Multicultural Danish Braid

In case you haven't noticed the Danish Braids taking over the Internet, today is post day for the latest Daring Baker's Challenge, Danish Braid. This month's challenge is hosted by Kelly of Sass and Veracity and Ben of What's Cooking. The definitely challenging part of this challenge was learning how to make a laminated dough. This is the same type of dough as croissants are made of. I saw Jacques Pepin make this dough on PBS years ago and have been afraid of it ever since. In fact, I procrastinated so bad on making it that I just finished at 12:45 this morning.

I should not have been so afraid. The dough was nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be. I followed the directions (posted on the host blogs) carefully and ended up with a nice flaky and delicious dough. But why do I call it multicultural? Because my filling was inspired by the Orange Chocolate Baklava in the book Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate by Robert Steinberg and John Scharffenberger. The orange flavoring really comes out. I used Lindt 70% chocolate only because I didn't have time, or the forethought, to drive to the next county to get some yummy Scharffenberger chocolate.

And oh yeah I'll be making this again.

Make sure to check out the rest of the Daring Bakers and their yummy braids!

Orange Chocolate Filling

1 cup unblanched whole almonds, lightly toasted

1 cup walnuts lightly toasted

6 oz. 70% bittersweet chocolate

4 oz. chopped dates

zest of 1 orange

Place nuts in food processor and pulse to chop very small. Add orange zest, chocolate, and dates and process until crumbly in texture.

This makes enough filling for 2 Danish Braids.