If you have been following over the last week you must have known this was coming. Sour Cherry Danish Braid.
I have made this in the past with canned cherry pie filling and it was pretty good. It must be better with home made sour cherry filling.
I used a recipe in Baking with Julia to bring together my previous posts on:
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid |
For this recipe I used:
1/2 Sour Cherry Filling Recipe
1 Almond Filling Recipe
1/2 Danish Pastry Dough Recipe
1 Large Egg - beaten
Pearl Sugar
Blanched Sliced Almonds
For the Glaze:
2 to 3 Teaspoons of Strong Coffee
1/2 Cup Sifted Icing Sugar
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - The Ingredients |
I took the chilled pastry and rolled it out on a well floured surface with my
rolling pin.
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - Danish Dough |
I rolled the dough into a 16" x 10" rectangle placed it on a piece of
parchment paper and used the edge of my ruler to mark the pastry into 1/3's .
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - Rolled Our and Marked |
With a
small pallet knife I spread the almond filling along the middle 1/3 of the pastry making sure the layer was even.
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - The Almond Filling |
With the point of a very sharp paring knife I made angled slices on each side of the almond filling. The slices are about 3/4" of an inch wide and there were about 13 slices on each side.
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - Slicing the Braid Strands |
Next, I spread the sour cherry filling over the almond filling.
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - Adding the Sour Cherries |
The the fun part! I braided the danish by folding over one side slice from each side over one and other until all of the slices were used. for the last slices, I folded the edges under the braid and tucked them in a little. Then I lifted the braid onto a
baking sheet.
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - Braided and Transferred to a Pan |
For a little decoration I brushed the braid with the beaten egg and sprinkled the sliced almonds over the top.
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - Egg Washed and Almonds |
I put a large clean kitchen towel over the whole thing and let it rise in an oven that was warmed to 170˚ F and turned off.
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - The Rise |
After an hour, I removed covered pan from the oven and let the oven heat to 400˚F. When the oven was heated I removed the towel, sprinkled the braid with pearl sugar and put it in the oven to bake for 18 minutes.
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - Risen and Ready for the Oven |
When the braid was nice and golden brown I removed it from the oven and set the tray on a
cooling rack for about 20 minutes.
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - Just out of the Oven |
Then I lifted the braid off the pan with the parchment paper and let it cool on the rack for another 15 minutes.
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - Goodness |
I quickly mixed up the glaze and drizzled it over the whole braid.
 |
| Sour Cherry Danish Braid - Ready to Eat |
This was pretty darned awesome!
Baker's Notes:
- lightly toast the sliced almonds - they don't get dark enough in the oven
- spread a piece of plastic wrap over the braid then a kitchen towel before proofing it, the rising braid stuck to my towel giving the final bake a rough finish
- the glaze was really not needed, especially a coffee one. If you decide to use a glaze you may wish to make it pretty thick
