Quick Danish Pastry from Nick Malgieri's Bake!

Last week, I had the, um, pleasure of spending two full days indoors with my children, ages five and twenty-one months. School was canceled, the roads were a mess, and our mailbox got demolished by a careless snowplow driver.

As I shoveled out the driveway, I thought to myself, "This is no way to live." Did we move to Philadelphia or Pittsburgh? Why did I ever think it was a good idea to escape leave Orange County when I was eighteen? I could be blonde and having fun in the sun right now.

My older child went out to frolick in the snow here and there, but the baby wasn't having any of it. "Cold! Cold!" he says. You hit the nail on the head, baby. Enough with the cold, please. Even a solid 40 degree day or two would be a pleasant change from snow, cold, and more snow.

So what do you do with endless hours of unoccupied time? Well, after shoveling out the driveway (note to self: learn to use the snow-thrower already), I'd like to say that I cleaned my house top to bottom and helped the children construct some sort of labor-intensive art project. (We did make Jell-O playdough; I figured that was my crafty mama moment of the month.)

Instead, I made...Danish pastry! My first ever, and oh my was it good. This Nick Malgieri fellow can teach you a few tricks, I tell you.

I bought Bake! by Nick Malgieri a couple of weeks ago, and for some reason the two Danish pastry recipes caught my eye. I had bought some Lurpak Danish butter, for authentic flavor (I suppose). It was also my husband's birthday week, and I knew his grandmother had made some excellent Danish pastry in her time, so why not surprise him with some? I chose the Quick Danish Pastry recipe. It's not really quick, as there are rising times involved, but it is easy enough if you follow directions to the letter.

Some of the gals doing the Modern Baker bakethrough mentioned that they might be doing Danish over the weekend, and invited me to join along (thanks, Kayte and Margaret). But Wednesday and Thursday became my long, lazy weekend. I knew I had to go for it while I had a chance.

I was in complete shock that the shaggy mess in my food processor became a neatly folded pallet of buttery dough, but lo and behold, it did:

And suddenly, I had Danish Cheese Pockets:

My only omission was the water icing. I used a touch too much vanilla extract in my icing, rendering it a muddy tan instead of pure white. So I skipped it, and we ate them anyway.

Perhaps you've never thought about making your own Danish. Maybe you've always wanted to try it. I guarantee that if you pick up a copy of Bake! and wait for a snow day, you'll be enjoying amazingly flaky pastry in no time at all. Really, I'm very impressed with myself for a first-time effort. Thank you, Nick Malgieri!