Following my PUTZY pasta YouTube debut on Wednesday, I’ve been sweating over the next thing to make. There are so many putzy things, and yet, everyone has their own levels of what’s too much work and what’s an acceptable amount of work. I asked Jim for ideas, and he said everything I make is too much work if he had to make it.
I had been toying with the idea of bread, butter, and jam for the last couple of days. I tested a batch of macarons this morning and read up on the history of chocolate making. I still like all of these ideas–they’re totally putzy!
There was that lovely Halloween morning when Jim and Joe went to the library to vote and I tagged along because the fancy grocery store was within walking distance of the library. I grabbed a bakery croissant and watched the world go by in the market cafe feeling cozy and sophisticated.
It sealed the deal when we had my friend, Maddie, over for dinner last night. Her lovely presence reminded me of the beautiful croissants she had made over the summer during the COVID baking craze. At the time I remember simultaneously giving her kudos and shaking my head. I told her I’d never tried making them because they were, “Way too putzy for me.”
Bingo.
I did a bit of research on croissants and it got a little annoying how exacting people can get with their recipes. I gathered the gist of them and discarded any sort of instruction requiring me to do something weirdly specific, like cut dough into 7.25″ pieces. While I accept that certain comestibles are arduous and time consuming, it brings me joy to reject arbitrary precision. I even throw in extra flour. or salt or butter to be devilish.
I’ve made bread more times than I can count, so making croissant dough was similar enough. You use milk instead of water, and there’s no oil in croissants like there is in bread. The butter you slather over croissant dough supplies all the fat.
The difference came down to the laminating process. Bread just rises and then you bake it. Croissant dough rises, and then you shape it into a rectangle, place a big, flat block of butter on it, fold it like a letter to Santa, flatten that, chill it, and repeat the folding process 3-8 times. The more times you do it, the more flakey layers you are rewarded with. I lost track of how many times I folded this dough, but I’m guessing it was in the 5-6 range.
After the laminating process, you get to cut the dough in half, and then the halves in half, and then those halves in half, and then those halves in half. It yields 16 croissants, thousands of layers, and one very buttery-smelling kitchen.
We couldn’t even speak after we tried the first flakey, crunchy, soft-on-the-inside, slathered-in-more-butter bite. Then we washed it down with some very rich hot chocolate.
I think tomorrow I’ll make two more batches and deliver them to everyone I know. I’m dough-hooked.
Croissant Recipe
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole milk at 110F
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp yeast
3-4 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp fine sea salt
1 1/2 cups salted butter
1 egg
Process
In a stand mixer bowl combine the warm milk, brown sugar, and yeast. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and it will become foamy and bubbly.
Add 3 cups of flour and salt. Using a dough hook, knead the mixture on the lowest setting until the dough is formed. Add more flour as needed, 1/4 cup at a time. Dough should be slightly sticky but not gooey.
Take dough out of the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead it with your hands a bit and then place it back in the bowl. Cover it and refrigerate it for an hour.
Lay out a long (20″) sheet of plastic or cling wrap. Remove the wrapping from 3 sticks of butter and place them on the plastic or cling wrap. Place another sheet (the same size as the first) on top of the butter. Using your hands (preferably when your hands are cold) gently press the butter sticks down though the plastic wrap so they mash together. Using a rolling pin, even the surface of the butter so it is a flat rectangle, about 8″ x 14″. Use the rolling pin to get straight sides.
After the dough has chilled for an hour, roll it into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface. The rectangle should be about 10″ x 16″. Place the flattened butter block in the center and fold the dough in a trifold over the butter. Roll this new rectangle out into a flattened 10″ x 16″ rectangle again. Wrap in cling wrap and place on a baking sheet. Return the dough to the refrigerator and allow it to chill for another hour. Repeat the folding process at least three more times, each time allowing the dough to chill for an hour after the fold.
After the folding (also known as laminating) process is complete, using a bench scraper cut the 10″ x 16″ rectangle in half lengthwise and vertically. This will yield four rectangles. Cut each rectangle in half to yield a rough square. Cut the square along the diagonal to get a triangle shape. You will have 16 triangles.
Create a small cut on the narrowest side of your triangle. Then roll the triangle from the narrow side to the tip on the opposite end. Repeat for each croissant, and then place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Eight croissants per baking sheet. Allow the croissants to rise for 1-2 hours on the pans.
In a small bowl, beat egg lightly. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg onto the risen croissants. This will give the croissants a beautiful golden shine.
Finally, bake at 400F for 12 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 for 5 minutes. Bake one pan at a time. Rotate the pan after reducing the heat. Cool croissants for 15 minutes on a wire cooling rack before consuming.