Croissants

By arthurlemay

Have patience. These are truly delicious. You just need to plan ahead.

Ingredients

• 4 cups King Arthur flour, plus more as needed for dusting work surface.
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 envelopes active dry yeast (or 2/3 oz. fresh yeast)
• 2 1/2 sticks butter, cold
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (final stage)

Details

Servings 12

Preparation

Step 1

Heat milk, sugar and salt in a small pan over low heat. Heat milk to about 100 degrees. DO NOT OVERHEAT.

Sprinkle dry yeast over surface of warm milk. Let stand until milk has soaked through all the yeast, about 10 minutes. Whisk until completely dissolved.

Place the flour in a large bowl. Pour yest mixture into center. With wooden spoon, stir in dry ingredients from side of bowl toward center. Sti in until no dry flour or clumps of dampened flour can be seen, then beat for about 30seconds, until dough is somewhat smoother. Dough should be somewhat loose and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and set aside in refrigerator for 8-12 hours (overnight).

Cut butter into thin slabs, lengthwise preferred.

With flour on work surface, sprinkle each slab with additional flour, and using rolling pin, pound each slab to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Set aside.

Remove dough from bowl, punch down and pat dough into an 8-by-14-inch rectangle. Mark dough into thirds with light fingertip pressure. Break butter into 1 inch poeces and cover lower two thirds of dough. Fold down top third of dough and then fold up bottom third .

Rotatedough 90 degrees, with the short end facing you and the open flap to your right. With a rolling pin, press cold dough to create a rowof shallow depressiions. Work with the rolling pin parallel to the short end of dough until the dough is approximately 10-by-24-inches (2 layers of butter).

Again, mark dough in thirds and fold top third down and bottom third up. Turn folded dough so that the open flap is on you right. Roll pin lengthwise and widthwise until dough is approximately 10-by-24--inches (6 layers of butter).

Repeat folding and rolling dough to10-by-24-inches (now 18 layers of butter). Fold in thirds and refrigerate 2-12 hours to allow dough to relax and rise.(now 54 layers of butter)

Remove dough from refrigerator and rope dough lengthwise and widthwise until dough is approximately 10-by-24-inches. Repeat folding and rolling one more time (162 layers). return to refrigerator for 1 hour to allow the dough to relax.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.


Remove dough from refrigerator. Let stand on floured surface for about 5 minutes. Roll dough to a width of at least 18 inches and a length of between 21 and 24 inches.

Using a pastry wheel, cut rectangle into three strips, each 6-inches wide. The croissants will be formed from triangleds cut from the three strips, 6-8 triangles per strip.

Shape croissants by placing base of triangular shaped dough facing you. Pull gently outward on cornersto elongate base, and using your fingertips, everting firm but gentle pressure, roll up triangle about a third of the way to the tip, Gently pull the tip to stretch it and roll as before, another third of the way. Stretch tip and complete rolling, making sure when you are finished, the tips of the base of the triangle should be folded forward in the classic croissant shape,

Arrange croissants on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, brush lightly with egg mixture (1 egg, 2 tablespoons milk)

Let croissants rise, uncovered, at room temperature, until doubled in size, anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours.

Bake in 375 degree oven, until croissants are golden brown, about 25 minutes.