Name: Margo's Amsterdam
Address: Eerste Tuindwarsstraat 2A, Amsterdam, 1015 RV, NL
Telephone: 020 303 1424
Rating: 3.2

Netherlands

Amsterdam

Centrum

Margo's Amsterdam

Wienerbrød is what the Danes call the pastry the rest of the world calls a Danish: a laminated, yeasted dough with butter folded through it in layers, shaped into spirals, squares, combs and crescents, filled with remonce almond paste, vanilla custard, apple or jam, baked until the layers lift and the edges brown, and finished with a thread of icing. The name means Vienna bread, and the standard account is that Austrian bakers brought the laminating technique to Copenhagen during a bakers' strike in the 1850s, where Danish bakers kept it and added more butter and the fillings. It is eaten with coffee in the morning and the afternoon, bought by the piece from a bager, and the shapes have fixed names and fillings: the spandauer with custard or jam in the centre, the kanelsnegl cinnamon spiral, the tebirkes with poppy seeds and remonce, the frøsnapper, and the long rolled kringle cut into slices.

The dough is a yeasted détrempe of flour, milk, egg, sugar and a little cardamom in some bakeries, rested cold, then wrapped around a slab of butter and folded in three turns, giving twenty-seven layers; the butter proportion is higher than in a croissant, around half the weight of the flour, which is why the finished pastry is richer and shorter. Between turns the dough rests in the fridge so the butter stays firm and the layers stay separate. It is rolled to about four millimetres, cut and shaped, filled with remonce, a paste of butter, sugar and ground almond or marzipan, or with a thick vanilla custard, proofed until puffy and brushed with egg. Baking is hot and short, around 200°C for fifteen to twenty minutes, so the layers set before the butter runs; the icing, a thin water glaze or a drizzle of white icing, goes on while the pastry is still warm.

Judge the layers before the filling: a good wienerbrød is tall and open at the cut edge, with dozens of visible leaves, crisp and shattering on the outside and tender within, and tasting first of butter. The filling should be in proportion, set but soft, with the custard tasting of egg and vanilla or the remonce of almond, and the icing a thin line, not a sheet. Mark down a pastry that is flat and bready, which means the butter melted during lamination or the dough was over-proofed, one that is greasy to the touch, a filling that has leaked out and burnt, a custard from powder, a thick coat of sugary icing hiding a dull pastry, and anything bought after midday that has gone soft, since wienerbrød does not keep. It is best within hours of the oven, and a bakery that sells yesterday's as today's should lose a point on that alone.

Wienerbrød

This is the Palestinian Danish version of this bun. There is honey drops on top, some cheese and crunchy bun.

Nothing special for me. Would never try again probably.

Margo's Amsterdam

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