A Guide to Danish Pastry — From Vienna to Copenhagen

The Danish pastry — called wienerbrød ("Viennese bread") in Denmark — has a tangled international history. Austrian bakers brought laminated dough techniques to Copenhagen in the 1840s, and Danish bakers refined them into the flaky, buttery pastries the world now calls "Danish."

What Makes a Danish

A Danish pastry is made from a yeasted, laminated dough — similar to croissant dough but with eggs and more sugar. The layers are folded around fillings of custard, fruit, marzipan, or cream cheese, then baked until golden and flaky.

The Copenhagen Schools

Copenhagen's two great Danish pastry traditions are the classic bakery (like Lagkagehuset and Sankt Peders Bageri) and the new wave (Hart Bageri, Juno the Bakery). The classics favour dense, sweet, heavily glazed pastries; the new wave is lighter, less sweet, and more butter-forward.

Spandauer, Kanelsnegl, and Tebirkes

Denmark's essential pastries include the spandauer (custard-filled diamond), kanelsnegl (cinnamon snail), and tebirkes (poppy-seed pastry). None of them taste like the "Danish" you'll find in an American supermarket.