Danish Pastry Day in Sweden Date in the current year: November 22, 2024

A Danish pastry is a variant of multi-layer puff pastry made of laminated yeast-leavened dough. It is similar croissants and other pastries made in the viennoiserie (Viennese) culinary tradition. Viennese-style baked goods began to gain popularity outside of Austria in the late 1830s, when Austrian entrepreneur August Zang opened a Viennese bakery (Boulangerie Viennoise) in Paris. It is believed that the kipferl (crescent-shaped bread rolls) served at Zang’s bakery were the inspiration for the croissant.

A little more than a decade later, Viennese-style pastry made its way to Denmark as a result of a strike by Danish bakery workers in 1850. Faced with a shortage of workers, bakery owners hired bakers from abroad. Among these new hires were several Austrian bakers who brought their pastry recipes and baking techniques to Denmark. When the strike ended, Danish bakers adopted these recipes and adapted them to local tastes and culinary traditions, for example, by increasing the amount of fat and eggs in the dough.

In Denmark, other northern European countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Estonia), France, Italy, and Portugal, the resulting pastry became known as “Viennese bread” or “Viennese pastry”. In most other countries, however, it is typically called Danish pastry, Copenhagen pastry, or even simply danish.

Danish pastry is made from a rich yeast-leavened dough that consists of wheat flour, eggs, milk, sugar, and large amounts of cooking fat (butter or margarine). The dough is prepared using the lamination technique, in which many thin layers of dough are separated by layers of butter. The dough is rolled out, buttered, folded, and rolled several times to create multiple layers; traditional Danish pastry typically has 27 layers.

The dough is then cut into different shapes and baked. The resulting pastry is airy, crispy and flaky, but has a rich and buttery flavor. Danish pastries sold in bakeries in Denmark come in different shapes and sizes. They may be topped with icing, chocolate, granulated sugar, or chopped nuts, and have a variety of fillings, including jam or preserves, custard, remonce (a paste made from softened butter and sugar), and marzipan. In Sweden, Danish pastry also comes in different varieties, but the most popular is the spandauer (a circle with filling in the middle) filled with vanilla custard.

The exact origin of Danish Pastry Day (or Viennese Bread Day, if you prefer the literal translation) in Sweden is unclear, but it does not prevent Swedes from enjoying delicious puff pastry with a cup of coffee. And the best thing about this holiday is that you can celebrate it even if you’re not in Sweden: pick up a couple of danishes from your favorite bakery and indulge yourself because life is too short to resist such delicious temptations.