Croissants

[Big Daddy's House]

Ingredients;

2 tablespoons sugar.

1-1/2 teaspoons salt.

2 packages active dry yeast.

3 cups all-purpose flour.

1-1/4 cups milk.

1 cup butter.

1 egg, beaten.

1 tablespoon water.

Directions;

In larger mixer bowl, combine sugar, salt, yeast and 1 cup flour. In 1-qt saucepot over low heat, heat milk until very warm-about 120 to 130 degrees. Using dough hook and with mixer at low speed, beat liquid into dry ingredients until just blended. At medium speed, beat for 2 minutes, while occasionally scraping bowl. Beat in 1/2 cup flour to make thick batter. Beat for 2 minutes more. Stir in about 1 cup flour to make a soft dough. At low speed, knead dough for about 6 to 8 minutes.

Place dough into greased bowl, turning to grease top of dough. Cover, let rise in warm draft-free place, about 80 to 85 degrees until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours. Punch dough down and turn onto lightly floured surface. Cover with a bowl and let rest for 30 minutes.

Roll soft butter between 2 sheets of waxed paper to 10" by 7" rectangle. Turn over for even rolling. Lift top sheet often, to remove wrinklee. Chill butter with waxed paper.

On floured surface, roll dough to 18" by9" rectangle. Remove 1 sheet of paper from butter. Invert butter onto 2/3 of dough, leaving 1" margin on 3 sides.

Remove other sheet from butter. Fold unbuttered dough over butter. Fold buttered dough over center to make a 9" by6" rectangle.

Press edges to seal. Carefully roll layed dough to 18" by 9" rectangle. Dop not press edges to hard or butter might ooze out!

Fold in thirds, as you would do a business letter, to make a 9" by 6" rectangle. Sprinkle with flour, wrap and chill for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Roll, fold and chill twice more. Dough can be left in fridge overnight after final fold.

Cut dough in half. Roll one piece to 21" by 10" rectangle. (Chill other piece while doing this one) Cut triangles 7" wide at base, join ends for 6th triangle.

From 7" base, roll up triangles. Place pointed tip down onto ungreased cookie sheet, aqbout 2 inches apart.

Bend ends around toward pointed tip to form crescent shape.b Repeat with the remaining dough.

Cover croissants loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm place until doubled - about 1 hour. In hot weather, set dough in fridge from time to time to help prevent butter from oozing out. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In cup with pastry brush and 1 cup water, beat egg. Brush over croissants. Bake in hot oven for 15 minutes, or until puffed up and brown. Immediately remove croissants to cool on wire rac k for 10 minutes. Enjoy!!

Taken from The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cook Book.

[natt12321]

Have you tried this recipe BDH? If so how did it work out?

I've always made them by repeating the folding stage 3 times with short rests in between each half turn (about 10-15 minutes)

[Big Daddy's House]

Have you tried this recipe BDH? If so how did it work out?

I've always made them by repeating the folding stage 3 times with short rests in between each half turn (about 10-15 minutes)

I haven't tried it yet, but from what it looks like, there IS quite a lot of folding and chilling of the dough and butter.

I'm too afraid to, actually.

Which is why I'm considering buying the frozen ones already prepped.

[natt12321]

Have you ever tried making your own puff? It's very similar, only with yeast.

They aren't really difficult to make, but not the simplest either, but after you've worked out the method you'll wonder what you were ever frightened of!!

[Big Daddy's House]

I tried it once, and it didn't rise like it should've risen.

And BTW, puff pastry is also sold premade and frozen in its raw state.

[Squirrel]

I've made croissants three times so far. First time was a great success, second time the dough was a success, but after I rolled them out I put half of them in my oven using the proofing setting. Big mistake, melted the butter. I cooked them anyway and ended up with what tasted like shortbread, I ate them. The other half came out fine.

This last time I made them they were wonderful. I have pictures, but can't post until I reach 100 posts. They are a lot of work, but it's like a labor of love. I tried this recipe for the first batch:


and this one for 2 and 3:



I think I will give your recipe a try next BDH. Thanks for sharing. I'll be sure to take pictures of the adventure.

On Edit:

Looks like I can't post the links either. One is on the blog Annie's Eats, and the other is on the blog Tracey's Culinary Adventures in case anyone is interested.

Guess I should just wait until I can make posts that make sense. I'll get there.

[Sadie]

oh Big Daddy this recipe sounds just wonderful and bread is my weakness. I thank you very much for showing this recipe to me and I will try it soon. This will be good served warm and with butter. I sometimes put some honey on my bread in the mornings.

[Christine Steel]

I always make croissants on Christmas morning. Family tradition. Bucks fizz and croissants with jam. No idea why.