A common New Year's resolution is to lose weight.
I should lose weight too, but I resolve NOT to resolve to lose weight.
Keeping in the spirit of doing the anti-resolution, I'm going to make butter-laden croissants!
The idea of making croissants came when I was watching the movie, It's Complicated. There was a scene where chocolate croissants were made which kicked off a craving.
I've never made croissant, but know that they are classified as a laminated dough. I've made puff pastry in Daring Baker's Challenge: September 2009 Challenge so croissants seem like the logical next step.
The recipe is based upon Esther McManus's recipe in Baking with Julia.
Video: Esther McManus makes croissants with Julia Child.
Recipe: Croissant Recipe
In hindsight, I highly recommend watching the video and reading the recipe instruction thoroughly. My approach was to just go for it. However, the video and recipe instructions contain some tips that I could have used when I was making the dough.
As usual with a new recipe, I halved the quantities. Also, I made substitutions and modifications since this was a spur of the moment thing. For the full recipe with the "real" instructions see the link above.
The croissant recipe is about a two day process.
Croissants
Dough
1/2 t Instant Yeast
1 3/4 C (235 g) All Purpose
2 1/2 T Sugar
1 t Salt
1/2 C Milk (plus a little extra if needed)
2 Sticks Unsalted Butter
Filling
Chocolate Chips
Egg Wash Coating
1 large egg + 1 T water
Modifications:
We had just returned from holiday and our cupboards were bare.
- The original recipe called for fresh yeast. I scrounged around my pantry and found an old package of instant yeast.
- Milk was reconstituted from whole milk powder leftover from a Daring Cooks' Challenge.
What I did...
1/ Since I didn't know the viability of the yeast, I made a pre-ferment to see if the yeast was alive. Reconstitute the milk with warm water and mix in 1/2 the flour to form a wet dough. Cover and let double.
Success! The batter doubled in size so I know the yeast is doing its job.
2/ Mix the batter into the flour to make a dough. Slowly add more liquid as needed to ball the dough. Knead the dough to form a smooth ball.
3/ I'm using the technique I learned from the puff pastry challenge to form the butter pack for incorporation into the dough.
Pound the butter into, roughly, a 6" x 6" square about 3/4" thick.
Refrigerate the butter and dough, separately... overnight.
4/ The next day - roll out the dough into a rectangle. The center should be thicker than the edges.
Note: I think I over-kneaded the dough from step 3. The dough kept shrinking when I rolled it out.
5/ Wrap the butter square in the dough and slowly roll out.
I made about 6 turns (see the Puff Pastry Challenge for the definition and images of a turn).
Refrigerating 30 minutes to an hour every 2 turns.
After the final turn, refrigerate 2 hours.
Note: From the video, McManus only made 3 turns.
6/ I cut the croissant dough in half (just in case I mess up) and rolled into a rectangle. The other half went back into the fridge for later...
Note: I wasn't sure how to form the croissants. I should have watched the McManus video.
Plain Croissants
Chocolate Croissants - a couple fingers of chocolate chips (about 1 or 2 T)
7/ After rolling let the croissant proof for about 2 to 3 hours.
8/ Bake 350 F for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Hmmm... Butter is oozing out of the croissants. I only proofed this batch for 30 minutes.
The Finished Results
Batch 1:
Flavor is very nice - buttery, slightly salty and sweet.
Texture - The interior is a little dense (bummer!) The exterior is crunchy as if it was deep fried. I think the butter oozing out created a crunchy exterior. I actually like the crunchiness. It wasn't very croissant-like, more like a dense, flaky biscuit, but I like the crunchy texture.
Batch 2: {No images taken}
The next day I baked off the second half of the dough.
This time I proofed the dough about 3 hours before baking.
The results turned out much better... No butter leakage and the end result were more croissant like - softer interior and flaky exterior.
Lessons Learned:
1) Read the instructions. I know I keep telling myself to do that, but sometimes I just fly by the seat of my pants.
2) Minimize kneading and liquid added. Rereading the recipe, the liquid to flour ratio is about 53% and I was around 60%.
3) Proof 2 to 3 hours before baking. Based on my second batch, the longer proof seemed to prevent the butter leakage I seen in the first batch. Also, it seemed to improve the interior texture of the croissant, which makes sense since the yeast will have a long time to leaven the dough.
