French Food Friday...Croissants

recipe and photo from here

Bonjour mes belles,

I hope that you have had a fabulous week. I for one, am really looking forward to the week-end, which will no doubt include a few of these yummy French creations....

Croissants

Makes: 14
Preparation time:  45 minutes, plus resting and chilling time
Cooking time:  12 minutes

You will need
For laminating:
300g butter, room temperature
40g plain flour

For the dough:
30g fresh yeast or 15g dried yeast
230ml cold milk
2 ½ tbsp sugar
2 tsp honey
380g strong white bread flour
2 tsp salt
Egg yolk mixed with a pinch of salt, to glaze

Method

1. First making the lamination. Put the butter and flour in a bowl and knead together with your hands to incorporate them. Turn the mixture out onto a sheet of clingfilm, top with another sheet and flatten with a rolling pin into a rough square about 10 centimetres across. Refrigerate for about one hour to harden.
2. Meanwhile, make the dough. Put the yeast and milk in a bowl and stir until the yeast has dissolved. Add the sugar and honey and stir again. Either in a mixing bowl with your fingers, or in a stand mixer with a dough hook, mix the flour and salt together, then pour in the yeast mixture. Mix slowly until the mixture comes together into a dough.
3. In a lightly floured surface or in the stand mixer, knead the dough for 10 minutes. If using a mixer, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cover lightly with the butter wrapper or a sheet of parchment paper. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.
4. After 10 minutes, using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a rectangle of about 20 by 30 centimetres. Remove the block of butter laminate from the fridge and cut it down the middle. Place one half in the middle of the pastry rectangle. Bring one side of the pastry up and over the butter to cover it. Stretch the pastry if needed. Place the second butter block on top of that and fold the remaining flap of pastry over.
5. Roll the dough out into a rectangle again. With a short side in front of you, fold the top third over, then the bottom third on top of that. Now turn the dough 90˚ clockwise so that the fold is on the left hand side. This process of flattening and folding the dough is called a ‘turn’. Poke a hole in the dough to indicate that one turn has been made. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. Give the dough another turn and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Then give the dough a third turn and allow to rest for two hours.
7. After two hours, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about three millimetres thick.
8. Cut the dough in half lengthwise using a large, sharp knife. You now have two strips. Trim the edges if necessary to make sure the strips are neat rectangles. Put the long side of one strip in front of you. Cut out isosceles triangles (tall, with two equal sides) measuring about eight centimetres across the base, all along the strip. They will naturally alternate in direction along the strip.
9. Using a knife or a pair of scissors, make a small snip in the centre of each base to give the croissants a nice turn at the tips of the croisant. Starting from the base, roll up each triangle to make a croissant. At this point, you can freeze the croissants for another time. Take them out of the freezer the night before you want to bake them and place them on a baking sheet. Cover them loosely with a tea towel and they will be defrosted, risen and ready to bake by the following morning.
10. Place the croissants on a baking sheet lightly dusted with flour. Loosely cover the croissants with lightly oiled clingfilm and allow to rise in a warm place until they have nearly doubled in size – about two hours.
11. About 15 minutes before you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 200˚C/gas mark 6. Uncover the risen croissants and brush them lightly with the egg wash to glaze. Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.

 

très bon vendredi à tous, Leeann x