Danish baking re-uses a lot of the same components for pastry making, fine patisserie and general cakes. Here we have added a few of the main go-to recipes for:
• Pastry cream/custard
• Remonce filling
• Marzipan (for baking)
Pastry cream/custard – Kagecreme
Making your own pastry cream is easy. Use it for anything from filing for cakes to baked in pastries. Use leftover pastry cream heated on top of cakes and crumbles, too.The difference between custard and pastry cream is the amount of starch used (pastry cream is quite a lot thicker). Also, custard if often served runnier and warm, where as pastry cream is usually cold (but can be both). You can thin out pastry cream and heat if you want to use it on crumbles and other desserts.
Servings: 600 to 625 grams
Ingredients
- 500 ml whole milk
- 1 vanilla pod/bean seeds scraped out
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 100 grams caster/superfine sugar
- 30 g cornflour/cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 25 grams butter
Instructions
- In a saucepan, heat the milk with the scraped out seeds from the vanilla pod/bean. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar and add the cornflour. Whisk until well combined.
- When the milk has just reached boiling point, take off the heat and pour one third into the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Once whisked through, pour the egg mixture back into the remaining hot milk. Return to the stove and bring to the boiling point, carefully. Whisk continuously as the mixture thickens, for just under a minute (this will remove the corn flour taste as well as thicken it), then remove from the heat and stir in the salt and butter.
- Pour into a cold bowl and place a sheet of baking parchment on top to prevent the cream from forming a crust as it cools. Refrigerate before using. The mixture will keep well in the refrigerator for a few days.
Remonce almond paste
This is a classic almond-based filling for Danish pastries. It is nearly always baked rather than used raw and is integral to many Nordic cake and pastry recipes. Sometimes, cinnamon, vanilla and dark brown sugar are added (for cinnamon swirls and buns, for example). Remonce is sometimes translated to Lord Mayor’s filling, although I’ve never heard this term used in the UK, so I wonder if this translation perhaps stems from the filling used in Borgmesterkringle – the name meaning ‘Mayor’s Kringle’.
Servings: 300 g
Ingredients
- 100 grams marizpan (minimum 50% almond) – can be bought here
- 100 grams butter slightly softened
- 100 grams icing/confectioners' sugar sifted
Instructions
- Grate the marzipan into a bowl.
- Add the softened butter and icing/confectioners' sugar.
- Whisk everything together until smooth.
- Your remonce paste is now ready to use.
Marzipan (for baking)
I love baking with marzipan – from Kransekage to Mazarin Tart and even Lent Buns, a good 50/50 marzipan has many uses. If you buy marzipan in most UK supermarkets, you will get 25% almond and 75% sugar – but in Scandinavian baking, we use 50% almond for baking and 60% almond for petits fours and finer cakes. This is such a simple way to make marzipan. I use egg white to bind – which means that it won’t keep as long, so make only what you need.
Servings: 400 grams
Ingredients
- 200 grams finely ground almonds (if the grind feels a bit coarse, re-grind it at home a few times in your grinder or processor)
- 100 grams caster/granulated sugar
- 100 grams icing/confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 medium egg white (approx. 30 grams) ideally pasteurized
Instructions
- Blend the ingredients together in a food processor until you have a smooth marzipan.
- Roll the mixture into a log and wrap tightly in clingfilm/plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before using.
