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Friday, April 20, 2012

oohh, la la, croissants



I recommend getting a cup of coffee and a snack before you sit down to read this post - it's lengthy and it's guaranteed to make you hungry.

Okay, now that you're ready, let me tell you about my first experience with homemade croissants.  I first came across a recipe for croissants in the January issue of Cook's Illustrated magazine.  I've never actually attempted homemade croissants because quite honestly - I was intimidated by this delicate pastry.  After reading through 3 full pages of instructions, I came to the conclusion that mastering croissants was not going to be easy.  It took a couple of months for me to work up the courage to conquer this recipe but I dreamed of the satisfaction that it would bring if I could pull it off.







Before I even started my homemade croissants, I made a trip to the grocery store to buy European-style butter and high protein flour.  The European butter has a higher fat content and less water and helps to create flakier layers.  King Arthur flour has a high protein content and produces more gluten necessary for croissants.  











The recipe warns that it takes a minimum of 10 hours to prepare the croissants (not including my trip to the store) so I set aside plenty of time.  It was a lengthy process but it was fun, and at times even stress revealing.

Croissants
3 Tablespoons butter
24 Tablespoons European-style butter
1 3/4 cups whole milk
4 teaspoons yeast
4 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cold water






Melt 3 Tablespoons of butter in a saucepan.  Remove from heat and stir in milk.  Whisk in yeast.








Transfer yeast to the bowl of a standing mixer.  Add flour, sugar and 2 teaspoons salt.  Using a dough hook, knead on low speed 2-3 minutes.  Increase speed to medium and knead 1 minute longer.


Remove bowl from mixer, cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Transfer dough to silpat lined baking sheet.  Shape into a 10x17 inch rectangle.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
 





While the dough chills, fold a 24 inch length of parchment paper in half lengthwise to create a 12 inch rectangle.  Trust me - you will need a ruler for this recipe.  Fold over 3 open sides of the rectangle to form an 8 inch square.





Place 24 Tablespoons of butter directly on the counter and beat it with a rolling pin for 60 seconds.  See what I mean about stress releasing?  That was serious fun. 


Fold butter on itself and beat into a 6 inch square.  


Unfold parchment envelope and transfer butter to the center of the parchment.

 
Refold parchment at creases and gently roll until butter fills parchment square.  Refrigerate at least 45 minutes.  Transfer dough to the freezer for 30 minutes.


Transfer dough to a lightly floured counter and roll into a 17 by 8 inch rectangle.  Unwrap butter and place in the center of dough.  (Oh yes, that's a lot of butter!)


Fold sides of dough over butter so they meet in the middle.  Press seam together.  Press ends together with rolling pin.


Roll out lengthwise into a 24 by 8 inch rectangle.


Starting at the bottom of dough, fold into thirds like a letter.

 
Turn dough 90 degrees and repeat rolling and folding.


Place dough on a baking sheet, wrap in plastic wrap and return to freezer for 30 minutes.  Transfer dough to counter and  roll into a 24 by 8 inch rectangle.  Fold into thirds.


Place dough on baking sheet, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours. Transfer dough to freezer for 30 minutes.  Transfer dough to counter and roll into an 18 by 16 inch rectangle.



Fold dough in half lengthwise.











Using a ruler, mark dough at 3 inch intervals along the folded edge.  (You will have 5 marks.)












Starting at the lower edge of dough, measure in 1 1/2 inches and then begin marking on the dough.
Cut dough from bottom marks to top marks forming triangles.  You will end up with 12 triangles.












Unfold each triangle to form a diamond shape.












Cut into triangles. (You will have 22 triangles.)


Cut a 1/2" slit in the center of the short side of the triangle.


Holding triangle by the 2 corners on either side of the slit, start to roll up the croissants.  Gently tuck the end of the croissant underneath and bring the two ends together.


Place croissants on a baking sheet at least 2 1/2 inches apart.  Lightly warp with plastic wrap and let rise 2 1/2 - 3 hours.  You can also refrigerate formed croissants for up to 18 hours or freeze them for up to 2 months.  (Refrigerated croissants take an extra 30 minutes to rise and frozen croissants take an extra 1-2 hours to rise.)  I put mine in the freezer because I didn't want to bake my croissants at 10:00 at night.  The next morning I set out 4 croissants to rise.  (I only planned to make 4 croissants because I wanted to save the others for a special occasion.)


Heat oven to 425.  Whisk together egg, water and a pinch of salt.  Brush croissants with egg wash and place in oven.
 
 
Reduce heat to 400 and bake 12 minutes.  Rotate baking sheet and bake another 8-12 minutes. 


After 10 hours of croissant preparation, to say that my expectations of these pastries was high, is an understatement.  As I pulled the tray out of the oven, the overwhelming smell of buttery dough was captivating.  I quickly slid them to a cooling rack so I could take a quick picture of the warm pastries.


The picture taking got cut short because I just couldn't stand it any longer - I had to take a bite.



There was no need to add butter to these croissants.  They were a perfect balance of rich and buttery goodness with light, flaky, delicate layers of dough.  This was by far the best croissant that I have ever had - it was CRAZY good!  It took less than 2 minutes to eat the entire croissant and then the picture taking resumed. 


I was so glad that I had only defrosted 4 croissants because I don't think I could have stopped myself from eating a whole lot more of these.  I managed to find the will power to save the other 3 croissants for my family.  (Mostly because I had already promised them a sampling.)


I have 18 croissants left in my freezer to save for another day.  I'm not quite sure what occasion I will deem special enough for these labor intensive pastries but you can be sure that it will be soon.  These would be a perfect compliment to any brunch menu.
 

Hungry yet?  Don't say that I didn't warn you.  I was so proud of my very first batch of homemade croissants.  I think I found a new favorite recipe to add to my collection.

Ciao!



Croissants
3 Tablespoons butter
24 Tablespoons European-style butter
1 3/4 cups whole milk
4 teaspoons yeast
4 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cold water


Melt 3 Tablespoons of butter in a saucepan.  Remove from heat and stir in milk.  Whisk in yeast.  Transfer yeast to the bowl of a standing mixer.  Add flour, sugar and 2 teaspoons salt.  Using a dough hook, knead on low speed 2-3 minutes.  Increase speed to medium and knead 1 minute longer.  Remove bowl from mixer, cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Transfer dough to silpat lined baking sheet.  Shape into a 10x17 inch rectangle.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

While the dough chills, fold a 24 inch length of parchment paper in half lengthwise to create a 12 inch rectangle.  Trust me - you will need a ruler for this recipe.  Fold over 3 open sides of the rectangle to form an 8 inch square.

Place 24 Tablespoons of butter directly on the counter and beat with a rolling pin for 60 seconds.  See what I mean about stress releaving?  That was serious fun.  Fold butter on itself and beat into a 6 inch square.  Unfold parchment envelope and transfer butter to the center of the parchment.  Refold parchment at creases and gently roll until butter fills parchment square.  Refrigerate at least 45 minutes.  Transfer dough to the freezer for 30 minutes.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured counter and roll into a 17 by 8 inch rectangle.  Unwrap butter and place in the center of dough.  (Oh yes, that's a lot of butter!)  Fold sides of dough over butter so they meet in the middle.  Press seam together.  Press ends together with rolling pin.  Roll out lengthwise into a 24 by 8 inch rectangle.  Starting at the bottom of dough, fold into thirds like a letter.  Turn dough 90 degrees and repeat rolling and folding.  Place dough on a baking sheet, wrap in plastic wrap and return to freezer for 30 minutes.


Transfer dough to counter and  roll into a 24 by 8 inch rectangle.  Fold into thirds.  Place dough on baking sheet, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours. Transfer dough to freezer for 30 minutes. 


Transfer dough to counter and roll into an 18 by 16 inch rectangle.  Fold dough in half lengthwise.  Using a ruler, mark dough at 3 inch intervals along the folded edge.  (You will have 5 marks.) Starting at the lower edge of dough, measure in 1 1/2 inches and then begin marking on the dough.  Cut dough from bottom marks to top marks forming triangles.  You will end up with 12 triangles.  Unfold each triangle to form a diamond shape.  Cut into triangles. (You will have 22 triangles.)


Cut a 1/2" slit in the center of the short side of the triangle.  Holding triangle by the 2 corners on either side of the slit, start to roll up the croissants.  Gently tuck the end of the croissant underneath and bring the two ends together.


Place croissants on a baking sheet at least 2 1/2 inches apart.  Lightly warp with plastic wrap and let rise 2 1/2 - 3 hours.  You can also refrigerate formed croissants for up to 18 hours or freeze them for up to 2 months.  (Refrigerated croissants take an extra 30 minutes to rise and frozen croissants take an extra 1-2 hours to rise.)



Heat oven to 425.  Whisk together egg, water and a pinch of salt.  Brush croissants with egg wash and place in oven.  Reduce heat to 400 and bake 12 minutes.  Rotate baking sheet and bake another 8-12 minutes. 

















2 comments:

  1. Did you use fresh or dry yeast?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dry. Fleischmann's Bread Machine Instant Yeast to be exact.

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