Sour Cherry Danish Braid

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 Filling
• Almond Filling
• Danish Pastry Dough

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