Danish Pastry Dough

Ingredients

• 225 ml milk
• 1 large egg
• 350g white bread flour
• 1.5 tsp dried yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 25g sugar
• 200g unsalted butter, very cold, cut into 1/2 cm slices

Method

1. Mix milk and egg together and set aside.
2. Get out a large bowl, that will fit in the fridge
3. Put flour, yeast, sugar and salt in food processor, and process briefly just to mix.
4. Add the cold slices of butter and process briefly, so that it is cut up just a little. Chunks of butter will still be visible.
5. Empty contents of food processor into the large bowl, add the milk mixture and fold the ingredients together with a rubber spatula. It doesn't need to be over mixed. You end up with a gooey mess.
6. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and put in the fridge overnight. You can leave it for up to four days.
7. To turn it into pastry, turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and roll into a rectangle about 10cm by 30cm. Fold into thirds (10cm by 10cm) and give it a 90 turn to the left. Repeat the roll, fold, turn three times more.

The dough is now ready to use. We usually divide into two pieces at this point and freeze both halves. If you decide to use it straight away put it back in the fridge for about 30 mins to chill again, this makes it easier to roll.
As well as Danish pastries, this dough is good for Schnecken and Tarte Tatin.