So I've been doing great not baking macarons lately, I've been in a dough phase these past few weeks. There's something about making dough that is so relaxing. Especially if you are making a yeast base dough that has to rise, it's like watching something come alive. This week I wanted something bready but delicate so I decided on making some yummy, buttery, flakey croissants. Who doesn't love croissants, I guess if you are on a diet, but i'm not so more croissants for me. I figured I can make a couple of different types. So I decided on your traditional butter croissant, my favorite the almond croissant, and my sister's favorite pain au chocolat, the chocolate croissant. They came out so great.
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| Homemade Butter Croissant |
I think there is no greater thing than fresh buttery croissants coming out of the oven. These croissants have really simple ingredients, they are just so time consuming. These took 3 days to make. I adapted a recipe using the weekend bakery's recipe for their butter croissant and if you are patient, and practice these, you can achieve these too.
Here's what you are going to need.
These measurements are in grams, so it's best if you use a kitchen scale (you can probably get one at most places for 10-15 dollars)
Croissant Dough
- 500 g unbleached all-purpose flour + (extra for dusting)
- 140 g water
- 140 g whole milk (you can take it straight from the fridge)
- 55 g sugar
- 40 g soft unsalted butter
- 11 g instant yeast (if you buy those little packets it's exactly two)
- 12 g salt
Butter layer
- 280g of good quality unsalted butter (that's around 10oz)
Additional items for croissants
- 1 egg + tablespoon of (cream, milk, or water)
- good quality chocolate
- almond paste
- slivered almonds
Ok, I'll break this recipe up in stages because thats how you will make successful croissants.
DAY ONE
Making the dough:
Combine the dough ingredients and knead for 3 minutes, if you are using a stand mixer, attach your dough hook and mix at low to medium speed, until the dough comes together and you’ve reached the stage of low to moderate gluten development. ****you don't want to over mix this like a loaf of bread, when the sides of the bowl are clean stop after 3 minutes***
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| all the dry ingredients |
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| add in the butter and milk and water |
(You do not want too much gluten development because you will struggle with the dough fighting back during laminating.) Your dough should be slightly sticky, think pizza dough
Shape the dough like a disc, not a ball, before you refrigerate it, so it will be easier to roll it into a square shape the following day. Place the disc on a plate, I dust the plate with a little flour and cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge overnight.
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| the dough will be a little sticky (add a tiny bit of flour to the plate) |
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| wrap it up, wrap it up |
DAY TWO
Now you need to make the butter slab.
Cut the cold butter (directly from the fridge) lengthwise and arrange the pieces of butter on parchment paper to form a square of about 6in x 6in.
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| look at this european butter and then my two ounces of american butter (why does it look like that) |
Cover the butter with another layer of parchment paper and with a rolling pin pound and roll the butter out until it’s about 7.5in x 7.5in.
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| take out all of your frustration on the butter |
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| now you have a slab of butter |
Then trim or straighten the edges of the butter and put the trimmings on top of the square. Now pound lightly until you have a final square of 8in x 8in. Wrap in paper and refrigerate the butter slab until needed.
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| that marker is on the opposite side of the parchment by the way |
Take the dough out of the fridge. With a rolling pin roll out the dough disc into a 10in x 10in square. Try to get the square as perfect as possible and with an even thickness.
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| I like to roll the corners first |
Get the slab of butter from the fridge. Place the dough square so one of the sides of the square is facing you and place the butter slab on it with a 45 degree angle to the dough so a point of the butter square is facing you.
Fold a flap of dough over the butter, so the point of the dough reaches the center of the butter. Do the same with the three other flaps.
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| like you are making a yummy butter envelope |
The edges of the dough flaps should slightly overlap to fully enclose the butter. With the palm of your hand lightly press the edges to seal the seams.
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| pat it down |
Now the dough with the sealed in butter needs to be rolled out. With a lightly floured rolling pin start rolling out, on a lightly flour dusted surface, the dough to a rectangle of 10 x 24in.
Start rolling from the center of the dough towards the edges, and not from one side of the dough all the way to the other side. (This helps you to keep the dough at an even thickness. ) Aim at lengthening the dough instead of making it wider and try to keep all edges as straight as possible.
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| keep your dough cold, if it's getting warm pop it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes |
*Be gentle when rolling the dough out. You do not want butter escaping from your dough ( it will mess up your final result)
**also you need to work quickly so the butter won't melt, if you feel your dough is contracting too much you need to pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes and then roll it out some more**
Fold the dough letter style, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour
(you just fold one third of the dough on top of itself and then fold the other side over it, like a letter).
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| you will repeat this process of rolling out and folding and placing in the fridge a total of 3 times. |
So you will repeat this process of rolling the dough and folding it into a letter, then wrapping in plastic wrap and popping it in your fridge for one hour 2 more times. (so for a total of three times)
***Sometimes the dough will resist to get any longer than for example 17 in, stop rolling and pressing the dough, it will only hurt your layers. At any stage when the rolling of the dough gets harder you can cover the dough and let the gluten relax for 10 to 20 minutes in the fridge before continuing.***
This is called lamination, this is what gives your croissants those flaky buttery layers. On the last turn (thats what the folding process is) leave it in your fridge wrapped in plastic wrap over night.
DAY THREE
Take the dough from the fridge. Lightly flour your work surface. Now very gently roll the dough into a long and narrow strip of about 8in x 24 in. (If the dough starts to resist too much or shrink back during this process you can fold it in thirds and give it a rest in the fridge for 10 to 20 minutes before continuing.) *** Do not fight the dough, when the dough refuses to get any longer, rest it in the fridge! It is such a shame to ruin two days of work.***
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| you will get an arm workout from all of the rolling |
Now cut your 8in x 24 in rectangle in half (the width should be 8in and the length should be 12 in)
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| cutting the dough in half makes this a whole lot easier ( and you can freeze the dough if you'd like) |
I like to do this because I don't have counter space to roll this dough out 8in x 48in. Plus it is easier to work with smaller pieces at a time.
The piece of dough you are not working with right now needs to be wrapped and placed in the fridge
Ok take your half dough portion and roll it back out to an 8in x 24in rectangle ( I rolled mine to 8in x 20 in) if you feel like your dough is starting to stick to the counter place it in the fridge for 15-20 mins and roll it back out.
When your dough has reached its intended shape, carefully lift it a few inches to allow it to naturally shrink back from both sides. This way it will not shrink when you cut it.
If your ends of dough are all jaggedy just trim them so you have a nice rectangle shape
So I wanted the base of my croissants to be 4 inches (so just make a little notch every four inches ) you should have four rectangles that are 8 inches by 4 inches and then just cut them diagonally down the middle of each rectangle. Does that make sense. I made 8 triangles as you can see.
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| these are 8in high and the base is 4 inches. I'm having geometry flashbacks |
next cut a small slit at the base of each triangle
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| they look like mini Eiffel towers, so French |
Next starting at the base you just roll the croissant upwards toward the tip. If you are going to fill these with something like an almond paste (couple of tablespoons of almond meal +powdered sugar+ butter+ almond extract) place a small little piece at the base and roll up
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| ready to fill |
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| homemade almond paste |
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| Look at this beautifully rolled croissant |
Now I also made Pain Au Chocolat. These chocolate croissants are normally just in a rectangle shape (not triangular when you roll them)
So I took the second half of dough out of the fridge and rolled it out to 8in x 20in rectangle. Then I cut them into four 8in x 4in rectangles (you see one of those rectangles I cut in half to make two more almond croissants).
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| More measuring |
