Poppyseed Danish Star
Last fall when we were in Germany I picked up a package of Mohn Back. Basically ground poppyseed. I really didn’t have a plan for it but, the hubster loves poppyseeds and I knew I would come up with something.
While surfing the net I came across a Poppyseed Danish Star picture from Backen Mit Spaß. If you are a fan of GBBO you will have sat there in amazement as one of the bakers created a star shaped Danish pastry some years ago. Note to self, make one. I used the recipe I came across as a jumping off point using a Beatrice Ojakangas/Julia Child recipe from Baking with Julia for the Danish pastry and augmented the filling more. The technique was spot on.
So delicious!
Poppyseed Danish Star
Ingredients
Danish Dough
- 72 ml Warm Water (¼ cup) No warmer than 110°
- 2.5 tsp Dry Active Yeast or 1 Packet
- 142 ml Whole Milk (½ cup) Room Temperature
- 1 Egg - Large Room Temperature
- 1 tsp Salt
- 338 grams All-Purpse Flour (2 ½ cups)
- 227 grams Butter - Cold Use the good stuff - European for best flavour
Poppyseed Filling
- 1 Package Dr. Oetker John Fix
- 120 grams Honey
- 40 grams Butter, melted and cooled
- 100 grams Walnuts, toasted and chopped
- 50 grams Citrus Peel
Other
- 1 Egg, large
- 1 tbsp Milk or Cream
Glaze
- 60 gram Icing Sugar
- 2 tbsp Water - plus more if needed
Instructions
Mixing the Dough
- Pour the water into a large bowl and sprinkle the yeast over the top and let stand for a minute
- Add the milk, egg, sugar, and salt and whisk together. Set aside.
- Sift the flour into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Cut the butter into 5 mm slices and drop them into the flour. Pulse 8 or 10 times, until the butter is cut into pieces that are about 5 mm in diameter. Don't over process you want visible pieces here.
- Empty the food processor bowl into the yeast mixture. Combine with a scraper by gently turning over the mixture in the bowl until moistened. Scrap the sides of the bowl down. Again, you don't want to go overboard with the mixing.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. This provides the best flavour.
Rolling and Folding
- Lightly flour a worksurface. Using your palms, pat the dough into a rough square. Roll the square into a 40 cm square. Fold the dough in thirds and turn it so the fold is to your left.
- Roll the dough into a rectangle 25 cm wide by 60 cm long. Fold the rectangle in third again and roll into a 50 cm square. Fold the square in thirds and turn it so the fold is to your left.
- Once more fold the dough into a rectangle 25 cm wide by 60 cm long. Fold in thirds again and chill for at least 30 minutes but no longer than 2 days.
- While doing the folding and rolling, if the dough becomes too warm/unworkable wrap an chill the dough for 30 minutes and resume.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal flat rounds. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
Poppyseed Filling
- In a medium bowl combine the poppyseed mix, honey, butter, walnuts and citrus peel. Mix well and set aside
Forming the Pastry Star
- Lightly flour your pastry board or counter and your rolling pin. Take one of the flat rounds of pastry and place it on the surface and dust lightly with flour.
- Roll the dough out into an even circle.
- The circle size will be dependant on the size of your baking pan. I used a standard 1/4 sheet pan that could accommodate up to a 28 cm circle.
- Using a dinner plate as a template, trim the dough using the edge of the plate as a guide. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured pan and cover with a piece of plastic wrap and chill. Reserve scraps for another use.
- Repeat with the remaining 3 pieces of dough.
- Divide the filling mixture into 4.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place one round of dough on the baking sheet and spread 1/3 of the filling mixture evenly over the dough. Leave a 1 cm edge clear of filling.
- Place another round of pastry on the first layer and spread another 1/3 of the filling mixture leaving the same 1 cm edge clear of filling.
- Repeat with the third pastry round and the rest of the filling.
- Place the final pastry round on top. You will have 4 layers of pastry and 3 layers of filling.
- Press the edges of the pastry together firmly.
- Place a glass or a small bowl in the exact middle of the dough and lightly press down creating a clear round impression. You are marking an area that will not be cut.
- Cut the pastry into 16 pie shaped sections being sure not to cut into the centre marked area. The more precise you are here the better the final pastry will look.
- Take two adjacent pieces, one in each hand, and turn inwards 2 times. The press the two ends together firmly.
- Repeat with the remaining 14 sections.
- Cover the pastry with a kitchen towel and let rise until well puffed, about an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350°
- Whisk the egg and milk or cream together so that there are no specks of yolk visible. Brush the egg mixture over top of the pastry. For best results only glaze the dough parts and not the visible poppyseed parts. This will avoid having the poppyseed filling spread across the dough. The pastry will look better.
- Bake the pastry for about 30 minutes until the pastry is well browned. About 30 minutes.
- Remove the pastry from the oven and get it onto a cooling rack.
- When the pastry comes out of the oven, combine the icing sugar and hot water. You'll want a thicker slurry here rather than a thin one.
- While the pastry is still warm, brush the icing sugar mixture on the. browned areas of the pastry - avoiding the exposed poppyseed filling areas. Let set for a couple of minutes and repeat until you get the look that you want.
- Best eaten the day the pastry is made but will keep for a day or two covered on the counter.
Bakers Notes:
- I’d definitely make this again. Even using another finer textured filling.
- This is the place to use really good quality butter for the bast pastry flavour
