September Daring Bakers' Challenge: Croissants
 
 
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast, bread
Cuisine: french
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • ¼ oz (7 gm) of fresh yeast, or 1¼ teaspoon (6¼ ml/4 gm) of dry-active yeast (about ½ sachet)
  • 3 tablespoons (45 ml) warm water (less than 100°F/38°C)
  • 1 teaspoon (5 ml/4½ gm) sugar
  • 1¾ cups (225 gm/½ lb) of strong plain flour (I used Bread flour)
  • 2 teaspoons (10 ml/9 gm) sugar
  • 1½ teaspoon (7½ ml/9 gm) salt
  • ½ cup (120 ml/¼ pint) milk (I used whole milk)
  • 2 tablespoons (30 ml) tasteless oil (I used generic vegetable oil)
  • ½ cup (120 ml/1 stick/115 gm/¼ lb) chilled, unsalted butter
  • 1 egg whisked with a little milk, for egg wash
Instructions
  1. Mix the yeast, warm water, and first teaspoon of sugar in a small bowl. Leave aside for the yeast and sugar to dissolve and the yeast to foam up a little.
  2. Heat the milk until tepid (either in the microwave or a saucepan), and dissolve in the salt and remaining sugar.
  3. Place the flour in a large bowl.
  4. Add the oil, yeast mixture, and milk mixture to the flour
  5. Mix all the ingredients together using the rubber spatula, just until all the flour is incorporated.
  6. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and let it rest a minute while you wash out the bowl.
  7. Knead the dough eight to ten times only. The best way is as Julia Child does it in the video (see below). It essentially involves smacking the dough on the counter (lots of fun if you are mad at someone) and removing it from the counter using the pastry scraper.
  8. Place the dough back in the bowl, and place the bowl in the plastic bag. (I used a garbage bag- a CLEAN garbage bag)
  9. Leave the bowl at approximately 75°F/24°C for three hours, or until the dough has tripled in size.
  10. After the dough has tripled in size, remove it gently from the bowl, pulling it away from the sides of the bowl with your fingertips.
  11. Place the dough on a lightly floured board or countertop, and roll it into a rectangle about 8 by 14 inches.
  12. Fold the dough rectangle in three, like a letter (fold the top third down, and then the bottom third up)
  13. Place the dough letter back in the bowl, and the bowl back in the plastic bag.
  14. Leave the dough to rise for another 1.5 hours, or until it has doubled in size. This second rise can be done overnight in the fridge.
  15. Place the double-risen dough onto a plate and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Place the plate in the fridge while you prepare the butter. Once the dough has doubled, it’s time to incorporate the butter.
  16. Cut the roll-in butter into pieces, put between two sheets of plastic or wax paper. Use a rolling pin to tap the butter until it's soft enough to roll, roll between the two sheets until it's a 7.5X7.5inch square. Put in fridge.
  17. Remove the dough from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured board or counter. Let it rest for a minute or two.
  18. Roll the dough out until it's double size of the butter sheet, 11X11inch in this case. Tap butter until it's roll-able, and the texture is similar to the dough. Put the butter in the middle of the dough as following, fold up dough and seal the butter. Pay attention to corners and edges, you don't want spots where there's no butter.
  19. Place the butter as shown in the pictures in the post and wrap with dough- how you would probably wrap a gift that size with a wrapping paper the size of the dough. In this case there won't be any overlapping of dough. Remove any extra dough!
  20. Roll out into a 8X24inch rectangle, do your first fold as the letter fold shown above. One thing to keep in mind here: don't trap the dough! Before folding, cut the edge off to expose the layers before folding that side into the crease of the dough, that way there's no "extra trapped dough.
  21. Wrap the dough package in plastic wrap, and put in fridge and rest for 1 hour. Take out dough and repeat the rolling and folding 2 mroe times, which gives 3 folds in total.
  22. It’s now time to cut the dough and shape the croissants.
  23. First, lightly butter your baking sheet so that it is ready.
  24. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it rest for ten minutes on the lightly floured board or counter
  25. Roll the dough out into a 20 by 5 inch rectangle.
  26. Cut the dough into two rectangles (each 10 by 5 inches)
  27. Place one of the rectangles in the fridge, to keep the butter cold.
  28. Roll the second rectangle out until it is 10 by 5 inches.
  29. Cut the rectangle into two squares (each 5 by 5 inches)
  30. Place the other square in the fridge.
  31. The remaining square may have shrunk up a little bit in the meantime. Roll it out again till it is nearly square.
  32. Cut the square diagonally into two triangles
  33. Stretch the triangle out a little, so it is not a right-angle triangle, but more of an isosceles (about 4.5 inches at the base and 9 inch tall)
  34. Starting at the wide end, roll the triangle up towards the point, and curve into a crescent shape.
  35. Place the unbaked croissant on the baking sheet.
  36. Repeat the process with the remaining squares of dough, creating 8 croissants in total.
  37. Mix the egg with a teaspoon of milk.
  38. Spread the egg wash across the tops of the croissants. (first egg wash)
  39. Leave the tray of croissants, covered lightly with plastic wrap, to rise for 3-3.5 hours.
  40. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
  41. Egg wash again.
  42. Bake at 425 for first 10min, and then reduce temperature to 375F and bake for another 15min, or until the tops are browned nicely.
  43. Take the croissants out of the oven, and place them on a rack to cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe by The Novice Housewife at https://novicehousewife.com/2011/09/27/september-daring-bakers-challenge-croissants/