A Danish Daring Baker Challenge!

This month's challenge was The Danish Braid for us Daring Baker types. Despite the rather long instructions, this wasn't really a difficult task. Oh, I admit that I was nervous. Pastries are definitely not my thing, and I have absolutely zero experience in making them. And I'm not even adept at braiding hair, let alone pastry. But I followed the directions obsessively and all turned out great. Here's a pictoral of my experience in making this breakfast treat...

This is definitely one of those challenges where you're really proud of the outcome (if you have a good outcome, that is!) This Danish Braid turned out to be a tender, flaky, buttery pastry with wonderful caramelized, cinnamony apples cooked inside. I plated this and brought it to the teachers at my son's school for an end-of-the-year breakfast meeting. Suffice to say, they enjoyed it a lot! I snuck a slice for my kiddo, and then I begged for a sampling. He reluctantly gave me a bite. I felt that the orange zest in the dough worked well with the apples, but I look forward to seeing what creative things other Daring Bakers have done to their Danish Braids this month.

Big shout out to our hosts for the challenge: Kelly of Sass & Veracity and Ben of What's Cooking? The Danish Braid recipe can most likely be found on one of their blogs.