croissant
Next Dish: Placki Ziemniaczane
A croissant is a buttery, flaky, viennoiserie pastry of Austrian origin, named for its historical crescent shape. Croissants and other viennoiserie are
Recipe
Ingredients:
500g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
10g salt
80g caster sugar
10g instant yeast
300ml cool water
300g chilled unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
Instructions:
Put the flour into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the salt and sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add the water and mix on a slow speed for 2 minutes, then on a medium speed for 6 minutes.
Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball. Put into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out your dough to a rectangle, about 60 x 20 cm. Flatten the butter to a rectangle, about 40 x 19 cm, by bashing it with a rolling pin. Put the butter on the dough so that it covers the bottom two-thirds of it. Make sure that it is positioned neatly and comes almost to the edges.
Fold the exposed dough at the top down over one-third of the butter. Now gently cut off the exposed bit of butter, without going through the dough, and put it on the top of the dough you have just folded down. Fold the bottom half of the dough up. You will now have a sandwich of two layers of butter and three of dough.
Put the dough back in the fridge for an hour to harden butter again.
Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out into a rectangle again, repeating the folding process. Chill the dough in the fridge for an hour.
Roll and fold the dough twice more, chilling it for an hour between each fold.
After the final fold, chill the dough overnight.
The next day, divide the dough in half. Roll one half out on a floured surface to a thickness of about 5mm. Using a pizza cutter, cut out triangles with a 12cm base and about 15cm high.
Make a small cut in the base of each triangle to help it curve during cooking. Roll up the triangles, starting at the base and working towards the point.
Put the croissants on baking trays, leaving space for them to expand, and leave to rise for two hours.
Heat your oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Mix the beaten egg with a pinch of salt and brush the top of each croissant. Bake for 15-20 mins until risen and golden brown. Cool on wire racks.