Butter Croissants
by patisseriemakesperfect | posted in: Blog Update, Breakfast, Lessons, Recipes, Viennoiserie | 3
Recipe: Croissant au beurre
Level: Advanced
Techniques: Leavened Puff Pastry
I’ll be honest, a classic recipe such as croissants was one of the
reason I wanted to learn French patisserie. I remember watching a
French patissier making them on television, it looked like a laborious
process and initially I thought, why would you bother when you can
get them from a supermarket so cheaply?
Then, last year when we went to France and I tasted the pain au
chocolat and the croissants on offer at Du Pain et Des Idées, I
realised how good they really are in comparison to the cake-like
lacking in butter thing served up at most supermarkets for you to warm
through at home.
The croissant is a form of Viennoiserie (translates as ‘things of
Vienna’) and is another example of a patisserie product that is
considered synonymous with France, despite having it’s origins in
another country. This time it’s not Italy, but Austria- OK so there was a
massive clue in the name ‘things of Vienna’.
The croissant (meaning crescent) is thought to be a French imitation
of the Viennese kipfel. August Zang was an Austrian artillery officer,
who opened a Viennese Bakery (Boulangerie Viennoise) in Paris in
1838. This bakery later became very famous and the format as well as
the Kipfel was imitated and the French croissant along with the
Viennoiserie was born.
Zang is actually quite an interesting character and despite his
association with the croissant, he is better known for founding ‘Die
Presse‘ on his return to Austria. The newspaper is still running today.
He also owned a bank and mine in Styria, the site of the mine was
renamed to Zang Valley (Zangtal) in his honour. His ornate tomb in
Austria is a well visited tourist attraction in the area.
The croissants in ‘the book’ did not instruct me to shape them into
crescents though. Apparently they are more commonly served straight
now and there have been hints that the more crescent shaped the
croissant, the less butter it contains, or heaven forbid, margarine may
have been used. I’ve done a quick trawl of the internet and I’m not
sure how much of this is truth or an urban myth…however my
croissants were straight and dangerously buttery.
I suppose it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me, but I never
actually realised that croissants are quite simply a leavened puff
pastry. So, despite this being an advanced recipe in ‘the book’, I
wasn’t too daunted by the techniques. My only concern was that the
dough wouldn’t rise, I don’t have the best track record with bread and
instead of using ‘fresh yeast’ as recommended, I was using a fast-
action active dried yeast.
Like puff pastry, there is a lot of chilling time involved in this recipe
(not for me, but for the dough). I started by assembling my ingredients
and making the dough in my KitchenAid.
The dough is a mix of plain flour, yeast, sugar, butter and powdered
milk, this is mixed together whilst cold water is slowly added to form a
dough.
This is the first time I have ever bought powdered milk and I’m not
tempted to start adding it to my drinks, it did give the croissants a
creamy milky taste though. Some recipes seem to use fresh milk in
place of powdered. I don’t know which is more traditional.
Once the dough has come together it’s patted down, wrapped in cling-
film and placed in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours. I actually made
the dough quite late at night and I left it in the fridge overnight before I
added the butter and began the signature folds that are so reminiscent
of puff pastry.
After the butter had been rolled out and added to the pastry, it was
rolled and folded twice, whilst being rested for an hour after each roll.
When the pastry was finally ready to use, I rolled it out to a 50cm x
50cm square and cut out my triangles. The triangles are then rolled
from the base up and the tips are tucked underneath to stop them
unfurling.
I placed them on a baking tray and put them in the airing cupboard for
two hours to prove.
Once they’d risen I brushed them with egg wash and popped them in
the oven for 12 minutes. Yep, that’s right, 4 hours resting time, 2 hours
proving time and then they need 12 minutes in the oven. Still they
were completely worth all of that time and patience.
I was excited when I took them out of the airing cupboard and they’d
increased in size, however when I watched them puff up and turn
golden in the oven I was very pleased with myself.
I don’t really agree with the ‘Advanced’ rating of this recipe, the
process is quite simple to follow, but some patience is required. I’ve
found ‘Intermediate’ level layer cakes tougher to make than these
croissants. Also, the end product is quite simply delicious.
Do give these a go, the recipe is here, this same dough can be used
to create pain au chocolat or pain au raisin, just add the ingredients
before you roll them up to prove.
Next week will be more viennoiserie, I’m getting a delivery of fresh
yeast and I’ll be interested to see if there is a difference in taste and
rise.
Thanks for reading.
Angela
