Video: Martha's Basic Homemade Croissant Dough, Part 1. Martha Stewart introduces a program about croissants and prepares a basic croissant dough.

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Perfect lunch or light dinner. I love chicken salad and this is my version. It is easily halved or doubled.

Processor Danish Pastry & Cheese Danishes. Skip to Recipe. You know what I hate?

When I stumble upon this line in a recipe: refrigerate overnight.‘Stumble upon’ being the key here. As in, surprise! Gotcha!

You thought you’d have me in your belly this morning? Ha! Nice try. Let’s reconvene tomorrow, K? This past Sunday I was expecting my Auntie to arrive in the early afternoon. She was making a special trip to help me out with the kids, and I wanted to welcome her with something extra special. Nigella Lawson’s cheese Danishes, a recipe I had spotted in How to Be a Domestic Goddess the night before, sounded ideal for a number of reasons: the pasty is made in the food processor; the filling contains lemon zest and ricotta cheese, two of Auntie’s favorite ingredients; and at one point in the recipe Nigella notes that the cheese Danish is her all- time favorite.

It was the intro to the recipe that got me. Nigella describes the practice of making this sort of pastry dough in the food processor as revolutionary not only because the dough comes together in seconds but also because it produces an authentic Danish pastry.

She even includes a word of encouragement from Beatrice Ojakangas, the Scandinavian chef who taught her the method via Dorie Greenspan: “Don’t think you’re cheating by taking the fast track — this is how it’s done these days all over Denmark.”Fast track. I never suspected the phrase ‘refrigerate overnight’ to be in a ‘fast- track’ recipe. Lesson learned. And truthfully, I should have known better — these sorts of recipes almost always require a lengthy rest period. Or do they? Remember now, Auntie would be arriving around 2 pm.

Perhaps I still had time. Perhaps the true test of the domestic goddess was making croissant- style pastries in one quarter the amount of time? I would have to make a few changes, the first being to give the yeast a little push — instead of processing it with the flour, sugar and salt, I would “bloom” it with the water and milk and a little bit of the sugar. The overnight refrigeration would have to be condensed to two hours, and a 3. And most importantly, under no circumstances would I be allowed to throw a tantrum when the pastry did not behave, bake, or taste as I had hoped. Disposition of a true domestic goddess would foremost be preserved.

When Auntie called to tell me she was passing IKEA — just 2. I placed the Danishes in the oven.

And when Auntie walked through my door, I pulled a tray of beautifully golden, feather- light, lemon- ricotta filled, flaky parcels from my oven. Truly, of all the baking efforts I have made over the years to transform my kitchen into one of my favorite cafes, none has succeeded more than this food processor Danish pastry — it was as if we were dining at 1. Guerrero or 2. 3rd and Lombard or 6. Washington Street. These Danishes are spectacular. Now, do I advise taking this extra- fast- track route?

Day 1. Making the croissant dough We usually do this part in the evening. Combine the dough ingredients and knead for 3 minutes, at low to medium speed, until the. Uncooked croissant dough can also be wrapped around any praline, almond paste, or chocolate before it is baked (in the last case, it becomes like pain au chocolat. Source: Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess. Notes: As noted above, the dough for these Danishes should rest in the fridge overnight. It's easy to succumb to a faux-Cronut addiction. Intrigued by a meta-pastry trend, I've eaten every version of the croissant-doughnut hybrid in Los Angeles that I.

For the sake of keeping stress to a minimum, maybe not. Because what is actually really nice about this recipe is that the dough in fact can be — wait for it — refrigerated overnight.

Croissant Dough Sheets

What’s more, the dough can actually be refrigerated for as long as four days, which means if you were to make the dough today or tomorrow, cheese Danishes could, with little effort, be in your Saturday or Sunday — both even — mornings. It’s a beautiful thing. Planning ahead. Reading instructions. One day I’ll learn. With a food processor, the dough comes together in seconds: It then rests in the fridge overnight or for as long as four days: In the meantime, make the filling, a mixture of ricotta, lemon zest, salt and sugar: Assembling the parcels requires rolling and folding and filling and pinching: The assembled Danishes make one last 1.

This video is not particularly interesting — it’s completely tedious in fact — but I had a couple of comments/questions regarding the rolling out process and how to do it without adding too much flour. I hope this video offers some guidance: Prep. Cook. 25mins. Total. Yield. 8pastries.

Source: Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess. Notes: As noted above, the dough for these Danishes should rest in the fridge overnight. I have included notes below if you need to rush the process along. The Danishes can be made start to finish in as few as 6 hours. Also, three glazes — an egg wash, a clear glaze and a sugar glaze — accompany the recipe. The only one I feel is really necessary is the egg wash, which helps the pastries brown beautifully in just 1.

Finally, day- old pastries reheat quite nicely at 3. F for 1. 0 minutes or so. Ingredientsprocessor danish pastry: 1/4 cup (6. Nigella uses white bread flour** I used active dry and let it stand with the milk and water for about 1. I used homemade bc it’s SO easy and SO delicious)pinch of salt. As I type this, I realized I never added the egg or butter…so perhaps they are optional?

Honestly, before you go through the trouble of melting butter and beating an egg, taste the mixture without it. It is unbelievably delicious, and while the egg and butter probably provide additional flavor and structure, I really don’t think they are critical. Both the baked and unbaked filling tastes divine. Note: You will have a lot of leftover glaze if you are only making 6 pastries, but if you are prompt about putting it back in the fridge, you can save it until you get around to making the remaining six pastries.

Note: I made a half recipe, which was more than enough for 6 pastries, and next time around, I won’t even make this. Seems unnecessary. Note: I skipped this one. I was a little glazed out by this point. Instructionsmake the pastry: If you are using rapid- rise yeast or fresh yeast and have planned ahead such that you know you will be refrigerating the dough over night: Pour the water and milk into a measuring cup and add the egg, beating with a fork to mix. Set aside. If you need to speed up your cheese- danish- making process or want to make sure your yeast is alive and well: Sprinkle yeast over the warm water and milk with a little bit of the sugar (I took 1/2 teaspoon from the 1 tablespoon) and let stand until the mixture starts to foam a little bit. Then, beat egg with a fork until broken up and add to milk- yeast mixture.

Beat mixture with fork again until just combined. Set aside. Place a large bowl near your food processor.

Then put the flour, yeast (if you haven’t mixed it with the milk), salt and sugar in the processor, and give it one quick whizz just to mix. Add the cold slices of butter and process briefly so that the butter is cut up a little. You still want visible chunks of butter about least 1/2 inch in size — about 5 short pulses.

Empty the contents of the food processor into the large bowl, then add in the milk- egg mixture. Use your hands or a rubber spatula to mix the ingredients together, but don’t overdo it: expect to have a gooey mess with some butter lumps pebbling it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, put in the refrigerator, and leave overnight or up to 4 days. Note: If you have “bloomed” your yeast as noted in step 1, you can get away with two hours in the fridge at this step.)To turn the dough into pastry, take it (or half of it — I find it easier to work with half the amount of dough at this step) out of the refrigerator, let it get to room temperature (or don’t if you are pressed for time) and roll the dough out into a 2. Note: Don’t worry too much about inches here — just try to roll the dough out into a large square that is relatively thin.

Also, you will probably need to lightly dust your work surface with flour and add more flour as needed to your rolling pin and board.) Fold the dough square into thirds, like a business letter, turning it afterward so that the closed fold is on your left, like the spine of a book. Roll the dough out again into a large square, repeating the steps above 3 times. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator for 3. Note: If you are pressed for time, skip this 3. Lemon Tart Recipe here.