Croissant Recipes?

Puff Dough

This laminated yeast dough is the version of puff pastry found in France at the boulangerie, or bakery, as opposed the classic puff pastry (see chapter 07. Desserts) made at the pâtisserie or pastry shop.  Sometimes it is sweet, as for a Danish pastry or coffee cake, and sometimes it is not, as for plain croissants or for croissants with a savory filling.  For me this was easier and produced a lighter roll than did the puff pastry.  Though, making this is time consuming, I found the final result well worth the effort and superior to the croissants one finds in the grocery store or even at most bakeries.  As with most yeast doughs, this dough may be retarded by storing it in the refrigerator at any point.

for the dough

2 large eggs plus enough water (or scalded low fat milk cooled to 90°F) to make 2 cups (16.6 oz.,471 g)

1 tspn sugar for unsweetened dough; 1/4 to 1/3 cup (1.8 to 2 oz.) sugar (for sweet dough),.

5 1/2 to 6 cups (23.3 to 25.5 oz., 660 to 723 g) all purpose unbleached flour

2 1/4 tspn (1 envelope, 0.3 oz, 7 g) instant yeast

1/2 cup (1.4 oz. 40 g) nonfat dry milk (omit, if using milk instead of water)

1 tspn (0.2 oz., 6 g) salt (2 tspn if using unsalted butter)

1 tspn. vanilla extract (for sweet dough)

2 Tbs. (1 oz., 28 g) melted butter

for the butter

1 7/8 cup (3 3/4 sticks, 15 oz., 425 g) butter

1/2 cup (2.1 oz., 60 g) unbleached flour

flour for sprinkling

Beat the eggs and water (or milk) and 1 teaspoon of sugar.  Beat in the yeast and 3 cups of flour until all is well blended.  Cover and let stand at room temperature for an hour or so.  In a separate bowl blend the dry milk, the rest of the sugar (sweet dough), the salt, and 2 1/2 cup of flour.  Hold until the yeast mixture has doubled in size.

Blend the 3 3/4 sticks of butter and the 1/2 cup of flour.  Lightly flour a piece of plastic wrap and place the butter mixture on it.  Shape the butter into an 8” x 8” square.  Wrap it and place it into the refrigerator until the dough is ready.

Back to the dough, add the optional vanilla extract (sweet dough) and the melted butter and beat well.  Add in the flour mixture and mix well to form a rough ball, then knead for 8 to 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or knead in an electric mixer, using a dough hook.  After kneading, cover the dough and place it in the refrigerator for an hour.

Rolling & Folding: Remove the dough from the refrigerator and put it on a lightly floured surface.  Gently roll it into a square about 12 inches on a side.  You don't have to be obsessive about the dimensions but be pretty close.

Put the butter square in the center of the dough square but turn it so that the corners of the butter square point toward the sides of the dough square.  Fold the corners of the dough over the butter until they meet in the middle.  Pinch and seal the edges of the dough together.

Turn the square over and tap it gently with your rolling pin or by hand into a rectangular shape.  Make sure everything is still completely, but lightly, floured.  Begin rolling the dough from the center, away from and towards you, into a larger rectangle 20 inches long and 10 inches wide.  Puncture any air bubble with a toothpick.

As you work, keep the dough, the work surface, and the rolling pin well dusted with flour.  Although the dough will absorb some of the flour, it is relatively soft at start, so the dusting flour isn't enough to worry about.

Turn the dough over from time to time.  As you roll, you tend to stretch the top layers more than the bottom.  By turning it over, it becomes more uniformly stretched.

When the dough is the right size, fold the bottom third of the dough up beyond the center and the top third over (like a business letter) and turn the dough package a quarter turn to the right so it looks like a book ready to be opened.  If the dough is still cold and still relaxed, do another rolling and turning as before.  If it begins to feel too soft or wants to resist being rolled, cover it, put it on a small baking sheet, and refrigerate it for 15 minutes or longer (even a day) to chill and relax.

If you've successfully rolled it out and folded it twice, you've completed two turns.  Classic puff pastry gets six; and puffed dough gets four.  Continue refrigerating it after each two turns, or more often if necessary, until four turns are completed.  This will give you 34 or 81 layers of butter, each between a layer of dough, not as many as for the classic puff pastry (pâte feuilletée), but this has yeast to make it rise.

Make a checklist somewhere so you know how many turns or layers you've made.  Pastry chefs commonly put fingerprints in a corner of the pastry to indicate the numbers of turns.  If you try this, be careful you don't break through with your fingernails, since the layers are very thin.

Refrigerate the dough for at least two hours or preferably overnight.  One recipe is adequate for two dozen croissants or two filled coffeecakes.

The croissants found in a bakery shop (boulangerie) in France are made from laminated yeast dough those from a pastry shop (pâtisserie) have no yeast and are called croissants de pâtissier.  Either of them may be plain and shaped into crescents or filled and folded into a rectangle.

one recipe of Puff Dough, (not sweet, see above)

egg wash made from one large egg plus a tablespoon of water.

any filling that is desired, or none

Preheat the oven to 400°F, 205°C.

Cut the chilled puff dough in half.  On a lightly floured surface, roll one half of the dough to a 12” x 18” rectangle.  Trim the edges, using a very sharp knife or a pizza-cutting wheel.  This removes the folded edges that would inhibit the puffing of the dough.  (These edge pieces may be gently rolled up and baked separately.)

Cut the dough into three strips lengthwise, 4” x 18”.  Then cut these strips in half to give six rectangles 4” x 9”.  Make a diagonal cut on each of these rectangles to give a total of twelve triangles.  Make a 1” cut in the 4” base of one of the triangle.  If you desire to fill the croissant, place  a small amount of filling along the base before rolling it.  Pull this base slightly stretching it, and then roll the dough toward the apex.  Tuck the point on the bottom and bend the ends to make a crescent.  Repeat with the other eleven triangles.

Place the croissants on a lightly greased, parchment-lined baking sheet about a half-inch apart.  Cover with a greased plastic sheet, and allow to rise until doubled.

When fully proofed, about 45 to 60 minutes, brush the croissants with the egg wash.  Bake in the 400°F, 205°C oven until deep golden brown, about 20 minutes.  The interior temperature should be 195 to 200°F (91 – 93°C).

Cool the rolls on a wire rack, before eating or storing.

Repeat with the other half of the dough, or make something else, or store it in the refrigerator for later

 (Alternate Shaping.  Cut the dough in half along the length and into thirds across the length.  This gives six squares of about 6” x 6”.  Cut these squares diagonally.  Arrange the triangle with the long side (hypotenuse) toward you.  Cut a half-inch notch in the middle of this side.  Roll this end toward the point, stretching the dough slightly as you go.  Tuck the point under the bottom and push the outside edges toward the center to make the crescent.)

modified from King Arthur Flour, The Baker’s Companion, 2003

I wasn't after a croissant recipe but was interested to read your version.

Want to say thank you for your great detailed discription. What a feat! Shall try it one day soon.

Cheers,

Ingrid

and so I would like to find out once and for all:

What is the equivilent here in Australia?

Is it bread flour or plain flour?

Or am I better off just looking at the protein content? If so, how many % should the flour have?

Thanks,

Ingrid