Romantic Raspberry Danish: an Entenmann's Copycat Recipe

It was my parents' anniversary this past week. 20 YEARS!!! That's a really long time!

I wanted to do something nice for them for their anniversary. I decided to make them breakfast, so that they could get up and have a nice meal without having to worry about putting it together themselves (for once!). However, this posed a problem because I actually have to leave for school at 7:00 in the morning, meaning that even if I did find time to make a meal, my parents probably wouldn't be up to eat it!

So I looked for something that I could make ahead and that would still be nice and fresh and tasty in the morning, and that would be special for my parents--that is, though I have several delicious breakfasts in my arsenal, I wanted to surprise them with something new.

Does anyone remember these Entenmann's pastries?

Entenmann's Raspberry Danish

Probably not--but they used to be a breakfast staple in my household when I was little. My dad would pick them up from the grocery store to have as a special treat. Then Entenmann's discontinued them. My family was discussing them wistfully the other day. Lightbulb!

I ended up finding this recipe from Rate. Bake. Create. that looked pretty much exactly like what I was looking for: a pastry dough topped with icing and raspberry jam. I need to give tons of thanks for this recipe because it was the only one I found that had everything I was looking for--it was easy, basic, no cheese impinging upon my raspberry jam, and it was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS.

Plus, it was pretty fun to photograph because of how curious this piece of pastry looked.

Look, it's Santa's sleigh!

An edible sundial!

And here it just looks really really yummy.

Here's the recipe and pictures!

Iced Raspberry Danish

This recipe is guaranteed to become even more of a breakfast staple in my house than the Entenmann's pastry it was modeled after. It's simple and easy to make, but decadently delicious. The slightly sweet, soft pastry combined with the thin icing and sweet jam makes for a gooey, decadent cake. And needless to say, it's even better than the commercial original :) 

Ingredients

Pastry

1 1/2 cups warm milk

2 packets yeast (1 1/2 tbsp)

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter

4 egg yolks

Raspberry jam (I'm going to guess you'll need about a cup) 

Icing

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

3-4 tbsp milk

Instructions

1. Dissolve your yeast in your warm milk. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, and salt) in a large bowl. Cube the cold butter and mix it into the dry ingredients with a fork or pastry cutter. Add the milk/yeast and the egg yolks to the bowl and mix together. Your dough may be slightly sticky; if so, add flour just until a manageable dough forms. Move the dough to a cutting board and knead until smooth. 
2. ALTERNATIVELY: If you have a bread machine, you can make the dough in it! That's what I did. Add the flour, sugar, salt, butter, milk, and eggs to the machine. Add the flour on top. With the tip of a knife, form a well in the flour. Pour the yeast into the well. Process on the "knead" setting, but don't let the dough rise in the machine. 
3. Divide the dough into five equal sections (they don't have to be perfect, unless you really want an immaculate pastry with ruler-straight jam lines). Roll each section into a long, round rope. Lay the ropes side-by-side, lengthwise, in a 10x15 casserole or brownie pan. They should press up against each other. Spoon your raspberry jam into the grooves between the ropes. Add as much (or little) jam as you like! 
4. Let the dough rise a little--maybe 1/2 hour to an hour. Most of the rising actually occurs once you pop the pastry in the oven! While waiting, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
5. Bake your pastry for about 30-40 minutes, until a golden crust forms on top. 
6. While your pastry cools, make the icing by mixing together the powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and milk. Once the danish has cooled completely, drizzle the icing over it using a spoon. 
7. Dig in for a luxurious breakfast treat! 

Here are all the ingredients in my bread machine. My machine warms and mixes the ingredients, so it was no more complicated than dumping everything in the bowl together! Though it would also be very easy to mix the dough by hand or using the dough hook of a mixer. 

My five strips of dough, laid out in the pan.

Don't chintz on that raspberry jam!

My dough after rising, before going in the oven

This thing really poofed up when it went in the oven!

The baked pastry

The finished pastry, complete with icing

What do you guys think: romantic enough for an anniversary breakfast?