Danish Baking – Custard Crowns (Spandauer)

Step 1

On a lightly floured surface, carefully roll out the dough and cut into 12–14 squares of around 10 x 10 cm each.

Step 2

Place a generous teaspoon of remonce almond paste into the middle of each pastry square, then carefully fold each of the 4 corners in to meet in the middle, using the sticky remonce to hold the corners down. Use your thumb or a fork to secure the pastry. Place the pastries on the prepared baking sheets, then cover with cling film and set aside to rise for 20 minutes.

Step 3

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) Gas 6.

Step 4

Brush the tops of each pastry with a little of the beaten egg mixture. Add a teaspoon of your preferred filling (pastry cream OR jam) into the centre of each square. Lastly, add a sprinkling of chopped toasted hazelnuts to the centre as well.

Step 5

Bake in the preheated oven for around 10–15 minutes or until golden brown, then remove and allow to cool before decorating. You may need to bake these for longer – it really depends on your oven, but they need to be baked through. Please note there is likely to be some butter spillage – keep a tray to catch the spill during baking.

Step 6

To make the icing, mix the icing sugar with
 1–2 tablespoons of hot water, adding more if needed. You are looking for the consistency of runny honey. Fill the piping/pastry bag and pipe a loose spiral of white icing/frosting around the edges of each cooled pastry (too soon and the icing will melt).

Step 7

You can make one batch of pastry dough and make two kinds of pastries – simply half this recipe to 6-7 Custard crowns and use the rest of the dough for your other choice. Please note you must NOT roll up the dough and re-roll out, this will ruin the layers.