INGREDIENTS
(For 8 Croissants)
- 610 g of all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tablespoons of Kosher Salt
- 7g of active and dry yeast
- 66g of granulated sugar
- ¾ cups of water
- ½ cup of milk
- 60 grams of butter chilled and cut into ½ inch pieces
- 1 ½ cups of European style butter
- 1 tablespoon of heavy cream
- All-purpose flour to roll
- 1 large egg yolk
DIRECTIONS
Start the détrempe 24 hours before serving: The flour, sugar, salt, and yeast should all be combined in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached. Fill the well you just made in the middle with milk and water. About five minutes of low-speed mixing is required to form a tight, smooth dough around the hook. Take off the hook, then place a damp towel over the dish. Wait 10 minutes before moving.
Reattach the dough hook, and set the mixer at medium-low speed. The butter chunks should be added all at once. Continue mixing for 8 to 10 minutes, scraping down the bowl and hook once or twice along the way, until the dough forms a very smooth, stretchy ball that is not at all sticky.
Create a ball out of the dough, then set it seam-side down on a lightly dusted work area. Cut a “+” shape into the dough by making two deep, perpendicular cuts with a sharp knife. This will facilitate the dough’s expansion into a square form throughout the rising process and make it simpler to roll out later.
Place the dough in the same mixing basin, slashed-side up, wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature for 45 to 1 hour, or until it has risen to about 112 times its original size. Place the bowl in the fridge and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours and a maximum of 12.
Make the butter block while the dough chills: A big sheet of parchment paper should be placed in the center with the butter sticks placed side by side. The parchment paper should then be gently folded over the butter to create a packet. Use a rolling pin to gently beat the cold butter into a flat layer that is only 12 inch thick, fusing the sticks together and making it pliable. Flip the packet over. (At this moment, don’t bother about the shape.)
The parchment could split. Turn the packet over and unwrap it, replacing the parchment if necessary with a fresh sheet. To create an 8-inch square, fold the parchment paper over the butter once more, this time producing neat, clean folds at right angles (as if you were wrapping a gift).
Once more flipping the packet over, roll the pin across the contents to press any air bubbles out and further flatten the butter into a thin layer that fills the entire packet. A level, square of butter with straight edges is the desired outcome. Refrigerate the butter block after moving it there.
The dough should be taken out of the fridge, uncovered, and placed on a clean work area eighteen hours before it is to be served. (Its size will have doubled.) With the heel of your hand, press down on the dough. Stretch the dough outward and flatten it into a rough square that is no larger than 8 inches on one side using the four points where you cut the dough.
The dough should be placed on top of two pieces of plastic wrap that are parallel to one another on the work surface. Maintaining the squared-off borders, wrap the rectangle of dough, then roll your pin over the top, as you did with the butter, pressing the dough into the plastic to create an 8-inch square with straight sides and right angles. For 20 minutes, freeze.
Both the dough and the butter should be taken out of the refrigerator. Set the butter aside. Put the dough on a lightly dusted surface after removing the plastic wrap (you’ll need it again). Roll the dough, retaining an 8-inch width and rolling it out to a length of 16 inches (barely wider than the butter block). Make sure no flour sticks to the dough’s surface by brushing off any excess with a pastry brush.
The dough will be used to completely enclose the butter block before being rolled out. They should be equally solid, with the dough being a little colder than the butter, to ensure that they do so evenly. While still being able to bend without breaking, the butter should be cold. Allow it to rest at room temperature for a few minutes if it seems hard or brittle. Once the top of the butter block is revealed, carefully invert it in the middle of the dough rectangle using the parchment paper, making sure all four sides are parallel.
Peel off the parchment paper after gently pressing the butter into the dough. You should have a block of butter with a thin border of dough running along two of the edges and overflow dough on the other two.
One side of the dough that is protruding should be grabbed and brought over the butter toward the center. Repeat with the other side of the dough to completely enclose the butter. Stretch the dough if required and pinch it together at all seams so that no butter is visible. You don’t need the dough to overlap, but you do want the two sides to touch. Rotate the dough 90 degrees so the middle seam is vertical, then lift the entire block and lightly flour the underside.
The dough should be lightly beaten all along the surface to extend and flatten it. Position the rolling pin perpendicular to the seam. Roll out the dough lengthwise along the seam into a narrow slab that is 24 inches long and 14 inch thick. If additional flour is required to prevent sticking, gently duster underneath and on top of the slab. To maintain consistent layers of dough and butter, push the dough toward and away from you with the rolling pin rather than downward.
Try your best to keep straight, parallel sides by lifting the dough occasionally to check that it isn’t adhering to the surface.
Trim the shorter ends using a wheel cutter or long, sharp knife, removing extra dough where the butter doesn’t stretch all the way, and cutting off the corners to create a very straight-edged, even rectangle of dough. The most constant and even lamination will result from maintaining the rectangular shape, especially at this point. If while rolling the dough you notice any air bubbles, pierce them with a paring knife or a cake tester to release the air and continue.
Flour should be brushed off the dough’s surface. Grab the shorter side of the rectangle that is further away from you, align the sides, and fold it toward the middle of the dough slab. To make the dough stick to itself, lightly press. Leave a 1/8-inch gap where the ends meet in the middle and repeat with the opposite side of the dough. The slab should now be folded in half crosswise along the center slit. You should now have a four-layered, rectangular book-shaped package of dough. This “double spin” has now resulted in four times as much butter being layered inside the dough.
Wrap the book tightly in the plastic that was set aside. Roll the dough that has been wrapped in plastic over to flatten it and reshape it if it is thicker than about 112 inches or if it has lost some of its rectangularity. The book should be frozen for 15 minutes, then chilled for an hour.
Give the dough about five minutes to rest at room temperature. Place unwrapped item on a lightly dusted surface. After beating the dough, roll it out (Step 10) as previously to form another long, slender 3/8-inch-thick slab. It ought to be comfortable and easy to extend. Remove any extra flour by dusting.
Fold the dough in thirds, bringing the top third of the slab down and over the center third before bringing the bottom third up and over. The layers are tripled in this “simple turn.” To help the layers stick, lightly press. Wrap once more tightly in plastic and freeze for 15 minutes before cooling for an hour.
After letting the dough remain at room temperature for about 5 minutes, unwrap it and set it on a surface that has been lightly dusted with flour. As before, beat the dough and flatten it out into a 14 by 17-inch block (15-by-16-inch for pain au chocolat or ham and cheese croissants). Try to position the dough as closely to those measurements as you can because it will start to spring back. Remove any extra flour with a brush, wrap in plastic, and place on a cutting board or baking sheet. 20 minutes of freezing followed by overnight cooling (8 to 12 hours).
Set up racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven 45 minutes before serving. Over medium-high heat, simmer some water in a skillet. Close the oven door after setting the skillet on the bottom. (The oven’s steam release will produce the perfect environment for proofing.)
Prepare two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside while the steam in the oven is releasing. Give the dough about five minutes to rest at room temperature. Remove from packaging (save the plastic for proofing), set on a very lightly dusted surface, and if necessary, roll out to a size of 17 by 14 inches. Use a pastry brush to remove any extra flour very thoroughly. Create a rectangle that is exactly 16 inches long by cutting the shorter sides with a wheel cutter or long knife and ruler, trimming any uneven edges where not all the layers of dough fully extend, and then cutting the rectangle into four 4-by-14-inch rectangles.
Separate the rectangles, then cut two long, equal triangles by drawing a straight line from the opposing corners of one rectangle using the wheel cutter and ruler. To create 8 triangles, repeat with the remaining rectangles. Each triangle is transformed into a triangle with longer sides that are equal in length by cutting the short side at a little angle.
Grab the two corners of the shorter end, the crescent’s base, and gently pull them outward to extend the points and broaden the base to about 3 inches, working on one triangle at a time. Once the triangle is lengthened and the dough is thinned as it narrows, gently pull outward from the middle of the triangle all the way to the point. Roll the dough snuggly, starting at the base (the short end), while maintaining the point’s center and using moderate pressure. Avoid stretching or rolling the dough too firmly.
Place the crescent on one of the baking sheets that has been lined with parchment, resting it on the triangle’s point. If the dough becomes too soft while you are rolling it, cover the triangles and place them in the freezer for a short period of time before continuing. Four of them per baking sheet, equally spaced. Wrap the baking sheets in plastic wrap very lightly to allow the croissants some opportunity to expand.
Open the oven and place your hand inside three and a half hours before serving: Given that the water in the skillet will have cooled, it should be humid but not hot. The croissants should proof at a temperature of 70 to 75 degrees. (If it gets any hotter, the butter will start to melt and the croissant will get denser.) Place the baking sheets in the oven, and allow the croissants prove there for 2 to 212 hours, or until they are nearly double in size, incredibly puffy, and jiggle softly when the baking sheet is gently shook. The croissants are quite delicate, so resist the impulse to poke or touch them.
The baking sheets should be taken out of the oven, gently uncovered, and then placed in the refrigerator to chill for 20 minutes while the oven is preheating. Heat the skillet to 375 degrees after taking it out of the oven.
Stir the yolk and heavy cream until they are streak-free in a small bowl. Gently brush the yolk and cream mixture with a pastry brush over the flat surfaces of each crescent, trying to stay away from the cut edges that have dough layers exposed.
Bake the sheets for 20 minutes after placing them in the oven. Bake the croissants for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, rotating the baking trays and switching the racks. Remove from the oven, then let the baking sheets cool fully.
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