Before I discuss croissants, I must tell you about my chocolate fondants. I exhausted all my recipe books to find the best recipe. They are all pretty much the same but in the end I used Felicity Cloak's recipe on the Guardian website. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/feb/10/how-cook-perfect-chocolate-fondants
I did add a bit more flour as I felt her recipe didn't have quite enough. Anyway, they collapsed...another minute and I think they would have been perfect. The annoying thing is that the 2 times that my husband has made them, they were perfect.
SO...croissants. I know I said that part of the reason of writing this blog was to use my cookbooks more and to follow the recipes exactly. I just can't do it!
I consulted 3 of my cookbooks before starting; Leith's Baking Bible, The Great British Bake Off-How To Bake and Pastry by Michel Roux. I pretty much used the Great British Bake Off recipe as it was the only one that used dry yeast and I didn't plan ahead enough to get fresh. The only thing I changed was the amount of milk I used as the other 2 recipes used less. I probably used about 290 - 300ml. I discounted Roux as he used a lot more yeast than the others and he cooked them at such a low temperature which seems to go against the theory of initially cooking at a very high temperature so the butter doesn't ooze out. You would think the French guy would get it right! Hey, I can't totally dis him as I didn't try his recipe. The one tip I did use from him was to make a small incision at the top end of the triangle before rolling them into the croissant shape and I also saw Anna Olson do this.
I know it's a bit of a faff making croissants but if you plan ahead and are spending the weekend at home, give them a go as these were just as good as the ones you get in a French boulangerie. They were crispy on the outside and beautifully flaky and buttery on the inside. My mouth is watering just as I am describing them! Make lots and freeze them.
Here is the ingredient list from Great British Bake-Off - How to Bake. The method for making croissants is pretty much the same regardless of the source of the recipe, there may be the odd tweak here and there.
Makes about 20
500g strong white bread flour (I used half plain flour)
1 x 7g sachet fast-action yeast
3 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp sea salt flakes, crushed (I just used fine)
325ml cool skimmed milk (I used 290-300ml semi-skimmed)
250g unsalted butter in a block, chilled
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp milk, to glaze
Put the flour into a mixing bowl of a free-standing mixer or large mixing bowl. Mix in the yeast and make a well. Add the sugar and salt to the milk and stir until dissolved. Add the milk into the well and mix on low speed until the dough just comes away from the sides of the bowl but thoroughly combined. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to prove for 1 hour or until doubled, in a warm place, I usually place in my oven. At this point, I must admit that I was a little disheartened as the dough was a bit firm but I found out that it didn't matter.
Gently punch down the dough and put back into the bowl and re-cover. Put into the fridge for at least 6 hours but I recommend overnight as that is what I did.
Take the block of butter out of the fridge and and place between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper. Start pounding gently until it is half of it's original thickness, fold over and repeat a couple of times making sure that it is still cold. Shape into a square about 12cm on each side. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and punch down and shape into a ball. Cut a deep cross into the ball. Place the ball so the cross looks like an 'X' rather than a '+' facing you. (I wish I took photos of this!) Roll the dough from the middle to the edge on each side so you have 4 flaps and it is still thick in the centre. The reason you do this is so the dough on the one side is not too thin. Make sure the middle bit is large enough to hold the butter. Place the butter in the middle and fold over the four flaps making sure the butter is completely covered. Roll out to a large rectangle approx. 40cm x 75cm, roll from the middle out. Fold the rectangle into 3, so if the short side is facing you, fold the bottom third to the middle and then fold the top third over this...like a business letter. Give the dough a quarter turn and turn upside down. Roll out again to the same size as before and fold as before. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. Repeat the process as above so the dough will have had 4 turns and folds in total. Refrigerate again for 20-30 minutes, but if you left it longer it won't matter as I left mine for about 5 hours as we went out for the day.
Make a triangle template with cardboard measuring 10cm on the base and 18cm high. Roll the dough out so it is about 3mm thick, approx. 40cm x 75cm. Trim the edges of the rectangle; a pizza cutter works well here. Use the template to cut out the triangles. Working quickly, cut a 1cm cut in the middle of the base of the triangle, slightly pull the corners of the base and roll towards the point. Place on a baking sheet and turn the points of the croissant inwards to make the crescent shape. At this point, you can freeze any extra croissants to bake when you have the urge.
Brush the croissants with the egg glaze, working from the middle out so they don;t glue together. Place in a warm place and let prove for about an hour or until doubled in size. Once doubled, put in the fridge so the butter firms up. Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius, gas mark 8. Cook for 10 minutes then turn the temperature to 190 degrees Celsius, gas mark 5 and bake for a further 15-20 minutes until the croissants are a deep brown. Cool on a wire rack.
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