When I first saw this month’s Daring Baker challenge, I have to admit I felt some trepidation. After all, I’d never tried anything as complex as making a gluten-free “Danish Braid,” and to be honest, except for the braid part, I wasn’t quite sure what it was. Was a danish bread like yeast bread? Or was it more like pastry? Should I substitute chebe and hope for the best? It turned out that danish bread is a cross between yeast bread and pastry. According to the challenge, “Danish dough is in the family of butter-laminated or layered doughs.” Puff pastry is the most extreme example of laminated dough, but “danish dough is sweet and is yeast-leavened, however, whereas puff pastry is not.” Our challengers said that while Danish dough wasn’t as difficult as puff pastry, the process of making it was delicate, and it was “a great starting place to begin to learn about laminated doughs in general.” Whew. Well, I sat out the last event due to a schedule conflict, but this recipe sounded appealing, if a little daunting. The trick would just be making it gluten-free. Luckily, the new Daring Bakers site has a forum for alternative bakers (both vegan and/or gluten-free) and I was able to read about the experiments of my peers. Many of their flour combinations sounded promising, but I was most drawn to Jeanine’s millet blend. I don’t do very well with millet, so when testing the recipe I tried one batch with teff flour, and another with quinoa flour. I liked both versions, but the teff is better if you like a brown “nutty” flavor, and the quinoa is better if you like a sweeter brown flour. The quinoa especially complimented the cinnamon apple filling, but ieither one was quite tasty. I was impressed to find the dough quite workable, although the layer of butter (Beurrage) tended too ooze out and make a mess. I rolled it out inside ziploc plastic bags and wrapped it up in saran wrap for chilling sessions, and that helped contain things somewhat. Also, I sprinkled my keynote flour (teff or quinoa) on the buttery parts as I rolled it out and that helped contained things somewhat. I was most excited when I rolled out the dough the last time and found that I had a dough that I could actually braid. It helped that I had rolled it out on parchment paper and was able to keep the dough on the parchment when I put it in the oven.
One of the fun parts of making any danish is deciding on a filling. Really, the possibilities are limitless. Here at our house, we are big fans of a traditional apple filling, and it compliments the cardamom dough so beautifully it was hard to resist. But, since I decided to make this recipe twice (in the interest of science, mind you), I felt that I really ought to experiment the second time around. Don’t get me wrong- I still made half of the second version apple ’cause it’s so darned good. But, I was also inspired by a recent Foodgawk sighting of Tartelette’s Plum and Rosemary Sugar tartelettes to try making half with a plum filling with rosemary sugar sprinkle. It was quite fortuitous really, since the only fruit I had in the house was apple and fresh plum, and I grow my own rosemary on the balcony! I also experimented with the lamination technique. An egg was was nice, although it ended up in extra eggs (No worries, I used them in a late-night omelet for the DH), but I wanted to try the dough sprinkled with seasoned sugar. For the apple danish, I was inspired by my Father-in-Law’s GF Norwegian Christmas Bread Recipe to sprinkle the dough with two parts sugar to one part cinnamon. I sprinkled the plum filling with Tartelette’s rosemary sugar. One note, though- wait until right before you are going to sprinkle the dough with sugar to combine them, as the moisture from the rosemary will cause the sugar to clump up a bit. Also, plums contain a lot of moisture, so you may want to drain them after slicing before using them as filling. I noticed that the plum mixture was fairly liquidy. The apple filling was also rather liquid according to the original recipe, so I added cornstarch and it was perfect.
When I brought the pastry over to DH for taste testing, he was enthused- and then he tasted the melty, sweet apple danish. To my surprise and delight, he loved it, and said he’d give it a “9.5 out of 10″ which is the highest rating he’s ever given out. The combination of cardamom pastry and cinnamon sugar made him think of Christmas, and he was completely enamored with the flaky, light dough. “I wouldn’t know it was gluten-free if you didn’t tell me,” he said, and I was thrilled. At last, a pastry that passed the glutenoid test! Of course, I absolutely loved the decadent and flaky pastry. The plum filling and rosemary sugar was a novel flavor combination, and went well with the pastry, although I might leave out the cardamom in the dough next time. The apple filling with fresh vanilla seeds was absolutely divine, especially with the cinnamon sugar topping and with extra apples.
This treat tastes the best the first day you make it, like most baked goods, but you can also refresh it by putting it in a toaster oven for ten minutes and letting it cool to room temperature the next day or even the third day. You know, almost every month when I see the Daring Baking Challenge I have to ask, “Wow, how am I going to do that with gluten-free flour?” Luckily I’m not on my own anymore, as I have my fellow alternative daring bakers to get suggestions from and learn from. Not only am I learning from my peers, but the recipes themselves turns out to be a huge learning experience. So far I’ve learned how to make a double layer cake, how to make (dairy-free) chocolate cheesecake pops, and how to make a gluten-free braid danish inspired by the best of Viennese cuisine. I can’t wait to see what we learn how to make next month!
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Gluten Free Danish Bread Braid Recipe
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Ingredients
For the dough (Detrempe):
1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast 1/4 cup whole milk (I used milk infused with cardamom and saffron) 1/6 cup sugar Zest of 1/2 orange, finely grated 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/4 vanilla bean, split and scraped 1 large eggs, chilled 1/8 cup fresh orange juice 1/2 cup sweet rice flour 1/2 cup tapioca starch 1/2 cup brown rice flour 2 Tbsp. teff OR quinoa flour 1 tsp xanthan gum 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 teaspoon salt *more teff or quinoa flour for dusting For the butter block (Beurrage) DOUGH BUTTER BLOCK APPLE FILLING Ingredients Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a saut pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes. Then add the apple mixture and saut until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. If youve chosen Fujis, the apples will be caramelized, but have still retained their shape. Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet. After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream topping, for muffins, cheesecake, or other pastries. PLUM ROSEMARY FILLING: 1 tbsp. fresh rosemary, minced DANISH BRAID Cinnamon Sugar Topping: 1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, 1/4 inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet. Cinnamon Sprinkle: Proofing and Baking
Directions
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The German Schnitzer Brau is the best sorghum beer I’ve ever had! It contains Water, Sorghum malt *, Sugar *, Hops *, and Yeast *, and comes in at least two varieties- a golden lemony beer and a regular beer. I tried the lemony beer and it was sweet and wonderful for this hard-cider loving gluten-free girl! We found it at the Reformhaus in Augsburg, so keep your eyes open for it on the shelves!10/10 I wonder if I can 
