Classic croissants and "Pain--au-chocolat"

We knead to bake #2: February 2013-- Classic Croissants

This blog post is very important to me. Not only did I manage to conquer my "one of the most difficult things to bake" and I started this blog because my facebook album link was not short enough to be posted on +Aparna Balasubramanian 's event of 12 breads in 2012.... :)  I still have to write a blog post for the 2 breads I made in the first month. Classic Croissants was the bread to make for the month of February 2013. I started my blog this month ...so I was very late to make the bread and even later with the post. But better late than never. This was one of the most exciting and amazing breads to make. I had seen this recipe long back on this video link. I always thought it was very challenging to roll the butter inside a flour dough......and also because of the quantity of butter used. Also, it's very cheap to buy a box of croissants from a local supermarket :)..... But, this 12 breads of 2013 challenge ...helped me overcome all these excuses to try the lovely flaky croissant and it's variant ""pain-au-chocolat"".. which is nothing but a chocolate stuffed croissant.

Have a look at my croissant.....isn't it beautiful.... :) 

I followed the recipe exactly as it was given and shown on Aparna's website here, with a very satisfying result.... :) If anyone wants to make the croissants ,do go through her page for tips and tricks and recipe links she has posted. 

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 4 cups of flour plus extra for dusting
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp cold milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 40 gm butter
• 2 tsp salt ( I used salted butter so omitted the salt)

For the butter layer:

• 250 gm cold butter (unsalted)
• 1/4 cup of milk to brush on the croissant

Recipe:

Day 1:

• Put all the ingredients for the dough in a food processor with a dough blade and process for 3 minutes.
• Gather all the dough from the sides of the processor and process again for another 3 minutes.
• Place the ball of dough on a plate dusted with flour. Make it into a ball and cover it with a plastic wrap tightly. 
• Refrigerate the dough overnight.

Day 2: Make the butter layer

• Cut the butter in 1/4 inch slices and pieces. Arrange the butter on a parchment paper so that it forms a 6 inch square. 
• Cover the square with another parchment paper and roll the butter to a 7 and 1/2 inch square.
• Trim the edges and put them on the top and again roll out the butter.
• Refrigerate the butter when you roll out the dough.

Day 2: Laminate the dough(what i understood, this step encloses the butter square in  the dough and the dough is rolled 3 times....)

• Unwrap the dough and put it on a floured surface.
• Roll it to a 10 and half inch square. 
• Place the butter on top of the dough as shown in the picture.
• The butter should be cold, but not cold enough to break or soft to melt. Refrigerate it till you get the correct consistency of the butter.

• Fold the dough over the butter, like an envelop and seal it.
• Carefully, roll the dough to 8 by 24 inch rectangle. See that the butter doesn't leak.
• Mark the dough in 3 and fold it as shown in the picture.
• Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
• Repeat this step 3 times.

• Wrap it with a plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough again overnight.

Day 3: Make the croissants

• Cut the dough in half, refrigerate one half for another use. 
• Roll out one half of the dough again to 8 by 22 inch rectangle carefully, using little flour. Trim the edges to get a perfect rectangle.

• Cut into uniform triangles. Roll out the triangles to further stretch them to about 10 inch long. 
• Make a cut on top and roll the triangle to a croissant shape. 
• Do it for all the triangles. Put them on a baking sheet, brush them with a little milk  and cover it with a plastic bag.

• Keep them in a cool place and let them rise. They won't double but they will rise a bit( I left them for 2 hours)

• Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for 15 minutes.

• Serve them hot or at room temperature as they are or with some more butter, jam, nutella, etc  .....:) ( I ate one with nutella and it was amazing)

Day 4: Make the pain-au-chocolat

• I used the remaining half of the dough to make pain-au-chocolat, which is croissant stuffed with dark chocolate.
• Roll out the dough again to about 8 by 22 inch rectangle and cut out straight rectangular pieces as shown.
• Put 2 squares of your favorite dark or milk chocolate or both on one end of the rectangular strip and roll it to a cylinder.

• Do it for all the strips and place the cylinder on a parchment paper on a baking sheet. 
• Let it rise for about 1.5-2 hours again and then bake at 200 degrees in a preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Quantity:

• Made about 9 croissants with half dough.
• Makes about 7 pain-au-chocolat.

Notes:

• There are many instructions. The most important is the butter used should be cold-- not ice cold to break...and not soft to melt. 
• Make this recipe with utmost patience and no distractions and in a cold place. I put 3 air-cons on while rolling and laminating and forming the croissants.
• Try to use less flour as possible while rolling. You do not want your croissants to be dry but flaky.
• While rolling the dough at any point if you feel that the butter is leaking, keep the dough in the fridge for 15-30 minutes to chill. 
• Do have a look at these video link, it shows how to roll the dough.
• This is the original recipe which we all used to make the croissants for this event.
• Hmm.. all the best to whoever tries... :) 
• Thank you +Aparna Balasubramanian for letting me join this event. It was an exciting and educating experience.

Another pic of my pain-au-chocolat.....:), chocolate chips all eaten by my kid while i was photographing......!!!