Croissant

This is my second attempt in challenging croissant pastry. This French pastry is known for its heavy-labour work. It is something which you should not attempt if you are a person with no patience. It requires long hours of preparation before they can be baked. I did some mistakes in my first attempt and this time I hope that everything will go smoothly *I'm writing this before I complete the whole process*. Reason: I am afraid I might forget some steps involved if I were to blog after this.

Okay so here you go - I'm giving this recipe a try. So far, I am pretty happy that everything is going on smoothly.

Croissant 

The original recipe is taken from: Top With Cinnamon

Serving: 18-24 croissants 

INGREDIENTS 

For dough:

250ml cold full cream milk 

125ml boiling water 

1 tablespoon instant yeast 

50g sugar 

360g bread flour (high protein flour)

100g whole wheat flour 

40g cake flour (low protein flour) 

1 teaspoon salt 

For butter block: 

250g butter 

Extras: 

Bread flour 

Butter/oil 

UTENSILS 

Bread toaster tray (5" x 9") 

Rolling pin 

Mixing bowl 

Sieve 

Plastic wrap 

Big bowl 

Whisk 

STEPS 

1. Preparation of butter block: Layer a plastic on top of the bread toaster tray. Spread room temperature butter onto the tray and layer another piece of plastic on top. Press the butter to fit the tray. Keep it in the refrigerator to be hardened. 
2. Preparation of dough: With double boiling method, pour milk, water, yeast and sugar one after another into a big bowl. Mix well with a hand whisk. Let it cool down for 5 minutes. 
3. Sieve all the different flours into a mixing bowl. Add in salt. Add in the liquid mixture in (1) and knead it into a wet dough. 
4. Add necessary bread flour to the wet dough to make it non-sticky and let it rest in a bowl (apply a thin layer of butter around the bowl). Let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour. 
5. Seal the dough with butter: Get the butter block out from the refrigerator for 5 minutes before you seal it with the dough. 
6. Flatten the dough from the refrigerator into a horizontal rectangle with 15" x 11". Move the butter block into the middle. 
7. Fold #1 - envelope: Fold 2 times to give it an envelope fold. Turn the dough 90 degrees. Flatten the dough which already has butter inside into a vertical rectangle with 11" x 14".  
8. Fold #2 - double folded book: Fold 3 times to give it a double folded book fold. Refrigerate it in the refrigerator for 1 hour. 
9. Fold #3 - envelope 
10. Fold #4 - envelope 
11. Fold #4 - envelope 
12. Chill to shape: Have the dough rolled out and chilled before you shape it into triangles. 
13. Rest: Let it rest in room temperature for 2 - 4 hours so that the croissants will rise. 
14. Bake: Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 20-25 minutes. Swipe egg wash before you bake and in the middle of baking it. 

Below are the illustrations of step-by-step taken while I'm making the croissant. 

The butter in my 5" x 9" bread toaster tray. 

Coincidentally, I have this wonderful tray which I think will be very useful for me in making croissant.

I overlay another piece of plastic bag on top and refrigerate it to be used later.

With double boiling method, add in the ingredients one by one. Stir and mix well. 

Mix the flour and salt and combine well with your hand. 

Add in the liquid mixture earlier into the flour mixture and knead into a sticky dough. 

Slowly add more bread flour as you knead to form a clean round dough. 

The before and after of the size of the dough after being refrigerated for 1 hour. 

I made it black and white because the original colours captured aren't very appealing.

So, here's the complicated part - of which I'm not sure if I've illustrated it well enough. 

Flatten the chilled dough into 11" x 15". 

Then, put the butter in the middle. 

Give it 2 folds to form an envelope fold: To the left and to the right. 

Invert it 90 degrees then fold it into a vertical rectangle of 11" x 14". 

I didn't manage to capture this because my butter is getting soft. 

I need to get everything done very quickly before it melts and oozes out from the dough -

that is the disaster and failure of croissant which you never want to have. 

Keep it in the refrigerator for 1 hour before you start the third and forth folds. 

Again, a friendly reminder: dust away excess flour on the dough before you fold AND don't let any butter oozes out from the dough - - - -

The end product of how they will look like after being cut. 

So you see - my croissant seems not very successful as I have some blocky butter inside = /

I guess this is not perfect yet - well, obviously it isn't.

But I'm still happy to see the layers there - XD

Out from the oven - Ta-da 

I can see the flaky texture - it looks so beautiful! 

I didn't shape them very nicely because I lose some patience as I roll the dough yesterday night. 

I should have chilled it one more time before I start to shape it. = / 

Still, I think they look not too bad la huh? 

Ta-dah ready to be served!