Peach and Custard Danish Pastry

Peach and Custard Danish Pastry

Last Monday it was Labour Day here in New Zealand and its was our time to have a rest after having a short trip up North in Whangarei so I was a bit lazy in doing some cooking but were hungry and its tea time.  So I desperately looked inside the fridge and try to check what we can readily eat.  To my luck I did not find any but I guess I can make something quick and easy.  I found some left over pastry sheets from the last dish I cooked (Chicken ala King), we have some canned peaches, cream and eggs.  With that I can make some simple Danish pastries!

Danish pastry is a specialty of, you guess right Denmark but it did not originated in Denmark but in Vienna. The origins of this pastry is interesting like other dishes, as it was invented during the 1850’s where Danish bakery workers went into a massive strike which forced owners to hire Austrian bakers who are not familiar with the local recipe, this then forced these Austrian bakers use recipes from their homeland.  Then it became popular, then Danish bakers changed the recipe by adding more fat to it and the rest it history.  It is a simple pastry in which the main ingredients are only flour, yeast, milk, eggs and heaps of butter.  This dough is rolled thinly then coated with butter and process is repeated until your desired thickness is achieved.  Danish pastries are sweet and usually topped with jams, fruits, chocolates or custards.  It also comes in different shapes and sizes.

The dough is a bit laborious to do as you have to roll, apply butter and repeat the process all over again, I havent even mentioned that handling the dough it a bit hard as well and you need to cool it down to do it better.  Thanks to supermarkets this dough is available in  frozen sheets.  Having said that once you have the sheets then doing this would be a breeze, all you need is your topping and 10 minutes of preparation if you want fancy topping and 10 minutes of waiting time.  Well I consumed 20 minutes as my topping is peach and vanilla custard.

Ingredients (Vanilla Custard)

2 egg yolks
100 ml cream
50 ml condensed milk
100 ml water
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients (Danish pastry)

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, each sheet cut into 4 squares
1 large can peaches, slice thinly
vanilla custard
1 egg, beaten

Method (Vanilla Custard)

1. In a sauce pan combine cornstarch and water, mix thouroughly until free of lumps.
2. Add condesed milk, cream, vanilla extract and egg yolks, mix evenly.
3. Place on top of stove using low heat, constantly stirring until it thickens.

Method (Danish Pastry)

1. Preheat oven for 200C.
2. Place cut pastries on greased baking pan then brush edges with beaten eggs.
3. Put a thin layer of vanila custard on the middle, roughly a spoonful.
4. Place peach slices on top of the custard.
5. Place in the oven for 10 minutes.