chocolate almond danish ring
Finally got myself an inexpensive digital camera and would like to show off one of my "creations" which is far from original. I'm sure many of you have made this danish ring. I got this recipe from www.cookscountry.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=3846&bcd=46152. Cooks Country is a great web site, by the way, and would like to know how many of you are members and whether or not you use your membership. They seem to have a gold mine of knowledge with truckloads of practical advice. I'm thinking of signing up.
Anyway, I'm showing pictures of the (1) preparation for the dough where I slather it with the filling, (2) the finished product and (3) the product partially gobbled up. I halved the recipe, and didn't quite succeed with the cutting and the turning upside of each slice, but the recipe gives a step-by-step. I'll try it again one day, and hopefully, get the technique right!
Picture 1: Prepping the dough.
2. Danish ring fresh out of the oven:
3. And now, as it was partially eaten (closer look of slices - as you can see I did not quite do the slices with flying colors!)
Comments
That looks delicious. Is it chocolate filled?
Marni
Yes, it is. The cooks country recipe says semi-sweet chocolate squares but I used cocoa powder mixed in a few tbsp of water as substitute. That filling also has almond paste (I used half a tube only) with confectioner's sugar.
hi ques2008
can you make a recipe of chocolate and and almond paste how is it done?
it's looks delisyoso pretty prepared nice shot....
vincent
Thanks for your message. If you read the recipe, it explains exactly how to mix it with a machine. Since I didn't have a machine, I just did it manually (it took a long time to smoothen it out). What I did was I cut the half a tube of almond paste (marzipan) into tiny pieces and mashed them with a fork, and then blended it with the cocoa powder (mixed in a bit of powder), cream cheese and sugar. I think next time, I will put the filling ingredients into my blender and see if it's better and quicker. I would also reduce the amount of water when I mix it with the cocoa powder. Or better yet, use semi-sweet chocolate recipe squares and NOT substitute!
Hope I answered your question. The shot was taken by an inexpensive Kodak easyshare camera!
thanks for your advice i will bake this maybe next month i will follow your instruction
vincent
the original recipe calls for all purpose flour, but i combined it with cake and pastry flour since this is basically a pastry and not a bread recipe. the cake and pastry flour adds fluff and a softer texture (I think).
I make my own almond paste. It isn't much work, mostly just in de-skinning the almonds. The recipe I use is here.
--Pamela
Could you make almond paste with dry roasted almonds?
BTW, Greenstein has a recipe for almond paste in "Secrets of a Jewish Baker," but it is to make 1 lb of paste, as I recall.
David
Thanks for sharing that info dmsnyder! I'll go and have a look.
Thanks Pamela for the info. That recipe will come in handy, I'm sure. Didn't know we could that ourselves. If we can "ring" manually, I don't see why we can't "paste" manually.
Thanks for sharing.
This is a recipe I use for an almond filling...it's not really considered a paste...though very close to being the same thing! I use it to fill my danish pastries with...like bear claws!
Almond Meal....500gms.
Sugar.....1 cup
Honey......1/4 cup
water....1/3 cup
Boil the water, sugar and 1/4 to make a syrup. Add the Almond Meal and about a 1/4 teaspoon each of Almond Extract and Vanilla Extract...add enough to your taste liking! You can adjust this recipe to make the consistancy you like for the filling.
Wrap in plastic wrap and chill and when ready to use mix 1/4 cup butter into the meal mixture...this helps to keep it from being sticky!
You can use other nut meals...if you can't buy nut meals/flours...you can make your own by grinding the nuts in a food processor until you have a fine nut meal.
Sylvia
Thanks a lot, Sylvia. I'm not sure I've seen almond meal in my local supermarket. I shall check this out.
Recipe should say 1/4 cup honey in the mixing directions...sorry I was in a bit of a hurry writing it out.
That looks really good.
Thanks floyd. I figure, I have learned so much from members here on the fresh loaf, the least i could so was contribute something. I hope to contribute more in the coming days. It took awhile for me to learn how to upload the pics - looks like different sites have different ways of uploading picture. Squidoo for instance uses the html link, while the fresh loaf uses the direct link. Funny, but it is what it is.
This would go perfect this morning with my tea! It looks so delicious!
Sylvia
Yes, it's perfect for breakfast. I used to buy danish rings from our local supermarket and never realized i could do them myself. am glad i found it on cooks country. cooks country also shows how to do the cutting and upside turning for each slice. really neat!
You asked if any of us subscribe. I have for the past year for both. I have also subscribed to Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Martha Stewart Living and have seen the on site Cook's Illustrated on a friend's subscription. IMHO..the best way to go for recipes, product ratings on brand name ingredients(spices, flours, chocolate,etc) cooking equipment is the "Cook's" products, whether Country, or Illustrated. I would pick one or the other, as they offer basically the same recipes and info. The web site has it all, but I tend not to read as much as I would if I can pick it up, kick back and put my feet up.
The "Cook's" products are to me the "Consumer Reports" for home culinary "expert".
Betty
I think you have convinced me. Yes, Cooks looks like they got it all figured out - and their web site is very organized. I think the membership fee is reasonable. I'll have to ask about Canadian subscriptions :)
So nice
I loved it. It looks so yummy and I think That your idea of cocoa powder instead of chocolate is great, I think that if you have used chocolate it would run from the ring during baking.
Thanks dear and very nice pics, we would like to see more pics for your creations.
Chahira
http://chahirakitchen.blogspot.com/
Thanks for your kind words. Actually, the chocolate did run from the ring. I used too much water to melt the cocoa powder. The baking, however, stopped it from "bleeding." I was close to throwing the whole thing and starting all over again :) Glad I didn't (throw it out, that is).