The puffed croissants are soft single-portion leavened desserts that are eaten for breakfast at the bar or in pastry shops . They are the famous French croissants , those flavored with butter and filled with fruit jam , custard or hazelnut cream . Reproducing them at home as good as those at the bar is a great satisfaction, but traditional flaking requires many steps (albeit small) and many rests so that the butter does not overheat. For this reason, I have tried many recipes and different methods to simplify this boring peeling that we are all afraid of making mistakes, trying to obtain a good result. In reality, the result was clearly superior to my expectations, these croissants are delicious , soft and fluffy as I would never have expected from simplified peeling .
The flavor of the homemade croissants is delicious and the preparation is simple , in the process there are detailed step-by-step explanations of each step, I was very meticulous to avoid any failure. Finally you can reproduce breakfast with cappuccino and croissant like at the bar even at home, you can freeze the croissants and defrost them if necessary even for the following days or weeks.
Ingredients
- 580 g of flour
- 250 ml of milk at room temperature
- 80 g of creamy butter at room temperature
- 60 g of granulated or brown sugar
- 2 whole medium eggs and 1 yolk
- 10 g of fresh brewer’s yeast or 4 g of dry yeast
- a teaspoon of vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
For browsing
- 80 g of melted butter
- 100 g of sugar
To brush
- 1 egg at room temperature
Instructions
- The ingredients must all be at room temperature, put the butter in a bowl and work well until you obtain a creamy consistency.Place the milk, sugar and chopped yeast into the planetary mixer, mix well until the yeast has dissolved completely.
- Add half the flour and knead with the dough hook at medium speed.At this point, all the ingredients must be added gradually and without haste, waiting for them to be absorbed by the dough before adding the next ingredient.Add one shelled egg at a time, the yolk, the remaining flour, the vanilla and the salt.
- Add the butter in several batches and continue kneading with the dough hook for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the mixer and transfer it to a floured pastry board.Lift the edges of the dough and close them towards the center.Turn the dough over and leave it to rise in a bowl (or in the mixer bowl) covered with cling film in the switched off oven with the light on (28°C) until it doubles in volume.
- Deflate the dough, transfer it to the floured pastry board and divide it into 8 parts of approximately 130 g each.
- How to browse croissants with the simple method:Lightly melt the butter for the flaking in a saucepan or in the microwave, it must not boil, then let it cool.
- Meanwhile, roll out one loaf at a time with a rolling pin, using the flour to prevent it from sticking, it must be very thin.
- Transfer the disc of dough onto a sheet of baking paper, brush it with the now cold butter and sprinkle it with sugar.
- Roll out a second loaf and overlap it with the first, brush with butter and sprinkle with sugar.
- Continue in the same way with the remaining loaves, in the last one you must not put either butter or sugar.
- Take the edges of this last disc of dough, pull them slightly and close them under the first disc at the bottom.
- With a rolling pin, roll out the dough until the diameter of the circle is approximately 40 cm, so you will avoid making croissants that are too big.
- How to form croissants : Using a long knife with a smooth blade or a pizza cutter, cut the dough into wedges: first make a cross to divide it into quarters and then divide each quarter into 4 wedges, for a total of 16 wedges.
- You can fill the croissants now, spreading jam or Nutella but they will be more difficult to shape, so you can decide to do it later by cutting them after cooking.
Take a wedge of dough, widen the smaller side of the triangle and roll it on the pastry board until you reach the tip. - Place the croissants spaced apart on a baking tray lined with baking paper. They must rise in the oven with the light on (28°C) until they double in volume (2-3 hours).
- Preheat the oven to 180°C in static mode.
- Brush the croissants with a not cold and lightly beaten egg, if you like you can add chopped hazelnuts or sugar on the surface.
- Bake in the lowest part of the already hot oven at 180°C, the time depends on the size of the croissants and the oven, so I recommend that you brown them on the surface, then cover them with a sheet of aluminum foil and continue cooking until they are well browned underneath too.
- Remove them from the oven, let them cool on a pastry board, they will keep soft for up to 4 days if you place them in a freezer bag.
