laminated dough: croissants

croissants, like puff pastry, are made from laminated dough, meaning you roll fat into the dough through a series of folds and rolls to get the end product of crisp, light-as-air layers of dough. the main difference between puff pastry and croissants is that croissant dough contains yeast, so it must be proofed. another difference is that croissant dough is rich, meaning the dough itself contains fat (aside from the wad of butter folded into it). as with puff pastry, the best croissants are made with whole butter, though you will struggle with butter oozing out of the seams with every fold.

what i love about french cooking and baking techniques is that even the smallest, seemingly arbitrary details often carry meaning. this applies to traditional croissants as well. “in bakeries in france, the croissant with straight ends was made with all butter. if the ends of the croissant are curved inward toward each other, that tells you it was made with shortening,” Chef Kim said. and i always thought that was just added for show….

croissants

8 oz. milk
1/2 oz. fresh yeast (use 1/4 oz. if dried)
1/2 oz. sugar
1/4 oz. salt
1 1/2 oz. butter, softened
14 oz. bread flour
8 oz. butter, cold
2 egg yolks beaten, for egg wash

scald the milk, and cool it to lukewarm. dissolve in the yeast. add the sugar, salt, first quantity of butter and bread flour. mix until it forms a smooth dough, but don’t develop the gluten. ferment the dough for about an hour at roughly 75 degrees F. take it out, punch it down and spread it out on a flat pan. rest the dough for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. take it out, and roll it out on a floured counter to about 1/2 inch thick. make sure it is a little longer than it is wide. pound out the last amount of butter with a rolling pin, turning it a half turn and flipping it over in between until it is in a rough rectangle shape, about 1/2 inch thick. place the butter packet on top of the dough, and fold it over, pinching the seam all around to secure the butter inside the dough as best you can.

put the dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. after resting it, pound it with the rolling pin to soften the butter and roll it out to about 1/2 inch thick, keeping the fat sealed in and the edges as square as possible. lay out the dough in front of you, and fold in one side then the other, as you would fold a letter. this is known, unsurprisingly as a three-fold.

place your “letter” of fat and dough back in the fridge for 30 minutes. you will do two more three-folds–resting 30 minutes in between–for a total of three. after the final fold, leave the dough in the refrigerator overnight. you are now one day away from tasting buttery croissants. after letting the dough rest eight to 16 hours, remove it from the refrigerator. preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. roll out your dough to about 1/4 inch thick. trim your edges to create an even rectangle. now, with a paring knife cut skinny vertical triangles from the dough. “i think what you want it end up with is called an isosceles triangle–didn’t any of you take math class?” Chef Kim said.

pull your triangles apart, line them up and slice a small vertical slit at the base of each one. pull apart the little legs to make a shape that resembles–appropriately–the eiffel tower. tug gently on the top of the triangle to stretch it up a bit.

starting with the base, fold the legs over and roll so you end with the skinniest part of the triangle on the outside. repeat until you have made all your croissants.

proof the croissants for 10 to 15 minutes at about 75 degrees F. egg wash each croissant, being careful not to leave any pools of egg in the crevices of your dough. bake them until they’ve puffed up and turned golden brown, about 15 minutes. like baked puff pastry, croissants will last a few days on the counter. they are lovely at room temperature or slightly warmed with a little smear of fruit preserves and–surprise–an extra pat of butter.