A Desi Take on the Danish Braid

The June Challenge from the Daring Bakers took me right back to my early days as a novice baker!! Still in high school, I had an insatiable need to experiment with all goods baked. Thumbing through an old Woman & Home magazine, courtesy my grandmother's collection, I found myself fascinated with the very flaky puff pastry. Out came the flour, butter, and rolling pin, and with a some great recipes and enduring love for the puff pastry was formed.

The Daring Bakers recipe for the Danish Braid is simply super. Yet it did set me in a bit of a quandary. I was keen on making a savoury rather than a sweet braid, and I wanted to avoid using the egg and vanilla essence combination as my olfactory sensation is not taking kindly to it!! So here's the alternative recipe I developed.


For the Pastry:
1 sachet yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp onion seeds
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 stick butter
2/3 cup milk

For the Filling:
1 large onion, sliced fine
1 garlic, minced
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 tsp butter
A drop of olive oil


Method:
Prepare the pastry as per the original recipe. For the filling, heat the butter and olive oil in a pan. Add the garlic, and then the onions, reduce the heat to medium, and cook until the onions are delicately caramelised. Now add the mushrooms, turn up the heat and fry, stirring all the time. Once the mushrooms are cooked and there is no water in the pan, add the seasonings. Mix well, remove from heat, and cool.


Prepare the braid, fill, and bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven. Serve warm or cool.

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