gives you chewiness, while the puff pastry aspect gives you oh-so-wonderful flaky goodness.

The first time I ever tried to make it, I gave up in frustration. Instead of behaving itself, the dough was sliding around on the butter, the whole thing was ripping every which way and whatever the outcome could be called, Danish dough was not it. The reason? It was me being impatient and not understanding the mechanics of the dough.

This dough IS challenging, but actually not that hard once you understand how things come together. For example, if your kitchen is too hot, you have to give the dough some rest in the refrigerator in order to get the butter to solidify more. If the butter is too cold, it will not spread between the dough layers etc. There are also different “philosophies” as to the first enclosing of the butter, and what I am showing here is the one that worked for me.

The best part: since this dough is actually taste-neutral in that it is not specifically sweet OR savory to start out with, you can turn it into anything you want. I have made nut swirls and ham pockets from the same batch before, and they were both just to die for. Oh, and you can try to use specifically formulated shortenings or margarine to laminate, but a) they do not give you the right flavor and may behave differently, and b) dieting is for sissies – who said you had to eat the whole tray of pastries anyway?

Basic Danish Pastry Dough (Plunderteig)
(Adapted from Wayne Gisslen, “Professional Baking”)

For the butter rectangle:
300 g butter, softened (but not too soft)
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I recommend you prepare the butter rectangle ahead of time: cut the butter into pieces, then arrange them on a sheet of clear wrap to form a rough brick shape. Cover with another sheet of plastic wrap. Start working on it with a rolling pin in both directions, correcting with your hands periodically, until the butter comes together as a flat butter “brick” in a rectangular shape, about 1/2 inch thick. Refrigerate overnight, and take out ahead of time before making the dough so it has time to soften up.

Here it is step by step in pictures:

TIP: This dough works best if the butter has about the consistency of the dough it is worked into – too soft and it will just make the dough slide around, too hard and it will not spread. You know it is about right if you can press down on the center of the rectangle and leave an indent, but still meet some resistance.

For the dough:
100 g water
20 g yeast
75 g bread flour
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Mix the yeast and water in a bowl, then sprinkle the flour on top. Let stand about 15 minutes until the yeast is starting to “work”.

NOTE: bread flour has more gluten than pastry flour – therefore making this dough primarily with bread flour makes it chewier. That said, you have to include about 1/3 of pastry flour to get some “crunch”, too (see below).

40 g sugar
(13 g salt – leave out, if you are using salted butter)
175 g milk
25 g water
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In another bowl, mix the sugar, (salt), milk and water until all the sugar is dissolved.

315 g bread flour
160 g pastry flour
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Sift the flour into the yeast mixture, add the other liquid and knead until it forms a dough and clears the sides of the bowl. Let rise until doubled.

To roll out and fold the dough:

Roll the dough into a rectangle so the edges will comfortably fit diagonally over the butter brick (think “envelope”). Remove the plastic wrap from the butter and place it in the middle of the dough so that a corner of butter points to a corner of dough. Fold each corner of the dough over the butter so it is completely enclosed, whack it down a little bit with your rolling pin, then roll it out into a (rough) rectangle.

Give the dough its first three-fold by folding one short side to the middle, then folding the other on top of it. Make sure to brush off any excess flour before you completely fold up the dough. Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes (in the fridge, if needed), then roll it out into a rectangle again and repeat the folds. Repeat one more time and use the dough as soon as possible to prevent it from drying out.

TIP: If you must leave the dough in the fridge overnight, spray the top with cooking spray and store it in a container with a lid. Before using the dough, give it some time uncovered on the counter in order to soften the butter.

[Printable Recipe]