MINI CROISSANTS WITH PASTRY CREAM
I made these yesterday and all is can say is wow.
You can make the croissants from scratch, but from personal experience the whole process takes just so long. I used frozen mini croissants bought from the store.
- 16 frozen (not baked) mini croissants
- oil for deep frying
- Vanilla pastry cream:
- ¾ cups (180 ml) cake flour
- 1 tablespoon custard powder
- 1 liter milk
- 1 tin condensed milk
- 2 egg yolks
- 5 ml vanilla essence
- cinnamon sugar
- Ganache:
- 250 ml cream
- 250 g dark chocolate
- Extra:
- cinnamon sugar
Start with making the pastry cream.
Just mix all the ingredients together in a pot over low heat and cook until thickened stirring constantly.
Very important:
You need to make a paste with the flour and custard powder with some milk before adding this back with the rest of the ingredients. You can pour through a sieve so the cream doesn’t get lumpy/clumpy pieces.
Cover with a piece of clingfilm in direct contact with the cooked pastry cream (not to create a hard skin) and let this cool to room temperature. Place in fridge for at least an hour before using.
I defrosted the croissants and let them proof for an hour.
Note:
Let them poof up a little in a warm place – I switched on my oven for 2 min and then switched it off again. I then placed the defrosted croissants on a baking sheet that I greased and covered with a kitchen towel and placed in the oven for the proofing.
I then heated some oil in a pot until around 180º C. The oil can’t be too cold or the croissants will just soak up oil. Too hot and they will be cooked on the outside but raw on the inside.
My temperature knob on my stove was medium to low.
Fry your croissants until golden brown (when you tap them with a knife they will sound hallow. They will be cooked then.
Place them for a minute or 2 on a cooling rack that has some kitchen towel under (to soak up the excess oil) and then roll the croissants in cinnamon sugar. Let the croissants cool down before filling.
Mix your pastry cream a little. Place in a piping bag that has a round tip nozzle on.
Make a little cut with a knife under each croissant and use this hole to place the tip of the piping bag in and fill the croissant with the pastry cream.
Make the ganache by melting the cream and chocolate together in a microwave safe bowl in 15 second intervals, mixing a little after each 15 seconds until the chocolate is melted and you get a shiny ganache. Don’t overcook as it will split.
Drizzle the ganache over the filled croissants.
This is heavenly!
I hope you enjoy.
Recipe an photo: Dalila de Baros Viljoen
