ButterCrossaints

Myself and my best buddies "B" , "V" baked these croissants on the day we submitted our master’s thesis. The most difficult phase in our lives was writing this thesis. Our eyes were swollen big time and we looked really tired and exhausted when we got back home, so the first thing we wanted to do was to have a peaceful 24hrs long sleep. But trust me we ended up chatting the whole afternoon and our mood to put on the chef’s hat came in about 4 PM and we went to our dear 24x7 Spar Grocery shop to buy the ingredients for this light and flaky breakfast dish which we had for dinner ;-)))))).

The actual recipe called for overnight fermentation but none of us had patience to leave it for that long. So we modified the actual process…..even its shape too! and Yipppeee!! we did make fluffy and crispy croissants. We saw a couple of movies during the making itself…. so you can imagine the time we would have spent on them. Must say a great evening to remember!!!

The whole process is really tiring and takes a long time; you need to have a lot of patience to do this."B" is the one who suggested this recipe and thanks to her for sharing it with me. Here I have written the actual recipe so its upto you to decide on the fermentation time.

INGREDIENTS

• 500gm All purpose flour
• 15gm dry yeast
• 2 cups sugar
• 1tsp salt
• 2 cups warm milk
• 350 gm Butter
• 1 egg diluted in 2 tbs water
• Extra flour for dusting

METHOD

1. Sieve the flour, sugar and salt together. Transfer them in to a fresh dry bowl. Add the warm milk and yeast. Mix them well to a smooth dough. Dust the dough with extra flour and knead it again. Cover it with a towel and leave it for 1 hour in a warm place. The dough would become double its size after an hour.
2. Put a sheet of cling film on the kitchen top and place the butter over it. Cover them with another cling film and flatten them with hands. Roll it into a rectangle with a rolling pin. Wrap them carefully and place them in the refrigerator to chill.
3. Remove the fermented dough and keep kneading them for a while. Place them on a working surface dusted with flour. Roll them into a rectangle of size larger than the length and width of the butter you had placed in the fridge.
4. Remove the cling from the chilled butter. Place them over the dough and fold it in from all directions like a small rectangle. Dust them with the flour again and roll into a rectangle again. Fold in the dough again from all direction and repeat the same for 3-4 times. This will make your croissants fluffy. Wrap them with a cling film and place it in the fridge for the next 30 min.
5. You need to repeat the whole folding process 2 more times. Each time you got to leave them in the fridge for 30min. Make sure the dough is well wrapped before placing it in the fridge and leave it overnight.
6. Remove them the next day and cut them in to two halves on a floured surface. Roll the one half into a larger rectangle of 0.5cm thickness. Always remember to keep dusting the flour and also working surface when you roll them. Just like making a chapatti. Once you get a larger rectangle, trim the edges of the dough neatly.
7. Now cut them into triangle (To do that start from one end and finish it in the other so that you don’t waste any dough). Take the bottom of the triangle having the widest part and keep rolling till the end. Place them over a greased baking tray and cover it with a cloth. Allow them to double in size (leave it on for 1 hr).
8. Preheat the oven to 190’c/ gas mark 5.
9. Brush the croissants with the egg wash and bake it for 15min. Always place them in the center of the oven.

Serve with jam/butter/marmalade.