Black currant Danish
If I had to name the five most delicious fruit flavors on earth, black currant would without a doubt, be on my list. It’s hard to imagine a flavor more majestic than black currant or cassis. Its mouth watering sweet –tart flavor with hints of violet and its royal color make it an absolute favorite of mine. Add to this it’s amazingly high content of important antioxidants and vitamins and it’s clear to see that black currants are an all around winner.
I have always liked the combination of black currant and almond in desserts and for a while I have been toying how to successfully incorporate black currant into a breakfast item. After several attempts I have finally achieved what I have envisioned, a black currant flavored almond cream, spiraled up in a flakey buttery Danish. To accentuate the black currant flavor even more, I made a black currant glaze which turns a noble amethyst purple. I bet you know exactly what I would be serving for breakfast, if Price stayed the night at our house….
For the Danish featured on the photo I have used my standard Croissant recipe with proper resting periods. Pretty soon I will publish a full article on croissant making.
When selecting almond paste make sure it contains enough almonds-fruit. The recipe below is based on almond paste containing 63% almonds. If using a higher sugar containing product, reduce the sugar in the recipe.
Black currant Frangipane
| 1 lb | (1 lb) | Almond paste (63% almonds) | 480 g |
| ½ Cup | (4 oz) | Extra fine granulated sugar | 120 g |
| 1 Stick | (4 oz) | Unsalted butter | 120 g |
| 5 | (5) | Large Eggs | 5 |
| ½ Cup minus 1 Tbsp | (2 oz) | Pastry or cake flour, sifted | 60 g |
| 1 Cup | (8 oz) | Black currant (Cassis) puree | 240 g |
To avoid stubborn almond paste lumps, follow the directions closely.
- In a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment mix the almond paste and sugar for several minutes.
- Add a small amount of butter and mix until the mixture becomes smooth. Gradually add the remaining butter waiting for previous added amount to be fully incorporated.
- Add eggs one at a time waiting for previous added amount o be incorporated. On low speed incorporate the flour.
- Remove from machine and stir in the black currant puree.
Black currant glaze
| ¼ Cup | (2 oz) | Black currant puree | 60 g |
| 1 ½ Cup | (6 oz) | Powdered sugar (Confectioners) | 180 g |
| 2 Teaspoon | (2 tsp) | Black currant-cassis liquor (optional) | 10 g |
- Using a whisk, whisk the ingredients smooth.
Black Currant is fabulous! This danish was different, and wonderful! Great job!
It’s a good thing that the danish was not at my house. I would seriously grab the whole batch from you. Yum! -Tien
Ooooh wow! That looks REALLY good, Chef Eddy!
Look at those buttery layers! Yum.
Such a beautiful looking danish, I’ll be really interested to see your croissant method. I am about to give croissants and my first attempt ever at laminated dough this weekend, I’m really hoping I have it worked out correctly. I feel very nervous about it.
I have some red currants sitting in my freezer at the moment, so I might give this a try if I manage not to have a complete failure with my croissant dough.
This danish was my introduction to black currants, and I am in love! I’m looking forward to your croissant article so I can give these a go myself! Thank you for this article!
Hi Sarah,
It’s hard not to fall in love with black currants. I will get my croissant article up within a month. All the best and thank you for your comment, Eddy.
Even though I’ve made croissants before, I’m very much looking forward to the post detailing your method. Around here in Portland, even the better bakeries seem to get it wrong. Their croissants are a) absolutely enormous and b) have a tough glass-like shell that is very unpleasant. I’d much rather have a smaller one that has the proper texture and crumb and flavor, thank you very much.
Your Black Currant Danish is a thing of beauty – very inspiring!
WOW.. This is the one that I ate. UH-Oh.. My favorite treat…
Hi Chef Eddy, I have tried this recipe and it was great. I was curious if you had a good croissant recipe.
Bruce,
Yes I do, however the recipe is in On Baking ( page 306) and I cannot feature the published recipe on this site. However, I will publish sometime soon on this site, another recipe which I believe is fantastic. If you are using a recipe for croissants that you currently like, remember one thing which is superbly important is chilling the dough well before adding the fold in butter and between the folds.
Really delicious! The Scandinavians are very good bakers. What’s also fantastic is the wienerbrød dough, it’s very airy and fun to make. With that dough you can make for instance Spandauer with an apricot filling, incredibly good especially when you eat them the same day.
I have an excellent Swedish recipe of an walnut or hazelnut tart without flour or butter, but with chopped cream and chocolate on top. Really an evergreen (recipe from my Swedish mother), if you are interested I can send you the recipe.
Marijke, Yum all those things sound delicious!
Eddy
Hello Chef Eddy,
Here’s the recipe of the Swedish Schwarzwaldtårta, it’s fantastic as it is but I suppose you can make it even more sophisticated. Greetings from The Netherlands, Marijke
3 dl hazelnuts (brown skin on) or walnuts
4 egg whites (big eggs 3 whites)
almost 3 dl caster sugar
cream with vanilla sugar, preferably Dutch cream or a very cold alternative cream
tablet of dark chocolate
Preheat the oven to 150° C
Grind the hazeluts in the magimix evenly fine. Mix with the sugar in a large bowl.
Beat the egg whites stiff in another bowl.
Mix the whites with the nuts/sugar very carefully with a spatula.
Put a slice of baking paper on your oven plate. Divide the mixture evenly on the baking paper in a circle of ± 25 cm. and with a height of 1,5 cm.
Bake for about 15-20 min. The top of the tart should have the colour of biscuits. If the tart stays in too long it will be as hard as stone, so take care.
Take the whole ovenplate out of the oven (you should have prepared room on your worktop for the warm oven plate…).
Take a dinnerplate and put it on the tart. Now take the baking paper together with the dinnerplate, turn and place the dinnerplate on the worktop. Take the paper off carefully (if the tart breaks a bit, no problem, push it back gently).
So the tart is now up side down on the dinnerplate. Let is cool.
Beat the cream with some sugar stiff and put evenly on the tart, be generous!
It should not be too tidy but a bit fluffy.
Take the chocolate and a small sharp knife. Cut small pieces and spread generously over the cream.
You can make several tarts and pile them up with whipped cream in between the layers.
It´s possible to freeze the tart (without the cream and chocolate).
Thanks to: Britt Ekelundh
Marijke, WOW! I will try this out for sure. Thank you very much for this! Make sure you let me know if you need anything from this side of the Atlantic!
Many sincere thanks
Eddy.
Hi chef! I would like to ask about pastes. I am searching about almond pastes and there are a lot of recipes. Others say that almond paste is simply roasted almonds with sugar blended to a paste while others say it is a mixture with syrup or egg whites. I also searched in <> but there is not any reference. I also want to make san diegos from on baking and i am not sure what hazelnut and almond paste i should use! Thanks a lot!
Hi!
The best type of almond paste to use contains about 65-68% almonds. If you are in the United States I would check the website from American Almond, I believe they sell it via the site. About the hazelnut paste. Here you are looking for one which is made from 50% hazelnuts and 50% caramelized sugar. You really need specialized machinery to make it properly yourself. It is most often named “Praline”
I may test to see if I can develop a recipe that will work in a food processor.
Thank you for your question and all the best with your baking!
Eddy.
This is heaven for breakfast! I love black currants as well but im not a huge fan of almonds, so could you replace that with something else?
You know Chef I too love black currants and when I vacationed in Holland we had them daily in a bowl at every meal. Can’t wait to try this recipe out. One thing I love to make twinnnings black currant tea I add ice and lemon. Very good and refreshing.
Your danish, a hot cup off coffee and a glass of fresh squeezed OJ…. I am content.
That looks great chef Eddy. Nicely done. Im going to have to try that for breakfast one day.
That look soo very good Chef
These look very good.
The first time I heard about Black Currant was when my soon to be brother in law brought Black Currant tea back from Sir Lanka. It was strong and had a great flavor, I can’t imagine what it taste like in a danish. Will have to try it.
These look amazing! I love black currant, I feel that it should be use more often in desserts.
This looks delicious! It makes me want breakfast! Would red currant be just as good?
I made a red currant jam before and had kind of a sour bite to it, could I use red currants as well? And what the difference between the two?
i have made danish, but not with the black currant. i will try it. im sure i will enjoy it. thanks for introducing the black currant in class. it is a wonderful fruit.
What a super breakfast pastry to go with coffee. I love to unravel the pastry and relish in each piece, simple but so complex.
This recipe looks delicious. I like how the flavor is in the Frangipane inside as well as the glaze on the outside. I’m adding this to my repertoire.