Croissants

Ingredients 

2 cups of flour 

1 teaspoon of sugar 

¼ teaspoon of salt 

Half a packet of dried yeast (miss out the yeast and you have puff pastry) 

Just over half a cup of hot water mixed with milk (half of each) 

140g unsalted butter (I use Norwegian butter (smør) which is 83% fat) The butter should be in the fridge. 

 Mixing 

Put all the powdery ingredients into a mixer fitted with a dough hook (I have a Kitchen Aid, highly recommended). Mix the powders with the hook for a short time then add the warm water/milk. The addition of liquid should cause the powders to clump together. If it doesn’t then add a bit more water. Continue mixing for about 5-10 minutes. The dough should change from stringy to smooth like play doh.

 Rising 

The dough must now be left to rise to about double its size. This is difficult to judge if the dough is in a ball but easy if you put it in a cylindrical or straight sided container. Cover the top with a piece of baking paper to stop it drying out. For this stage the dough needs to be in a place that is a bit warmer than room temperature which is 21 degrees C. I use the oven with just the light on but if your oven has an LED light then it won’t be hot enough since LED’s give little heat. I don’t actually know if any ovens actually use LED lighting, it would be a pointless energy saving since you want the oven to heat up. 

Rolling 

When doubled in size, take out the dough and roll it into a rectangle about 16cm wide and 32cm long. Wrap in baking paper and put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. 

 Adding the butter 

This is the difficult bit. You are going to sandwich the butter in between layers of dough then roll it out and fold to make thin layers. For this to work the butter must be the same stiffness as the dough. At room temperature the dough and butter are to soft. If you were to place both in the freezer the butter would be too hard. So both must be cooled down but if you put both in the freezer the butter becomes too hard. The dough should be a bit colder than the butter that's why I put the dough in the freezer and the butter in the fridge. By the way it is important to use butter with a high fat content for this to work. Even a few % makes a difference. Take the butter out of the fridge and form it into a16 x 16 square by bashing it with the rolling pin between 2 sheets of baking paper. Take the dough out of the freezer. It should be about as the same stiffness as the butter. If it is too hard leave it to warm a bit. If too soft put it back in the freezer. You might also have to put the butter back in the fridge as it will have started to warm up. This is a bit of a juggling act and you might not get it right first time, I didn’t. When you have got the dough and butter to the same stiffness (like plasticine which is a bit stiffer than playdoh) Place the square of butter in the middle of the rectangle of dough and fold the side in like the doors of a wardrobe. Seal the sides and roll out to 32 cm long. The butter should spread out with the dough. Fold the dough like a letter and roll out again. The put in the fridge to rest for 30 minute to an hour. This is because as you roll the dough it will warm up and become to springy. If your dough keeps shrinking back when you try to roll it then it has become too warm. 

Shaping 

After resting fold the dough like an envelope again and roll back out to 32 cm. Do this twice then roll out to 33 cm  long and about 20 cm wide. (this doesn't need to be so exact but 33 is divisible by 3:-). If the rectangle is a bit wobbly trim it with a knife or pastry wheel (like a small pizza cutter). Cut into triangles as shown, then trim the short side to make isosceles triangles.

Make a slit in the short end and roll up like a croissant. At the start of the roll pull the corners apart so that the slit is opened, this makes the croissants long but not too fat. Place the croissants on a baking tray covered in baking paper and place in your warm place to allow then to rise. As they cook some butter will come out so use a baking tray with sides or you will get butter burning on the bottom of your oven. They are supposed to double in size, this is impossible to measure, an hour in a warm place should be enough. They should be nice and puffy, even wobbly. Brush with a little egg mixed with milk (egg wash) and cook at 200 degrees C for half an hour.