Croissants- Made completely by hand

Hello HTS Community

And we are finally making Croissants 🙂 Happy, Happier, Happiest

I love croissants, plain, chocolate, cheese, jam, each and every one of them, because it’s that buttery flaky texture that draws me. Yes, there is labor, toil and technique involved, but who says we can’t make them at home. Yes, we can, and make them very very well 🙂

Croissants do not need a lot of ingredients, but they do need a lot of time and your patience. It takes about 2-3 days to make one batch of these beauties. Most of it is spent in making the puff pastry. Trust me it’s all worth the wait. I have put up a sample schedule at the end to help you with timings. Even if we do not get them right in the first attempt, ugly croissants also taste amazing 😉 telling from my first hand experience.

Pro-tip: Precision is the key to amazing croissants, so please use a weighing scale and choose a cold day

Ingredients you will need:

For the Détrempe (Dough)

• Bread flour- 250g
• Sugar- 30g
• Salt- 5g
• Unsalted butter, melted- 25g
• Instant yeast- 6g
• Lukewarm water- 130g

For the Beurrage (Butter block)

• Unsalted butter- 138g (good quality butter with minimum 82% fat)

For Egg Wash

• Egg yolk- 1
• Heavy cream- 1 teaspoon
• Use just milk for vegetarian version

Steps:

To make the Détrempe (Dough)

• Start with activating the yeast in lukewarm water, set aside and let it bloom for 10 minutes.
• In the meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, combine, bread flour, salt and sugar. Mix them well, and add the yeast-water mixture along with the melted butter. Make a soft dough.
• If required, on a work surface beat the dough for 30 seconds, until you have a smooth surface. Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover with a cling film and let rest in refrigerator for 1 hour.

• Once rested, on a parchment paper roll the dough evenly in a 7*7 inch square using a ruler. Once you have an oval-ish shape, fold the parchment paper in shape of the square, covering the dough completely. Flip the dough, and roll into the edges of the square confirming to the shape. The dough should be evenly flat, and do not press too hard, the dough will burst the parchment paper. Place in refrigerator for 12 hours.

*During the 12 hour resting, some air got to my dough and it dried the top layer. You will be able to see it in the pictures later. Make sure you secure the parchment sheet completely.

To make the Beurrage (Butter block)

• On a parchment sheet, place evenly cut pieces of 138g cold butter, to form a rough 5*5 inch square. Fold the paper to cover butter completely, and pound gently to evenly spread the butter and form a 5*5 inch square.

• Place the butter block covered in the refrigerator for 25 minutes.

Assembly and Folding

• Take the dough out of the refrigerator, pull of the sheet and place it on a lightly floured surface. With a rolling pin, gently elongate the edges of the square. Place the butter block in the center of the dough, diagonally. Refer image.
• Take each edge of the dough and encase the butter completely, forming an envelop. Once the butter is totally covered, pinch and seal the edges, flip the dough seam side down and pound gently to fix everything in place.

• Lightly flour your dough and tap gently multiple times along the length of the dough. Roll with an even pressure , to form a roughly 18 inches long rectangle.
• Once rolled, we are going to perform a book fold. Mark the center of the entire length of the dough, take the top end and fold upto the center, similarly, fold the bottom end till the center line as well. Next, take the top side and fold over the bottom one, to quadruple the folds. You will be able to see 4 layers on the sides, this is called a ‘book‘.
• Gently tap the dough, cover completely in cling film, and first chill for 15 minutes and then refrigerate for 30 minutes.

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• Time for fold number two, letter fold. Unwrap the dough on a lightly floured surface, tap it and start rolling in one direction lengthwise, approximately 16 inches in length. You will have a long and narrow strip now. Make 3 light marks on the dough strip, which divides it equally in 3 parts, we will be folding it in thirds like a letter. Refer image below
• Grab the top and fold it till line 2, and then the bottom till line 1. Refer image. You will have 3 folds on the side now. Totally, we have created 12 layers of dough and butter (4*3). Wrap tightly in plastic again, freeze for 15 minutes and then refrigerate for 1 hour. And this is how our puff pastry is created.

• At this point, you get to decide if you want to make this a 2 day or a 3 day process. You can either proceed with next steps after 1 hours, or the next day. I personally proceed on day 3, since it gives the dough time to develop more flavor and gain strength.

*The dough should always be colder than the butter. In my case during the second fold, the butter was too cold and it broke in pieces within the layers. If this happens with you, leave the dough out for a few minutes and gently tap the dough to evenly distribute the butter.

Proofing and Baking

• After the resting period is over heat 2 cups of water, and place the pan of water in your oven. This will cool down and create humidity to proof our croissants.
• Roll the dough in a 10*10 inch square, trim the sides to get smooth lines, and make marks at 4 inch intervals on one side. In between of those points, mark their center on the other side, and cut the dough joining these points to make 6 long triangles. Roll the dough from wide side to the pointy end, and stick it at the bottom. If the butter starts to melt, chill the dough for 15 minutes, and then resume.
• Proof the dough in humid oven for 2 hours.

• Now the croissants should look jiggly and puffed up. Prepare the egg wash by mixing egg yolk and heavy cream and gently apply on croissants. Make sure to apply it only on the top and not on layered sides, it will seal the sides you wouldn’t be able to enjoy the crisp layers later.
• Preheat oven at 190 degree Celsius, and bake for 25 minutes, turning the tray once after 15 minutes for even baking.

You can keep these for 2 days at room temperature, and reheat at 180 degree Celsius oven for 8 minutes.

Sample Schedule:

Day 1:

• Around 8 or 9 PM: make your dough and prepare it for it’s overnight rest.

Day 2:

• 9 AM: Make beurrage/ butter block
• 9:25 AM: Encase butter in dough, roll and fold
• 10:30 AM: Second fold and rest

Day 3:

• 9:00 AM: Roll and cut dough in triangles, shape croissants, keep for proofing
• 11:00 AM: Pre heat oven, brush with egg wash and bake