Best Dang Danishes

I'm here to tell you how to make a the Best Dand Danishes. These aren't flakey like a croissants or phyllo... they're more like a very soft, very fluffy sweet roll dough. And there very mouth watering. They will be the best Danishes you will ever taste.

Best Dang Danishes- makes 36

2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm milk (110° to 115°)
6 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup cold butte, cubed
1-1/2 cups warm half and half cream or milk (110° to 115°)
6 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 can (21 ounces) cherry pie filling

ICING:
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dash salt
4 to 5 tablespoons half and half cream (or milk)

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in milk.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in butter, using a pastry blender. Stir in cream (or milk) and egg yolks to form a sticky dough. Cover dough and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, divide the dough into quarters. Roll each quarter to an 18×4 inch rectangle and cut into 18 1-inch-wide strips. Twist two strips together and coil into a roll shape. Place on a greased baking sheet. Repeat with remaining strips.

Cover and let rise for 30-45 minutes.

Using the end of a wooden spoon handle, make a 1/2-in.-deep indentation in the center of each roll. Fill each with about 1 tablespoon pie filling.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 14-16 minutes, or until lightly browned.

For icing, beat butter until fluffy and stir in sugar, vanilla, salt, and cream. Drizzle over top of danishes.

To start, dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of warm milk.

While the yeast is percolating away, combine the flor, sugar, and the salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter into chunks and then use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients.

If you have a really big food processor, you could use that to cut the butter in I suppose. T thought I did a pretty thorough job to cutting the butter in, but later on I noticed some large-ish chunks of butter in the dough. So, I suggest being more thorough then you think you need to be.

Next, stir in the yeast mixture, 6 egg yolks, and the warm milk. The recipe called for half and half, but you don't need to use half and half milk is just fine.

It's not like the dinghy was lacking in fat, after all.

Stir it all together until you have a sticky, kind of shaggy dough.

Oh, I should tell you that I didn't put the full amount of flour into the bowl initially. I was worried that it might end up being to much and I wanted some control. I think I put 5 cups in to the bowl and set the remaining cup aside. I ended up only adding about 1/2 of the remaining cup.

Cover the dough, and put it in the fridge to sit overnight.

In the morning, drivide the dough into quarters and roll each quarter out into a rectangle that's about 18x4 inches.

Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 18 strips.

Repeat with the remaining strips and remaining portions of dough. Cover the rolls with a damp tea town and let them rise for 30-45 minutes.

When they've risen, makes little indentation in the middle and spoon about a tablespoon of cherry pie filling into the center. You could use any filling you wanted, I'm sure, but cherry is what I used this time.

Bake the Danishes for 14-16 minutes, or until they're lightly browned.

Remove them form the baking sheet, and let them cool on a wire rack. Drizzle the icing over the top of the rolls.