To Illustrate: to clarify, explain or describe, through the use of pictures, diagrams or words, a concept or problem.

The concept is food: an amateur's illustration.

Monday 15 November 2010

Homemade Croissants

I have wanted to make croissants for ages, so when I stumbled across  an amazing recipe from:http://squarekitchen.blogspot.com/ . I thought I would give them a go.  

Ingredients
500 grams Flour
10 grams salt
60 grams sugar
30 grams butter
30 grams yeast
2 eggs
200 ml whole milk




250 grams butter (for the second day)


Method
Day One
Prepare the dough. In a large bowl mix the flour, salt, sugar, butter, yeast, eggs and milk. Knead the mixture until a smooth, even dough is formed, making sure that is is not sticky.


Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic film and refrigerate in overnight.

Day two
Place the butter in between two sheets of cling film and flatten using a rolling pin, until it is one centimetre in height and roughly the shape of a rectangle.


Take the dough out of the fridge and on a flat, floured surface roll the dough out until it is double the size of the rolled butter. 

Place the butter in the middle of the flattened dough, and fold the edges of the dough into the middle, covering the butter. Roll the dough into a long rectangle, until it is one centimeter high.


The First Turn
You now need to start turning the dough. In your head, split the dough into three sections, then fold two of the sections into the third. One from the left into the middle, and the other from the right into the middle.



The dough now has 3 layers. Turn the dough 90 degrees and flatten the dough again to a long rectangle until it is once again one centimetre high.


The Second Turn
Fold the dough again from both sides to the middle - this makes 6 layers of butter, flatten. Fold the dough again into the middle - this makes 12 layers of butter. 
Keep turning the dough as many times as you like as the more the turns, the more light and buttery the croissants will be. You have got to keep the dough cold, so after you have turned it, it must go in the fridge for at least 4 hours. I kept my dough in the fridge over night.

Shaping the dough
The next day roll the dough out until it is 5 millimeters thick and rectangular in shape and cut out right angled triangles from the dough. This is your croissant. Now you need to roll the croissants, beginning with the widest side of the triangle, finishing with the peak underneath the rolled croissant. 





















Place them on parchment paper on a baking tray and wash with an egg wash (one egg yolk and a splash of milk to give it a glossy shine). 






Bake them in an oven at 180 degrees C for 18-22 minutes until they are golden brown. 



Serve with even more butter and lots of jam. 


The croissants went well. Not as well as I had hoped, as they ended up much smaller and more bread like. I think I turned the dough to many times, or didn't let them rise long enough before I put them in the oven. They tasted like croissants though and were delicious when they came hot out of the oven. I will defiantly make them again. I think it will just take practice.



1 comment:

  1. hi tori, i just discovered your comment (i wasn't online the last week). i had already a look on your blog and i love your croissants. they look as delicious as mine and the shape of them is classic. mr sk said they look really good. thanks also for the feedback on the recipe (because i'm not a native english speaker). i'm really happy that they worked out so good. please keep me up to date if u make them again.

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