French croissants are popular all over the world. They are puff pastry bagels rolled in a crescent shape. The French word croissant is just translated as “crescent”. They are made with different fillings, sweet and savory, but in the classic version they do not contain fillings - instead of it they wrap a piece of dough. These unusual bagels should be tasty even without filler. The baker is faced with a difficult task - to knead so good dough for croissants that it will be nice to eat with any filling or without it at all. There are several recipes for it, but they all require patience and strict adherence to the rules of making puff pastry.
Cooking Features
Cooking puff pastry at home is not an easy task. But the novice mistress can cope with her if she follows the recommendations in the recipe and follows a few points.
- Traditionally, croissants are baked from yeast puff pastry, which is kept for half an hour at room temperature and 6 hours in the refrigerator, then 3-4 times rolled out at intervals of 2 hours. Modern bakers often deviate from the traditional technology, reducing the time of dough and the multiplicity of its rolling. Even more simplifies the task of replacing yeast puff pastry with fresh. It is not required to withstand before rolling for a long time. Yes, and the intervals between rolling puff pastry need shorter - only 30 minutes. It is impossible to replace the puff pastry with the usual croissants - instead of them you will get ordinary bagels.
- Baking will not be tasty if you use second-rate flour for it. For croissants, you need to choose the highest grade flour.
- Sifting flour before kneading dough is an important manipulation. Its task is not only to rid the flour of small litter and insects. The main goal is to saturate the flour with oxygen. After sifting, it becomes light and loose, it combines better with other products without the formation of lumps. Baking it turns out more gentle and airy.
- A necessary product for making puff pastry for croissants is butter. Replacing it with margarine or spread is acceptable, but not desirable. Do not forget that the dough for croissants should be really tasty.
Croissants will not live up to their name if they are wrong. Thinly rolled dough is cut into rectangles, each of them is cut diagonally. The result is triangles. The filling is placed closer to the wide side of the triangular layers. Then twist them towards the acute angle. After it remains to bend the edges, giving the product a crescent shape. Pinching edges is not necessary. If croissants are made without a filling, a piece of dough is wrapped in them instead of them to give the bagels a volume.
A classic recipe for yeast puff pastry for croissants
Composition:
- wheat flour - 0, 35 kg;
- milk - 100 ml;
- butter - 0, 2 kg;
- dry yeast - 10 g;
- salt - 5 g;
- sugar - 40 g.
Method of preparation:
- Milk for making dough needs a little warm or room temperature, you can get it out of the fridge in advance.
- Sift flour in the amount of 0, 3 kg, add yeast, salt and sugar to it, pour in milk.
- Stir the ingredients quickly. Knead the dough as quickly as possible.
- Form a ball out of dough, cover it with a bowl and leave for half an hour at room temperature.
- Wrap the dough with foil, put it in the fridge. Leave it there for 6-8 hours.
- Put the butter (straight from the refrigerator) onto the working surface of the table, finely chop it with a knife.
- Sift 50 g of flour, sprinkle oil on it. Pound flour with butter, getting flour crumb. Roll it through the plastic wrap in a small rectangle. Directly in cling film, refrigerate for at least half an hour, preferably for an hour.
- Roll out the dough into a large rectangle, put a layer of butter in the center, fill the edges of the dough. Tap the dough with a rolling pin so that the oil spreads across the envelope.
- Roll the rolling pin over the envelope several times, preferably in one direction.
- Put the dough on parchment, cover it with a second sheet of it and put it in the fridge for 2 hours.
- Roll out the dough, roll it up in an envelope, put it back in the fridge.
- Repeat the operation 2 more times at intervals of 2 hours. In between, the dough should be in the fridge.
After the last rolling, a layer of dough can be cut into triangles and make croissants out of them. The process of making classic croissant pastry is long, so you need to start it a day or even more before you intend to please yourself and your loved ones with a French breakfast.
Simplified Recipe for Yeast Puff Pastry for Croissants
Composition:
- wheat flour - 0, 4 kg;
- milk - 120 ml;
- sugar - 50 g;
- butter - 150 g;
- salt - a large shchipot;
- pressed yeast - 25 g.
Method of preparation:
- Heat the milk to 30-40 degrees. This temperature is optimal for yeast activation. In a cold liquid, they do not work, hot can kill them.
- Pour sugar and salt into warm milk, mix. Crumble the yeast into the milk. Stir, having achieved dissolution of the entered components in milk. Wait until milk appears on the foam cap, indicating the activation of yeast.
- Sift flour. Top with grated chilled oil. Chop it with a knife with flour.
- Transfer the resulting flour crumb to a bowl, pour the leaven to it. Stir the products with a spoon, then quickly knead the dough with your hands, form a brick out of it, wrap it with cling film and put it in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.
- Roll the dough into a rectangular layer. Fold it in half lengthwise, then across. Clean for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Repeat the procedure of rolling, folding and cooling the dough 3-4 times.
- Put the dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours, after which it can be used to make croissants.
Puff pastry can be frozen, if stored in the freezer, it remains valid for at least two months.
Unleavened puff pastry for croissants
Composition:
- wheat flour - 0.5 kg;
- water - 0, 2 l;
- butter - 0, 2 kg;
- apple cider vinegar (6 percent) - 40 ml;
- cognac (can be replaced with vodka) - 20 ml;
- chicken egg - 2 pcs .;
- salt - a large shchip.
Method of preparation:
- Cool boiled water to room temperature, then put in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Mix it with vodka and vinegar.
- In a clean bowl, break the eggs, add salt to them, and shake with a fork or whisk.
- Pour chilled water over the eggs, whisk them together.
- Sift flour, set aside about 100 g.
- In the remaining flour, make a well, pour the liquid mixture into it and, trying to work as quickly as possible, knead the dough.
- Form a brick from the dough, put it in the fridge.
- Pour out the flour that was previously deposited on the tabletop. Finely chop the butter, put it on the flour. Chop it all with a knife. From the resulting flour crumb form a cake, wrap it with cling film and also put in the refrigerator.
- Cool the blanks for 1-2 hours, then proceed to the next step.
- Roll out the dough, put the butter cake in the center. Lift the edges of the dough and wrap the oil layer in it.
- Roll the dough into a rectangular layer, roll it up in an envelope and put it in the refrigerator for half an hour.
- Repeat the process of rolling and folding the dough with its subsequent half-hour cooling 5-6 times.
There is no sugar in the dough, but baking from it still turns out to be delicious. French bagels made from this dough can be made with any type of filling.
Croissants are baked for 20 minutes at a temperature of 200 degrees. To make them rosy, they are smeared with yolk before being placed in the oven. The oven is preheated.
Traditionally, croissants are served with coffee, but they are good with tea, as well as without any addition.
