Processor Danish Dough

Asked by MiniTed. Answered on 22nd May 2018

Full question

I've just given Nigella's Processor Danish a try and found a few problems. After processing the butter/flour mix and adding the liquid I placed the bowl in the fridge overnight. I took it out the following morning and allowed to get to room temperature as per the instructions. At this point I found the mix impossible to roll out. It was still the sticky mix that went into the bowl the evening before. It hadn't risen in the fridge and the only way I could proceed was to keep sprinkling it with flour and rolling it around by hand until it became somewhat smoother. I then was able to begin rollling but as I kept rolling to get it to size it still kept sticking to the surface. Folding it was also not very successful. In the end I just gave up with it. What is the answer? How should the dough be when it comes out of the fridge? I'd appreciate any advice as I would really like the try this recipe again. Many thanks.

Our answer

Nigella's Processor Danish Pastry recipe (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS) is a dough that can be used to make both sweet and savoury Danish pastries. The flour, yeast, salt and butter are pulsed in a food processor so that the butter is still in medium-sized chunks, then the mixture is transferred to a bowl and liquid ingredients are added to make a sticky dough. The dough is left in the fridge overnight, or up to 4 days. During this time the yeast should act, causing the dough to rise to 1 1/2-2 times the original volume and become smoother and less sticky.

From the description we suspect that the yeast did not activate. Yeasted dough left in the fridge will rise, just less quickly than in a warm environment. The reasons for the yeast not being active can vary. First you should make sure that the yeast used is within the "best before" date as it becomes less active over time. It is easiest to use the "easy-blend" type of yeast (sometimes known as "instant yeast" or "breadmaker yeast") as this has very fine granules and can be mixed straight into the flour. If you have "dry active yeast" then it needs to be dissolved in the warm water before it is used as the granules are too large to dissolve in the dough. If you are using fresh yeast then you may prefer to dissolve it in the warm water plus a half teaspoon of the sugar and leave it for 5 minutes to make sure that it starts to foam before using it, as fresh yeast is highly perishable and will become inactive if it is not stored correctly and used quickly. Salt can also retard yeast activity, so make sure that you measure the salt carefully using a 5ml measuring teaspoon.