Croissants

Croissants has been in my to-do list since I have started baking breads thats almost one and a half years back. But the very thought of hot Chennai weather and the amount of butter that goes into it always eluded me from trying this. But as the saying goes, you need to try everything atleast once 🙂 So here is my version of the buttery, flaky and absolutely delightful croissants. It is a bit time consuming process and its more of how neatly you do it rather than the recipe itself. I would suggest you all to go through various videos on You tube on how to fold the layers, how to shape them etc. I have seen many videos and referred many recipes, but the main inspiration and procedure is from joyofbaking.com

The best way to make these is to start around early afternoon one day and bake it for the next day’s breakfast. You need to give time to the dough to relax and for the butter to remain chilled while we roll and fold. One really needs to have lot of patience and perseverance to do these. And incase you plan to make these beauties, better do it soon, before the temperature soars up making it very difficult to work with such kind of laminated dough. Just to have some mental satisfaction and to reduce my guilt of making such a not so healthy recipe, I have used a small amount of whole wheat flour and have reduced the amount of butter used in the recipe. Most of the recipes use butter and flour in the ratio 1:2, but I have tried to reduce the quantity of butter used and ensured that I do not compromise much on the final outcome. I have used a 240 ml cup.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour 100 gm
• Bread flour 100 gm
• Whole wheat flour 50 gm
• Milk powder 2-3 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Sugar 2 tbsp
• Instant yeast 1/2 tsp
• Butter 1 tbsp
• Lukewarm water around 1 cup
• Chilled butter 100 gm
• Egg yolk 1 (optional)

Method:

• Measure the flour and add it in a big mixing bowl. Now add salt, sugar, instant yeast, milk powder and mix well.
• Rub a tablespoon of butter into the flour mixture and mix it well.
• Add the lukewarm water and knead into a smooth dough. The dough will be a bit sticky, but will eventually come together after kneading.
• Oil a big glass bowl and place the dough into it and cover the bowl with a cling wrap.
• Allow the dough to almost double in size, which may take around an hour.

• Once the dough is double in size, punch it down and roll it into a rectangle of approximately 7 by 12 inches in size. Dust the counter and the top of the dough sufficiently while rolling.

• Dust a baking tray and place the rolled dough onto it and sprinkle some flour on top.

• Place the tray in a big plastic bag and refrigerate it either overnight or for few hours. Due to shortage of time, I refrigerated it for 3-4 hours only.
• Meanwhile measure 100 grams of butter and chill it again.
• Take a parchment paper of approximately 10 by 14 inches in dimension.
• Fold it into half along its length and draw a rectangle (with a pencil) of dimension 6 by 7 inches as shown below.

• Sprinkle the cold butter into the marked rectangular area and fold the sides along the marks of the rectangle. Please spread the butter on the opposite side of where you have drawn the rectangle so that the butter doesn’t come in contact with the lead.

• Roll the butter into the size of the rectangle using a rolling pin. Ensure that the butter is rolled into uniform thickness.

• Now refrigerate the folded parchment paper with the rolled butter till it is firm. If you are short of time, freeze it for few minutes.
• Once the dough is sufficiently relaxed and is chill to handle, take it out of the refrigerator and place it on a dusted counter.
• Take the chilled butter and peel off the parchment paper and place the butter sheet on the rolled dough as shown below. It should be at 3 inches below from the top of the rolled dough.

• The width of the butter sheet and the rolled dough should be same.
• Fold the upper 3 inches of the dough onto the butter sheet and press well. Now fold the lower 3 inches of the dough onto the butter layer so that the entire butter is enveloped between the dough.

• Place the folded dough on a baking tray dusted with flour and keep it again in the plastic bag and refrigerate it for half an hour to an hour.
• Now take the dough out and keep the folded sides on your right and left and roll it from the centre towards the end into 12 inches in length. Remember to dust the counter and the top of the dough.

• Now bring the top one third and fold it towards you and then fold the bottom one third on top of it.

• Once again place it on the baking tray, dust it and refrigerate it in the plastic bag for an hour or so. The first fold is over.

• Once again take the dough and keep the folded side on your left and roll in on the dusted counter to again 12 inches in length.

• Repeat the folding again and refrigerate.
• Once again roll with the folded side on your left and do the third set of folding. Refrigerate again for an hour or so. The three sets of folding is now over. If at any moment, the butter seems to ooze out or the dough becomes loose, refrigerate it for a while.
• Now take the dough and roll it again with the folded side on your left into 12 inches long. At this stage you can place it again in your baking tray which has been dusted and then put it in a big plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.
• The next morning, take the rolled dough out and roll it into around 18 inches long and around 8-9 inches wide.

• Now take a pizza cutter and cut out long triangles with a base of around 3 inches. You can trim the sides for a neater look. No need to throw away these cut outs, just roll them and bake and I assure you that they taste the same 🙂

• Make a small incision at the mid point of the base. Stretch the triangle a bit by holding the tapering vertex of the triangle and slowly roll into a croissant.

• Place it on a baking tray lined with a parchment paper with the end of the roll tucked down.
• Repeat with the other triangles.

• You will get 8-9 good-sized croissants with the above mentioned measurements.
• Beat an egg yolk with a teaspoon of water and apply it over the croissants. Alternatively, you can brush it with fresh cream or milk or butter.

• Allow these to proof for around 40-45 minutes or till they look puffed up and appears wriggly when you move the baking tray.
• Around thirty minutes into the second proofing, preheat the oven at 200 degree Celsius for around 10-12 minutes.
• Bake these croissants ( you can once again apply some egg or milk wash ) for around 10 minutes. Now reduce the temperature to 180 degree Celsius and bake for 10-12 minutes.
• Remove the tray from the oven and enjoy these flaky delights warm 🙂

Notes:

• You can fully use all purpose flour (maida) if you do not have bread flour. I simply used some because I had it at my disposal 🙂
• Try not to reduce the butter to get the real taste of croissants.
• I have used unsalted butter (Aavin brand) for the lamination. Please do not use dalda or margarine.
• Each flour absorbs water differently, so do not add the entire water in one go. Add the cup of water less or more very slowly.
• You can fill chocochips or any other nuts of your choice while shaping the croissants. I have filled a couple with chocochips.
• You can try making these with whole wheat flour, but some classic recipes taste better when made with all purpose flour.
• Try to keep the kitchen temperature minimum and ensure that your counter doesn’t get heated up too much. Keep chilling the dough as and when needed.
• Roll the dough uniformly in one direction. No criss cross rolling please.
• Try to attempt to make these when you have lot of time at your disposal and the weather is not too hot.
• Read and understand the procedure, see a couple of videos on YouTube and then try to make these.
• Lastly, do not forget to share your experience with me. Good luck. Looking forward to seeing lot of responses from all those who desperately wanted the recipe.