Oh my gosh, you guys have been so patient for this one, thank you. I’m so happy to finally share my vegan sourdough danish recipe with you today! These sweet fruit preserve filled pastries are the perfect treat for Easter. Feed your sourdough starter now to make this versatile dough ahead of time and then shape, fill and bake on Sunday morning.
This is the real deal, old-fashioned method of laminating dough with butter (or vegan butter in our case) to create flaky buttery layers that puff up during baking. You can use this same dough to make vegan croissants. It’s glorious! This dough can be made ahead of time and chilled in the fridge for up to a week before using.
I tried a vegan cream cheese filling before but it wasn’t doing it for me. A simple fruit preserve filling (I like raspberry) is perfect for mini shapes and a larger braided danish. Drizzle these warm vegan sourdough danish with a simple lemon or vanilla glaze and get your cup of coffee or tea (me) ready.
Its hard to describe in words the instructions for cutting the shapes but I made a fun stop-motion video below so you can see and watch how to do it. This recipe is a little more time consuming than usual but it’s worth it for an extra special treat once in a while. It’s not as hard as you may be thinking, just take your time and follow all the steps.
I found the mini shapes bake more evenly than a larger braid, which can tend to over-bake on the outside while the inside hasn’t fully cooked. So if you do make a larger braid watch the browning towards the end and lower the temp even more if the center doesn’t look quite done yet. For this recipe shoot I made half the dough into mini shapes and half into a braid as shown in the photos. You can halve this recipe or just bake 1/2 at a time and save the rest of the dough to bake the following week. Options.
I hope you give these beauties a try and let me know how it goes or if you have any questions please let me know in the comments. I’ll make a instagram story highlight of all my sourdough danish clips for you to reference as well. Happy Easter to those celebrating and happy spring to all of you!
xx Kaity
Vegan Sourdough Danish
Ingredients
- 150 g / 1 cup sourdough starter at 100% hydration fed and active
- 186 g / 3/4 cup non-dairy milk of choice
- 45 g / 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 400 g / 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup / 2 sticks chilled vegan butter of choice
- 1/2 cup fruit preserves of choice
- Vegan "Egg Wash"
- 1/4 cup non-dairy milk of choice
- 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup confectioner's powdered sugar, sifted
- 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Instructions
- Trim 1 tablespoon off each stick of vegan butter to use in the dough and return the sticks to the fridge to stay cold.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cut the 2 tablespoons of vegan butter into the flour and salt to coat the flour with fat until no large pieces remain. This will help produce a more tender dough.
- Whisk sourdough starter, non-dairy milk, maple syrup and vanilla together until evenly combined, about 1 minute.
- Turn stand mixer on low speed with dough hook attachment and slowly add the wet mixture to the flour mixture. Mix until a sticky dough forms, about 1 minute.
- Turn dough out onto a floured surface and form it into a ball. Cover dough with wrap and set aside.
- Cut each stick of butter into 4 slices lengthwise and arrange them into 2 rows on a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper. Cover with a second sheet of parchment paper and lightly pound/roll butter into a solid rectangle using a rolling pin.
- Roll dough out into a long rectangle about the same width as the butter block.
- Place butter block into the center of the dough and fold each short end over butter to meet in the middle.
- Pinch dough seams closed all all sides to form a packet.
- Roll packet out into a long rectangle, until it's doubled in length.
- Fold short ends in to meet at the center. Then fold again in half on the center seam. Loosely wrap dough and chill for 20 minutes.
- After dough has chilled, take it back out and roll and fold as done in steps 10 and 11. Wrap and chill the dough for another 20 minutes.
- Repeat rolling and folding for a third and final time then wrap and chill dough overnight.
- The following morning roll dough out into a long rectangle about 1/4" thick on a lightly floured surface.
- Cut rectangle in half to work with 1 half of dough at a time.
- Trim all uncut sides of dough. Trimming the edges is important for the layers to puff during baking.
- Cut dough into 12 four-inch squares, approximately.
- Form mini danish shapes as shown in the stop-motion video and photos above.
- Repeat cutting and shaping with the second sheet of dough or make one larger braided danish. To make braided danish cut consecutive 1" strips from the long edges inward ending about 1/3 of the way in on each side, leaving the center third of dough uncut. Spread 1/4 cup fruit preserves down the center and fold strips over preserves in a crisscross pattern. Pinch and tuck ends.
- Arrange mini shapes and/or braided danish onto parchment lined baking sheets.
- Whisk vegan "egg-wash" ingredients together in a ramekin then brush the tops of dough. Wait to add fruit preserves to the mini-shapes until after they've proofed.
- Cover danish with tea towels and proof from about 1 hour in a warm humid spot or proofing drawer until dough slightly puffs.
- Towards the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400˚F .
- After mini shapes have proofed, add a small spoonful of fruit preserves to the center of each.
- Brush everything once more with "egg-wash".
- Bake mini shapes at 400˚F for 15-20 minutes until puffed and deep golden brown.
- Bake larger braided danish at 400˚F for 20 minutes then reduce temperature to 375˚F for another 15-20 minutes until puffed and deep golden brown.
- Remove from oven and transfer danishes to cooling racks.
- Whisk lemon glaze ingredients together until smooth and drizzle over warm danish.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Danishes are best eaten the day they are made but leftovers can be covered and kept at room temperature for several days.
Notes
- 100% hydration sourdough stater means a starter that is fed with equal parts by weight of flour and water.
- To make a vanilla glaze, replace lemon juice with milk of your choice and replace the lemon zest with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste.
- This dough can be made ahead and frozen. Defrost in the fridge overnight before proceeding to rolling and shaping.
- I used vegan Earth Balance buttery sticks (not sponsored) to keep these nut-free but there are better tasting vegan butters out there such as Miyoko's Creamery cultured butter (not sponsored) if you can eat nuts.
- I used unsweetened soy milk in this recipe
Lauren T
I am wanting to prep these the night before and have them ready for the morning; when would you suggest starting and stopping the night before?
Thanks!
Kaity Farrell
Thanks for your question, Lauren. The Danish dough can be made ahead of time and kept refrigerated. I haven’t tested shaping and proofing them overnight in the fridge, but I don’t see why that wouldn’t work. I do that with cinnamon buns. Just let them come to room temp in the morning before baking them. Let me know how it goes! xx Kaity
Kaity Farrell
test