Banket--aka Dutch Letters

I made a second (and fabulous) attempt at banket.  My dad used to organize bus trips all over the state and one of his most popular was to the Tulip Festival in Pella, IA which is a big Dutch community.  Pella is home to the Jaarsma bakery, famous for their S-shaped pastries called Dutch Letters - the S is for Sinterklaas aka Santa Clause.  Dad always brought back a couple to enjoy as a family.  It is one of my favorite food memories growing up. 

Last year a co-worker and I got to visiting about Christmas baking and she was describing an almond paste filled pastry called Banket (say Bahn-khett).  Halfway through I blurted out, "Those are Dutch letters!"  She had no idea what I was talking about.  She gave me the recipe from her family friend's blog.  I followed it to the letter and it was good, but it was not the same as my childhood memory.  It called for canned almond filling and the results were delicious but the filling was too loose in my opinion.  The Jaarsma pastry filling was more like putty.  In the meantime, I discovered the Jaarsma bakery had published it's Dutch Letter recipe online and it was almost identical to my friend's recipe other than the filling.  I amalgamated the two recipes and came up with a winner.

This is a rough puff pastry that requires chilling while making the dough.  This is my walk-out (as opposed to walk-IN) cooler--the deck!  I'm chilling both the dough and the almond filling in this picture.

My friend's recipe produced 8 fat logs which were delightful, but not how I remembered the Jaarsma version.  I got several 7 oz. tubes of almond PASTE (vs canned) on clearance last year and threw them in the freezer for a rainy day.  I used 2 tubes of paste and followed the Jaarsma's assembly instructions which makes 20 much skinnier logs.  This was more how I remembered them and they were a big hit at my family Christmas.  I've made similar rough puff pastry for raspberry hand pies that can be assembled, frozen and then later taken straight from the freezer and baked.  My next experiment is to make, shape, and freeze them to test bake them from frozen.  I'll let you know how that turns out.

I baked these as straight logs.  If we're going to call them Dutch Letters, they're lowercase L's!

Dough:
4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 c. cold butter (2 sticks)
1 c. ice water

Combine all dry ingredients and then cut butter in using a pastry blender to make a rough mixture.  Add ice water 1/4 c at a time and mix until it just comes together.  Shape dough into a 15" x 20" rectangle.  Fold in thirds as you would a business letter.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes.  Roll into a 15" x 20" rectangle and again fold in thirds like a business letter.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill again for 20 minutes.  Repeat rolling/folding procedure one more time.  Keep wrapped and chilled until ready to shape pastry.  Make filling.

Filling:
Two 7-oz. tubes of Odense Almond Paste
7/8 c. white sugar
7/8 c. brown sugar
1 egg

Combine all ingredients and mash/knead til putty-like consistency.  Shape into a log and wrap in waxed paper.  Chill until ready to use.

In a small bowl, whisk together 2 egg whites with 2 Tbsp. water.  Set aside.

Remove dough from fridge and cut it into 4 equal pieces.  Work with one portion at a time and keep the rest wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge until ready to use.  Roll each cut piece into a 12.5" x 10" rectangle.  Cut each rectangle into five 2.5" x 10" rectangles.

Cut the filling log into 20 equal slices--this is only a rough guide.  Use one slice per Dutch letter.  Roll into a rope thicker than a pencil but skinnier than a magic marker.

Place a filling rope on one edge of each dough rectangle.  Brush opposite long edge with egg white mixture and starting with filling side, roll up lengthwise as tightly as possible.  Pinch and seal ends and seam as best you can.  Place seam side down on a baking sheet.  Repeat this with the remaining 4 dough rectangles.  Brush shaped Dutch letters with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar.  Bake.

Repeat this entire measuring/cutting/shaping/baking with the remaining 3 pieces of dough for a total of 20 Dutch letters.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Watch very carefully after 10 minutes because they can burn quickly.

These were kind of fiddly, but I've baked things far fiddlier and they were worth every morsel!