adventurefood: March 2009

Many people think of a "danish" as a type of iced donut with jelly in the middle, but in Denmark it is known as wienerbrød and they will have many varieties at the local konditori.

In 1850 Danish bakers went on strike, so the bakery owners hired foreign workers from Austria to replace them. The Austrians brought their own recipes, which became very popular, and when the strike ended the pastries continued to be made as "Vienna bread" or wienerbrød.

The base of wienerbrød is a dough rolled with butter in many thin layers making the finished pastry very light and airy. It can be shaped in many different ways and filled with marzipan or preserves or topped with nuts, seeds, or chocolate.

Here are some classic types

clockwise from the top left are:

frøsnapper - a twisted pastry with poppy and sesame seeds
tebirkes - hollow with a smear of marzipan inside and poppy seeds on top
spandauer - with a lemon cream and almond centre
snegle - a spiral pastry topped with chocolate

Other types usually offered at konditori are:

hindbærsnitter - a sweet icing topped pastry filled with raspberry preserve
studenterbrød - a chocolate square with icing and nonpareil (coloured sprinkles)
romkugler - rum flavoured nonpareil crusted truffles
linser - a kind of mini tart
æblesnitter - apple filled turnover with nuts

Every neighbourhood will have a konditori where these and other pastries are available as well as various breads and cakes.

A kringle with a crown on top is the traditional sign of a konditori and dates back to the time of guilds in the 1500's.