It is a time consuming process to make them, but the results are well worth the effort. Make these over two days.
3/4 cup warm milk add
2 tbsp sugar and
1/2 tbsp dry yeast, leave till yeast starts to bubble
250g plain flour, chilled
1/2 tsp salt
250g softened unsalted butter (but cool)
1 egg wash for glazing croissant (1 tbsp of milk, 1 egg)
Put in a bowl flour, salt and yeast, mix well to obtain a nice soft, not too dry, dough. Cover with cling wrap and rest in a warm place for one hour or until double in volume. Punch dough with fist and refrigerate for another half an hour. Meanwhile soften the butter and roll between two sheets of baking paperl and shape it as a thin square with a rolling pin, about 17 cm x 17 cm. The butter should be the same consistency as the dough (you may need to chill it a little to firm it up after rolling).
Roll the pastry into a 26 cm x 26 cm square, turn it till it appears as a diamond. Place the butter in the middle and cover the butter by overlapping the four pieces of pastry, like an envelope. Fold in half. Now you can start rolling and folding your dough like a puff pastry.
Roll the pastry into a long rectangle, take off excess flour and fold starting by the top towards you 2/3 of the pastry then fold bottom piece on top, turn the pastry 1/4 and roll the pastry again and fold as before then refrigerate for one hour.
You will need to repeat this exercise two more times, then refrigerate overnight. Then it is ready to use.
Roll the pastry until about 1cm thick, 20 cm x 85 cm approximately.
Roll around the rolling pin and let rest in the fridge for 15 minutes before continuing.
Roll out. Using a ruler and a pizza wheel, mark the top of the dough at 12.5 cm intervals along the length. On the bottom of the dough make a first mark at 6.25 cm, then continue at 12.5 cm intervals. Cut from the top to the bottom mark, then from the second mark at the top to the same bottom point, creating your first triangle. Continue in this manner creating right way up, and upside down triangles.
To roll them, start from the base and roll softly, finishing by the point of the triangle. Brush it with egg wash, so it sticks together.
Glaze with egg wash, or brush with some melted butter.
Leave to proof for an hour before baking croissants in a preheated oven at 205 ºC fan (230ºC) for 10 – 15 mins.
Bon Apetit
These freeze well. Take them out of the freezer just before placing in a preheated 180 ºC oven for 8 minutes to crisp up.
An adaption of Laurent Loudeac’s recipe.