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One time, four years ago, I attempted to make croissants. While they looked very cute, they were as hard as rocks and had to be steeped in tea before eating. Obviously, this put me off making them for a while.
Since I have finally figured out how to use dry active yeast successfully (see the bread & pizza base recipes), I decided to give croissants another go. And....SUCCESS! They were soft and still crisp and flaky and delicious and Snigdha had goosebumps when she ate them.
Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the process, but there are several videos on YouTube of how the process goes. It's long and tedious but not too difficult. I've re-used some pictures from earlier recipes to show the making of the dough.
The major issue I faced was the measurement of the ingredients. This differs in every recipe I've seen, and when we're talking about limited resources and hotter weather like India, this becomes a problem. So after trying two different recipes, I offer my own, simpler version. Because regular butter has been used, no salt is required.
Ingredients:
Plain flour (maida) – 3 1/2 cups or 450g, plus extra for dusting
Milk – 1/4 cup or about 80 ml
Oil – 2 tbsp
Water – 1 cup or about 240 ml
Active dry yeast – 1 tsp
Sugar – 4 tbsp
Cold butter – 300g
For the egg wash/glaze (optional but recommended):
1 small egg
2 tsp milk
Recipe:
- Heat the water but do not bring to a boil. It should be warm but not very hot. Add 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp yeast. Stir and leave aside until the yeast is activated and bubbly, which is about 15 minutes.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, oil and the remaining sugar. Pour the milk and yeast mixture and stir well. This will eventually become a ball of dough. Knead until smooth, adding flour or milk if necessary.
- Cover the bowl with a wet cloth or plastic wrap and leave for 2 hours. The dough should have doubled by this point.
- Gently deflate the dough and keep in the fridge to chill for half an hour.
(Now this is the part where I really should have taken pictures. YouTube this part please!)
- Usually recipes say to pound the butter into a thin sheet, but you can slice the cold butter with a knife or slicer. The butter slices should be about half a centimetre in thickness. Once you have your butter slices, keep them back in the fridge to chill.
- Place the cold dough on a floured surface and roll into a rectangular shape. I wasn't very fussy with the dimensions of the rectangle but the length was about twice the breadth. The thickness of the fully rolled dough should be about one centimetre.
- Take the cold butter slices and evenly cover 2/3 of the rolled dough with them. Leave an inch gap from the edges. The butter should be equally distributed.
- Fold the uncovered third over the middle third of the dough, and fold those over the remaining third of the dough (like you would fold a letter to fit into an envelope). Remember this step because this has to be repeated twice more.
- Cover this with a wet cloth and refrigerate for half an hour. The dough will keep rising throughout.
- Place the dough on a floured surface horizontally (ie the longer side should be perpendicular to you) and roll into a rectangle again. Repeat the folding step. And repeat the roll and fold again.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for over 4 hours, preferably overnight. The longer you leave the dough, the better. We haven't verified this ourselves yet, but will let you know.
- Cut the dough into half. Keep one half in the fridge to keep it cold. Take the other half and roll it into a rectangle, about one cm in thickness. Using a knife and a ruler if necessary, cut triangles out of the dough as shown (yes, I made the diagram in Paint).
- Cut notches into the base of each triangle (as shown). Take each triangle, gently pull the two points of the base away from each other and roll inwards towards the top of the triangle. Here is your croissant shape! Do this with all of them and place on a baking tray with the tip facing down (so it doesn't unravel). No need to grease the tray.
- Leave the croissants to rise for minimum one hour. The dough is cold at this point so this rise will help it come to room temperature and sort of 'wake up'.
- Make the egg wash by whisking the egg and milk together. Just before baking, brush this onto the croissants. This is not an essential step but is needed for the shiny look.
- Preheat the oven for 5 minutes at 180ºC or 350F. Bake for 20 minutes or until the croissants are golden brown.
- Repeat with the remaining dough or make pain au chocolat (cut into rectangles instead of triangles, and place chocolate inside before rolling) and other Danish pastries.
- Enjoy warm!
Tips:
- If you do not want to use the egg wash, I think using butter on top after baking should work. Haven't tried it though.
- Croissants can be stuffed with chocolate, cheese, custard, jam, etc. For sandwich type fillings, use the whole dough instead of half and make larger sized croissants.
- You can freeze some for later; just wrap individual croissants in plastic wrap after they have cooled down, and store in the freezer. When you wish to eat them, remove the wrap and heat in the oven (NOT microwave) for 10 minutes.
- Usually recipes say to pound the butter into a thin sheet, but you can slice the cold butter with a knife or slicer. The butter slices should be about half a centimetre in thickness. Once you have your butter slices, keep them back in the fridge to chill.
- Place the cold dough on a floured surface and roll into a rectangular shape. I wasn't very fussy with the dimensions of the rectangle but the length was about twice the breadth. The thickness of the fully rolled dough should be about one centimetre.
- Take the cold butter slices and evenly cover 2/3 of the rolled dough with them. Leave an inch gap from the edges. The butter should be equally distributed.
- Fold the uncovered third over the middle third of the dough, and fold those over the remaining third of the dough (like you would fold a letter to fit into an envelope). Remember this step because this has to be repeated twice more.
- Cover this with a wet cloth and refrigerate for half an hour. The dough will keep rising throughout.
- Place the dough on a floured surface horizontally (ie the longer side should be perpendicular to you) and roll into a rectangle again. Repeat the folding step. And repeat the roll and fold again.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for over 4 hours, preferably overnight. The longer you leave the dough, the better. We haven't verified this ourselves yet, but will let you know.
- Cut the dough into half. Keep one half in the fridge to keep it cold. Take the other half and roll it into a rectangle, about one cm in thickness. Using a knife and a ruler if necessary, cut triangles out of the dough as shown (yes, I made the diagram in Paint).
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| The black lines are the triangle cuts, the white lines are the notches when rolling. |
- Cut notches into the base of each triangle (as shown). Take each triangle, gently pull the two points of the base away from each other and roll inwards towards the top of the triangle. Here is your croissant shape! Do this with all of them and place on a baking tray with the tip facing down (so it doesn't unravel). No need to grease the tray.
- Leave the croissants to rise for minimum one hour. The dough is cold at this point so this rise will help it come to room temperature and sort of 'wake up'.
- Make the egg wash by whisking the egg and milk together. Just before baking, brush this onto the croissants. This is not an essential step but is needed for the shiny look.
- Preheat the oven for 5 minutes at 180ºC or 350F. Bake for 20 minutes or until the croissants are golden brown.
- Repeat with the remaining dough or make pain au chocolat (cut into rectangles instead of triangles, and place chocolate inside before rolling) and other Danish pastries.
- Enjoy warm!
Tips:
- If you do not want to use the egg wash, I think using butter on top after baking should work. Haven't tried it though.
- Croissants can be stuffed with chocolate, cheese, custard, jam, etc. For sandwich type fillings, use the whole dough instead of half and make larger sized croissants.
- You can freeze some for later; just wrap individual croissants in plastic wrap after they have cooled down, and store in the freezer. When you wish to eat them, remove the wrap and heat in the oven (NOT microwave) for 10 minutes.
Sounds yummy, tastes yummy, sure they would taste awesome too....But we can't say,,,Why don't you put them on OLX so that we can say too.........WELL DONE TANVI...
ReplyDeleteI meant sounds yummy, looks yummy.........
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! There weren't any left because we gobbled them up, but we'll save some next time :)
ReplyDelete