These were made using a recipe in the France Magazine article "Pastry from Heaven" by Michelin-star chef, Michel Roux.
There is a lot of butter in croissant dough. The dough is mixed using milk, yeast, flour and salt (ie: no butter at all) and allowed to rise. It is then formed into a ball, a cross slashed into the center and the corners are pulled outward like a flower. The butter is placed in a brick in the center and the "petals" are folded overtop to completely enclose the butter. (Did I remember to take a picture of the butter going in the center? Alas, no. I was too excited that everything was working so well that I forgot.) After the butter is sealed inside, the dough is then rolled out with a rolling pin and folded into thirds and placed in the fridge for 30 minutes before being rolled out and folded again.
The rolling step is repeated 3 times. This photo was taken after the 2nd rolling, as can be seen from the two poke marks in the corner. Obviously, in the home kitchen, this marking step isn't really necessary but if several pieces of croissant dough are being prepared, I can see why this poking method is used.
After the 3rd time of folding and rolling, the croissants and pains au chocolat are shaped and placed on a parchment papered cookie sheet. (I reuse parchment paper several times.)
The shaped dough is traditionally brushed with an egg wash. Because I had already bucked tradition by adding a bit of whole wheat flour to the dough, I continued bucking and omitted the egg to use a plain milk wash.
How brilliant are these croissants just out of the oven!?
Cafe au lait, croissant, pain au chocolat and home-made apricot jam. The dark chocolate used was from a 75% bar. It added the perfect sweetness to the bread. Personally, I would not use anything sweeter. (Please also see the photos used for Wordless B&W Wednesday.)
Perfection
Biscotti Picanti . Broa . Brunkans Långa . Challah . Chinese Steamed Flower Rolls . Coccodrillo . Cornucopia . Croissants and Pains au Chocolat . Cuban Bread . Fougasse . Dan's Garlic Bread . Ensaimadas . Five-Grain Bread with Walnuts . Hamburger Buns . Herbed Soda Bread . Italian Knots . Kaiser Rolls . Mary's Dark Onion Rye . Naan . Rewena paraoa . Royal Crown Tortano . Soft Pretzels . St. Hildegard's Spelt Bread . Stollen . Streusel Potato Coffee Cake . Stromboli . Swedish Rye . Sweet Portuguese Bread . Taralli Pugliesi . Whole-Wheat Pita . Yeasted Sprouted Wheat Bread
