My last few Daring Bakers challenge posts have been tales of woe—crushed cakes, broken batards, etc. But I am happy to report that this most recent challenge, one of my first forays into pastry, went exceptionally well!

The Danish Braid recipe from Sherry Yard’s The Secrets of Baking, chosen by Kelly of Sass & Veracity and Ben of What’s Cookin’? was a laminated yeast pastry, meaning that it had yeast and needed to rise, but also that it has alternating layers—in this case, of dough and lots and lots of butter.

I was lucky that I happened to be at my parent’s house in Philadelphia when I worked on the challenge, which meant I had a stand mixer at my disposal. The dough came together in a snap, and then I mixed up the butter block—two sticks of butter with a 1/4 cup of flour.

The dough was rolled out into a large sheet, two thirds covered with the butter, and folded into thirds. To distribute the butter through the flour and create the layers that would make the pastry puff, the dough was rolled out and turned five more times, before being cut and filled with caramelized apples. The braiding is surprisingly simple, just left over right, and makes the pastry look so impressive.

I guess there was one woeful part of the tale. I finished the pastry the night before I had my wisdom teeth removed, which meant that I couldn’t actually taste it fresh out of the oven. But it was soft enough for me to have a piece two days later, and still delicious.

The recipe made enough dough for two braids, and I froze half for later. Any suggestions for other fillings?