apple danish

This weekend, I tackled a longtime baking fear of mine -- laminated dough. Ever since I watched Julia Child make puff pastry on one of her shows (I was so traumatized I couldn't retain that information), I thought -- "that is something I will never, ever, make."

Making laminating dough involves alternating layer upon layer of dough and butter. Puff pastry, probably the most well-known laminated dough, apparently has 729 layers. My laminated dough had just 81. (I still can't imagine ever making puff pastry.)

One of the end results of my dough production were these apple danishes. I sprinkled cinnamon sugar on the dough before I coiled them into the classic danish shape. I also filled them with an homemade apple filling -- I wasn't thrilled with it, but I thought it would cook down more in the oven (it didn't). I didn't glaze them with the traditional confectioners' sugar/water glaze because I was still out of confectioners'. As a result they are barely sweet, which is actually kind of nice. Although I wished they had browned more, the pastry is flaky as promised, and they still really, really good. And what's more, they taste better the day after.