Croissants

Prep time: 1 hr

Proof time: 2 hrs

Cook time: 20 min

Total time: 3hrs 20 min

Recipe makes 32 mini croissants.

Preparing the puff pastry

Ingredients

• 4 cups flour

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 4 tsp active dry yeast more (2 packets)

• 2 1/4 tsp kosher salt

• 3/4 stick of butter chilled in cubes

• 1 3/4 stick of frozen butter

• 14 tablespoons of COLD water

Suggestion -- the dough can be prepared in a bowl using your hands, or in order to keep the butter from melting, the dough can be prepared in a stand mixer using the dough hook.

Directions

1. whisk flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a bowl

2. add chilled butter cubes to the flour and mix to form bread crumbs

3. slowly add the water to combine

4. knead until combined into a uniform dough

Completing the puff pastry

1. roll the dough out into a roughly 1/2" thick rectangle

2. dust the flour off

3. grate the frozen butter and use half of it to place on 2/3 of the rolled out pastry

4. trifold the dough (like folding a letter) over the grated butter

5. with the seam on the bottom, roll the folded dough out again

6. dust the flour off

7. add the rest of the grated frozen butter to 2/3 of the rolled out pastry and trifold it again

8. roll out with seam on bottom

9. fold the dough for the last time and dust the flour off

10. wrap the folded puff pastry in plastic wrap and leave it to chill in your refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight
    

Making the croissants

Ingredients

• 1 egg and 2 tbsp of whole milk mixed together (for egg wash)

• marmalade of your choice (I used apricot)

• dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate of your choice
  

Cutting & shaping

1. after the dough has been chilling for 2 hours or more, remove it from the fridge and give it one final roll, rolling it out to be an even 1/4" thick rectangle

2. cut the batch in half horizontally to make 2 approximate 8”x15” rectangles -- you can choose to use half for your empty or marmalade croissants and the other half for your chocolate ones, however it is easier to work with half of the dough at a time
   

Making the traditional crescent shape

1. cut the 8”x15” rectangle into triangles (5” base and 1” tip) and make a small 1cm incision at base (see diagram)

2. you can choose to add marmalade at the base or leave the empty, or do both!

3. shape by stretching tip out to make 9” long and narrower triangle and roll from base up

4. place on baking sheet with seam at bottom

Suggestion -- if you choose to make both marmalade and empty croissants, make sure to mark which ones are which on your parchment paper, so there is no confusion when serving!

Making the "pain au chocolat" shape

1. cut the 8”x15” rectangle dough in half vertically -- each skinny rectangle will be 4 inches wide

2. cut 3 even slices horizontally, yielding eight 4"×5" rectangles

3. continue to cut each rectangle in half lengthwise so you obtain sixteen 2"×5" rectangles

4. for each individual chocolate croissant, gently stretch the 2x5in rectangle to be 8 inches long

5. place a few chocolate chips at one end and tightly roll the dough up and place on baking sheet with seam at bottom
   

Proof

1. cover your baking sheets with plastic wrap and let your shaped croissants proof for 1 hour at room temperature followed by one hour in the fridge

Bake

1. preheat oven to 400F

2. use the egg and milk mixture to egg wash the croissants twice

3. bake the croissants for 10min at 400F and reduce the temperature to 375F and bake for 8-10 more minutes -- until golden brown

4. let croissants cool

Serving suggestion

- Sprinkle your empty croissants and pains aux chocolat with powdered sugar.

- Serve your marmalade-filled croissants with an assortment of berries.

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