The ubiquitous pecan danish for your weekend breakfast treat gets even better when it’s all home-baked and fresh. All it takes is some made-in-advance filling.

Those plaited pecan danishes might look complicated, but with ready-made puff pastry and a super easy filling, making them yourself takes no effort at all and you’ll have them ready in no time. And what comes out of your own oven tastes so much better than the factory-made ones. I started making them after I noticed how the ones I bought from the local bakery seemed to get less and less pecans on them… What else did they skimp on, I wondered?

Prepare a good quantity of the filling

Start by toasting the pecans, by scattering about 120 g of them on a tray and put them in an oven at 180°C for about 10 minutes. When done, leave them to cool off. Then simply put a 100 g of pecans with the other filling ingredients in an appliance that can shred nuts. Blend the mixture until it resembles coarse peanut butter. Put the filling in a container and store in the refrigerator until used. This quantity is enough to make about 8 to 10 danishes with. For me that would be four to five weekends worth of danishes.

Assembly time

From the roll of fresh puff pastry, cut a length of about 24 cm, which is half of its total length. Lay it out on your cutting board, and lightly mark it to divide it in three, lengthwise. Now cut into it to make the strips that will form the plaiting (see picture). Using a teaspoon to measure, put little heaps in the center row at each incision. Spread out the filling (1).
Put the first strip over the filling at a slight angle. Make a cut in the middle of the flap with a sharp knife (2). Fold over the next strip, cut it, and continue down the whole length. At the end, cut off the triangle that’s up in the air, and move it to the beginning, to close off the space there (3).
Brush the top of the plaited pastry with a bit of water. Scatter some broken pecans on top of it. Cut with a sharp knife to divide into two danishes, and move on to a baking tray with parchment in it (4).

Baking

Bake in a pre-heated oven of 220°C for 15 to 18 minutes, when the tops should be golden brown. Don’t overbake. Hot out of the oven, put them on a rack and brush with maple syrup to give them a nice shine. Leave to cool on the rack for about 5 minutes.
Takes about 5 minutes to assemble, and 15 to 18 to bake, and you’re ready in under half an hour!