Birkes, Copenhagen Birkes, and Frøsnappere

January 8, 2009

Birkes, ready for breakfast © kvalifood.com

Recipe with video — Birkes and thebirkes/copenhagen birkes are baked in essentially the same way, so I have combined them into one recipe. There are, however, significant differences — for instance, plain birkes has no remonce filling.

Ingredients

Yields 16 pcs

1 portion danish pastry dough folded 3x3 (see the basic recipe)

remonce

50 g sugar
50 g butter, soft
50 g marzipan

egg wash and poppy seeds

1 egg
1 tbsp cream, milk or water
50 g poppy seeds
25 g sesame seeds (for frøsnappere only)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ_wS_8TkX8

Directions

Thebirkes / Copenhagen birkes

Mix the remonce.

Make the danish pastry dough.

Roll the pastry dough into a 16" × 16" (40 cm × 40 cm) sheet, about ¼" (½ cm) thick.

Trim the edges if needed so you have a clean square.

Cut the dough into 2 equal halves.

For each half:

Spread the remonce over 2/3 of the dough, along the long edge.

Fold the 1/3 without remonce over the middle 1/3, then fold the last 1/3 over the other two.

Across the fold, roll it out to a 16–24" (40–60 cm) wide sheet. The width determines how tall and wide your birkes will be. If they are too narrow and tall, they will collapse during baking, as shown in the video. In the video I roll out to 40 cm.

Cut into 6–8 equal pieces.

Let rise for ½–1 hour until doubled in size.

Brush with egg wash and sprinkle on the poppy seeds.

Convection oven: bake at 356°F (180°C) for 20–25 minutes.

Regular oven: bake at 390°F (200°C) for 20–25 minutes.

Frøsnappere

Before cutting into individual pieces — but after spreading the remonce, folding, and rolling out — brush one side of the sheet with egg wash and cover with poppy seeds.

Flip it over, brush the other side, and cover with sesame seeds.

Cut into 16 thin strips and twist each one.

Let rise for one hour before baking.

Plain birkes

For plain birkes, change the danish pastry dough to a croissant dough. It is a small adjustment:

1 tbsp sugar instead of 50 g
1 tsp salt instead of none
250 g (9 oz) rolling butter instead of 375 g (13 oz)
no remonce — this is the biggest difference

Fold each of the two dough halves in 3 layers on the short edge instead of the long.

Cut into 8 pieces, each roughly the size of a bread roll.

Brush, sprinkle with poppy seeds and bake.

Notes

“Birkel” in the Danish original is a made-up word — the verb form of sprinkling birkes (poppy seeds) on pastry.

Thebirkes/copenhagen birkes and frøsnappere are made from exactly the same ingredients. Only the shaping and cutting differ.

Plain birkes are shaped in the same way as thebirkes/copenhagen birkes, just without the remonce, and the dough is slightly saltier and less sweet.