HOMEMADE CROISSANTS
“These take time. A lot of time. This is the first time I have ever made them, they came out a little dark because I used too much egg yellow for the egg wash, but wow. Does the house smell good and do they taste INCREDIBLE. This recipe makes 8 to 10 big croissants.”
- 350 g white bread flour
- 150 g cake flour
- 10 g instant yeast
- 20 g salt
- 40 g sugar
- 325 ml milk
- 50 g butter, room temperature
- 250 g butter, softened with 1 tablespoon cake flour
- 1 egg plus 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
In a mixer add flour, yeast and sugar and using a dough hook mix together.
Add milk slowly, while mixing on low in processor to combine for about 30 seconds. Add salt and mix for another two minutes. Now let dough rest for 10 minutes. Add soft butter and knead for three minutes. Dough will look silky and smooth and come away from the bowl. DO NOT OVERMIX.
Place dough in a large bowl, cover with cling wrap and leave at room temp for 30 minutes. Then place in fridge and let rest overnight (eight hours). After resting in fridge it will be double in size. Remove from fridge. Prepare the 250 g butter (room temp soft, not melted) by mixing it with the tablespoon flour. Form a thick square with this butter mix that is 5 – 6 mm thick on a piece of baking paper. Wrap in baking paper and place in fridge for a few minutes. It should be chilled but not too hard (not cracking). It should not melt in the next step.
Place dough on a lightly floured surface and flatten to a rectangle shape. Roll out dough in this rectangle shape until twice the size of the butter square. Take the cool butter square and turn onto one side of the dough leaving a 2 cm border on the side of the butter. Fold over other side of butter to cover dough pinch and close edges. Treat the dough like a book and always keep the pinched side on the right and the “spine” (folded side) on your left. Roll out dough into a large rectangle long enough to do a fourfold (remember “spine” to your left) Fold both sides of dough to meet in the middle. The fold in half like you are closing a book (this is the fourfold).
Wrap in plastic and place in fridge to rest for one hour. For the second fold roll your dough out long enough to do a threefold (remember “spine” to left). Fold one side of dough in, and the other side on top of this (this is the threefold). Remember to “spine” on your left. Cover in plastic and place in fridge for one hour to rest. For the third fold roll out dough long enough to do a fourfold again. Repeat fourfold step (“spine” on your left). Cover in plastic again and place in fridge overnight. In the morning you will shape and bake.
Next day:
Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle. It should be three times longer than it is wide (about 25 cm x 75 cm) Try to roll as evenly as possible. Cut triangles along the length of the rolled out dough (have a look at the attached pictures). Take each triangle and starting from the wider edge, cut a small slit in the middle of the edge then slightly stretch the dough while rolling towards the thinner part of the triangle. It needs to be tight so that it will not unroll while baking. Tuck edge to bottom of croissant (I suggest watching a video on Google to get this step right). Line a baking tray with baking paper and place croissants on paper leaving space for them to proof. Cover in plastic and leave in a warm place to proof for one hour.
Preheat oven to 180 °C. The croissants should be proofed and puffy looking. Lightly brush with egg wash and bake for 25 minutes on middle shelf until golden.
Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack… or eat warm. You can add cheese or chocolate… maybe nuts and apples. Make your own version.
Recipe en photos: Dalila De Barrios Viljoen
