Merry Christmas! Since it is Christmas, why don’t you try some different recipes that you never tried the other holiday seasons? Croissants are flaky, layered French crescent-shaped pastry that is loved by everyone. It is cloud-like puff pastry, buttery, flaky, yeasty, chewy bread, and is one of the most luxurious things you can eat.
Croissants taste better with butter, coffee, chocolate dip. You can also try making a sandwich out of it. Such a luxurious appetizer with so many variants, what is it that we need other than this?
Christmas is that time of the year where friends hang out over lunch or dinner; this croissant recipe is perfect for cooking when your friends come over, and you have the most awaited get together.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups milk lukewarm
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 3 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
- 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour up to 4 cups if needed
- Salt, 1 tbsp
- 1 ½ cups butter unsalted, cold
- One egg for egg wash
Preparation
Bloom the yeast:
- Take a mixer bowl, and add the warm milk, brown sugar, yeast and stir it with a fork slowly.
- Let it stand for almost 5 mins.
- If the yeast is good, the mixture will get foamy as the yeast starts to dissolve. It will take a bit longer.
Making the dough:
- Add flour and salt to a bowl.
- Mix it slowly for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and very soft.
- Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and knead for a minute or two on your working surface.
- The dough needs to be soft and slightly sticky.
- Place the dough in a bowl, and wrap it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
- Prepare the butter:
- Meanwhile, the dough is chilling, prepare the butter.
- Arrange the butter sticks horizontally on a piece of plastic wrap.
- Cover the butter with another piece of wrap.
- Pound and roll out on both sides until the butter forms a nice eight by 5-inch rectangle.
- Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.
Laminate the dough:
- Flour your work surface lightly, and then roll out the dough into a big rectangle which is about 16 by 10 inches.
- Place the butter directly in the centre of the dough and fold the dough as you would a letter, bottom third of dough over the butter, then top third down over the dough.
- If there is any excess flour, make sure you brush that off.
- Turn the dough so that the short side is nearest you, and start rolling it another 16 by 10-inch rectangle.
- Fold in thirds, again.
- This was the first fold.
- Wrap it up in the plastic wrap and refrigerate it for another hour.
- Repeat the above steps.
- Repeat these steps three more times such that it makes a total of 5 folds.
- After the last fold, refrigerate it overnight or at least 8 hours.
Shape croissants:
- Cut the dough in half, and freeze the half, only if you’re only going to use half of it.
- Roll every piece of dough into a long rectangle so that it’s about 1/4 of an inch in its thickness.
- Using a cutter, cut each square into four triangles.
- Now, use one triangle at a time, and start rolling from the wide side while, at the same time, stretch the end of the triangle.
- Continue to roll the croissant, and as you’ll notice, you’ll be able to roll the croissant a few times.
- Next, put the croissants on an ungreased baking sheet, with about 2 inches in between them.
- Let them sit for another hour; you’ll notice they’ll rise a bit.
- Then brush them with egg wash.
- Baking croissants:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Finally, keep the baking sheet in the oven and bake the croissants for 8-12 mins at 400 degrees F.
- Then, slowly turn down the heat to 375 F degrees and bake them for another 8 to 12 minutes.
Make sure they are nice and golden brown in colour. Enjoy your croissants with some hot beverages.