French croissants are just a miracle of this world. It is the only recipe that brought me from the level “this is horribly difficult, it is first and last time I make it” to “this is the most satisfying and delicious thing I ever cooked.
The process of making it is looong. However, there is some satisfaction in the exactness of this recipe, all the measuring and types of folding. And the result of this recipe will just amaze you.
For this recipe i followed Joshua Weissman recipe of How To Make Proper Croissants Completely By Hand, he is usually very accurate and I love that he is using metric for weight :D.
Croissants
Servings: 6
Total days: 2 (ideally 3)
Preparation time: 1-1.5 hours
Baking time: 20 min
Ingredients
- 130 g of lukewarm water
- 6 g of dried yeast
- 250 g of bread flour
- 30 g of white sugar
- 25 grams of melted butter
- 5 grams of salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 additional egg for brushing
Beurrage
- 138 g of butter
Directions
Day 1
- Mix the yeast with the warm water and let it foam, for about 10 min.
- Gently melt the butter.
- Mix the flour, salt, sugar and egg yolk with the butter and the foamy yeast until combined.
- Hit it a few times on your table then let it rest for 10 min in the fridge.
- After 10 min, fold it 2-3 times on itself, until it becomes nice and smooth. Put it back in the fridge for 10 min.
- Place the dough on a baking sheet and shape it in a square with your hands, pressing it gently.
- Shape the wax paper into a square of 18×18 cm.
- Roll the dough with even force towards the edges of the square. Make sure to not press really hard, or you can break the paper.
- Once the square is even, place it in the fridge over night.
Day 2
- Cut even squares out of your butter and place it on a piece of wax paper in a square of 10×10 cm.
- Let it soften a bit, then gently roll it into a perfect square.
- Place it in the fridge for 25 min.
- After 25 min, take out the dough from the fridge and on a floured surface roll out all the for corners.
- Place the butter in the middle diagonally.
- Fold the dough carefully, making sure it is covering the butter fully and in a square shape.
- Turn your square upside down and roll the square in a long rectangle of 45 cm. Try to roll as evenly as you can.
- Once done, grab the bottom of the rectangle and pull it 3/4 upwards.
- Then take the top half and fold it in until both ends meet.
- Fold the longer bit over the shorter bit, ending up in a smaller rectangle.
- Tap it down slowly, wrap it in plastic and place it in the fridge for one hour.
- After one hour, roll it again in a 45 cm long and skinny triangle, this time on the long part of your rectangle.
- Once done, fold the top part a third way down and the down part over it. You will end up with a square again.
- Here you can split it: let it rest for an hour or over night.
Day 3 (optional)
- Roll the dough into a 25 cm wide shape and half a centimeter thick.
- Here you can be exact or cut some random triangles as I did, first because I get usually impatient, second because I actually like my cookies and croissants uneven.
- Start by pulling a bit on your triangle, then tightly roll it from the wider part to the top of the triangle.
- Here’s the beauty of it.
- Make sure to place them with the end of the triangle down (otherwise it would curl while baking).
- Brush the croissants with egg wash and let them proof in the over (unheated) for 2 hour.
- Brush them for a second time and they are ready to be baked.
- Bake them at 200 C for 6 min.
- Then drop the temperature to 165 C and bake them for additional 12-14 min.
- They look gorgeous and almost ready to be eaten.
- The best is to wait 10-15 min.
- I hope you will be as amazed as I was by the beauty of this pastry, but also the amazing taste.
