Croissants

Let's just say I was not prepared for how good these would turn out. 

I mean... Look at them! 

Croissants are known to be difficult to make, but I was inspired by this post. This redditor did such a fantastic job! As soon as I saw this, I researched how to go about making them.... which proved to be more difficult than anticipated. There are about as many recipes and methods out there as there are bakers.

I decided to go ahead and wing it. 

I used the recipe that my inspiration had used, with a few minor adjustments (purely because I was much too lazy to measure things in deciliters every time I made this). 

Croissants:

1 cup cold milk

25 g. fresh yeast

1 tbs. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 egg

3 cups flour

3 tbs. softened butter

1 ¼ sticks of butter

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl, using a fork or your fingers, mash the yeast and sugar together. Let this stand for a minute or two until the yeast has completely "melted". You'll know what I mean when you see it. 

2. In a large bowl or stand mixer with a paddle attachment, mix the milk, salt, egg, and yeast just long enough for it to blend together. The dough will be soft, probably a little more than you will be comfortable with. It'll be ok, I promise. I suggest against using the dough hook- there is no need since the dough will be fairly soft. 

3. Slowly add half of the flour. Once it is incorporated, add the butter and mix until there are no pieces of butter visible. Mix in the rest of the flour. Word of warning- I made this a few times already, and one time I did not let my butter soften very well and ended up with butter chunks in the dough. Make sure the butter is soft inside as well as out. 

4. Let rise in a warm spot for about an hour. I find that unless my house is upwards of 70+ degrees, the rising process take forever. I usually turn the oven on its lowest setting, let it preheat, and open the door. After transferring my dough to a glass bowl with a towel on top, I just put it on the open oven door so its nice and warm. (This is probably a sin somewhere, I hope vengeful bakers don't come running after me, rolling pins raised.) 

5. Now, about at this step, I started getting worried. Beating butter, folding butter into dough, folding the dough, flipping around, folding again.... you see what I mean? It really made no sense in my mind until I saw the pictures. From hereon out, I followed his method, except I did not refrigerate the dough after every fold. Come on, I wanted to eat them, not stare at them in the refrigerator. 

6. After all the folding nonsense, roll out the dough, cut it into triangles, and make the actual croissant shape. Then, swipe an egg wash all around them.  I actually ended up cutting the dough one more time than the original recipe asked for because I wanted them to be a little smaller. I also filled a few with chocolate, which was about as delicious as it sounds. 

7. Preheat the oven to 395, and bake for 15 minutes (or until the outsides are brown and you just can't stand the anticipation anymore). 

These croissants were actually not as difficult to make as I originally anticipated, especially once I got the folding method down. Overall, I would say they were a success, and they definitely get better every time I make them. 

Make yourself a cup of tea and enjoy!
-Oksana