Croissants

October’s What’s Baking recipe is for croissants! I’ve never made croissants before, and they are very complicated. It also didn’t help that I was away almost every weekend this month, and this is certainly weekend baking. The recipes were supposed to be posted by Friday, but I needed this weekend to make them so I’m just a little bit late. Eva from Eva Bakes is this month’s host, so sorry I am late Eva!

I’ve been watching a lot of the Great British Bake Show, and they made a pastry that used croissant dough. One contestant tried a different method, and of course it ended poorly for him. When looking for recipes, I did end up choosing a recipe that used an alternative method, where you process the dough and butter together rather than making a butter rectangle that you roll with the dough. I hoped for the best. I was a little worried as I think I could have processed the butter more. My pieces of butter seemed a bit too big in the dough. I hoped for the best.

I’m not usually very good at rolling dough to a certain size, but this dough was fairly easy to roll. I was able to shape my croissants and they looked pretty good. I shaped half and proofed them as directed in this recipe. The second half I proofed in my proofing oven (my microwave has a proofing feature). The first half, done as described, didn’t proof much and I was worried they would fail, but they baked up beautifully and I was so thrilled. Those that were proofed in the proofing oven proofed too much and didn’t bake up quite as well. I have to say I was thrilled with my success with this recipe. It was a really fun challenge. 

Croissants

7/8 cup buttermilk (cold)

¼ cup water, about 75 degrees

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 cups flour

1 tablespoon instant yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces butter

1 egg, beaten, for the egg wash

Combine the buttermilk, water and oil and set aside. 

In a large food processor with a steel blade, combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Pulse a couple of times to combine. With the food processor running, pour the buttermilk mixture down to feed tube of the food processor. Process until a ball of dough forms, then process 30 seconds to knead the dough. Remove the dough from the processor and knead by hand a couple of times. 

Shape the dough into a ½” thick disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for 90 minutes, until the edge of the dough is very firm. 

While the dough is in the freezer, cut the butter into 32 pieces. Place the butter pieces in a bowl and place it in the freezer.

Remove the dough from the freezer and cut into 12 even pieces. Place 3 pieces of dough in the food processor and 8 pieces of butter. Process until the butter and dough are cut into different sizes, no pieces too large. Empty the food processor dough and repeat 3 times with the remaining dough pieces and butter. 

Shape the butter/dough mixture into a 4” x 6” rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle about 6” x 18”. Do your best to keep the sides as straight as possible. Add flour to the work surface as needed to avoid sticking. 

Fold down the top quarter of dough, and fold up the bottom quarter of dough so that they meet in the middle. Then fold in half. Turn the dough so that the folded edge is on the left. This is the first turn.

Reroll the dough into a 6” x 18” rectangle and again fold as directed above. This is the second turn. Roll one more time to 6” x 18” and fold again. This is the third (and final) turn. If all goes well, as your made the turns the larger pieces of butter will incorporate into the dough.

Place the dough into a large ziplock bag and freeze for 30 minutes. At this point, you can shape the croissants or refrigerate the dough for up to 3 days before shaping. 

Make the croissants: fill a 9” x 13” pan with very hot tap water and place on the lowest rack of your oven. Place another rack in the top third of the oven. This is now your proofing oven.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut in two halves. Leave half in the refrigerator while you shape the dough. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Roll the piece of dough into an 8” x 24” rectangle. Achieving 24” is difficult, so do your best. I made it to about 21”. Square the sides with a pizza cutter. Cut the dough into 4 rectangles, approximately 6” x 8”. Cut each rectangle in half diagonally. 

Roll up each triangle, stretching to dough slightly while rolling. Stretch the point of the croissant and tuck it underneath. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces and the second half of the dough. 

Place in the oven and allow to proof for 1 hour. The dough won’t prove a lot, but will rise ever so slightly.

Move the croissants and the water from the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven preheats, brush the croissants with beaten egg.

Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown. Eat the same day that they are baked. 

Recipe from Pastries like a Pro

Stollen

Ok, so you are probably wondering why on earth am I posting stollen in February? This month, the What’s Baking group that I am a part of chose bread. When the theme was picked, I was still in the mode of Christmas baking so I ended up making stollen and I just waited to post it. I know, it’s a little weird but I like this type of bread any time. Make sure you visit this month’s host, Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks , who will share all of the different breads that people made for this month.

Stollen can be as varied as can be, this version is fairly traditional, with a mix of dried and candied fruit, and almonds. This one doesn’t contain a lot of spices, but I’ve had stollen with spices and it’s very nice too. You can use any fruit that you want, as long as the quantities add up. I don’t usually have a lot of candied fruit on hand, usually just a little bit of candied lemon peel, so I usually just add more dried fruit to compensate. I think a little candied fruit can go a long way, and don’t use that horribly artificially colored candied fruit. It’s awful.

This makes two loaves, and the loaves are pretty huge! I don’t think that stollen is hard to make, but it does take a lot of time. The hardest thing in making stollen is when you are kneading the dough, all the nuts and fruits want to escape so it seemed like I was constantly adding those bits back to the dough! I know this isn’t a very seasonal recipe, but it’s one worth saving!

Stollen

3/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped mixed candied fruit

1/4 cup dried currants

3/4 cup apple juice

4-1/2 to 5 cups flour

2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, cubed

2 eggs

2 tablespoons orange zest

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup chopped almonds

Powdered sugar

 In a large bowl, soak raisins, fruit and currants in apple juice for 1 hour to rehydrate; drain and set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups of flour, yeast, sugar and salt. In a small saucepan, heat the milk and butter to 120 degrees. Pour the warmed milk into the bowl with dry ingredients. Beat on medium until mixed. Add the eggs, orange and lemon zest and almond extract; beat until smooth. Stir in the chopped almonds, rehydrated fruit mixture and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. You might not need all 5 cups flour.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Punch dough down; divide in half. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 10 minutes. On a floured surface, shape each half of dough into a 12” x 8” oval. Fold one of the long sides over to within 1 in. of the opposite side; press edges lightly to seal. Place on the baking sheets. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Recipe from Taste of Home

Onion Bialys

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is for onion bialys, which are somewhat similar to a bagel without the hole. The recipe is Polish in origin. I’ve not had the best luck making bagels, but some of the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers said that these were easy and they came together fairly easily. Ok, I decided to give them a shot. You can see how all of the other bakers faired with this recipe by visiting the Tuesdays with Dorie site . You can find the recipe with a quick Internet search.

I agree that these weren’t very hard to make, but they do take time. With two raising times, each at about an hour and a half, these are an all afternoon affair. It seems like lately I haven’t had very much time to bake, not very much time to do much of anything! It took me all of Sunday afternoon to make these. I guess I didn’t mind but it seems like all of the recipes in this book take a really long time. I am looking forward to a muffin or a cookie or something that comes together quickly.

I seemed to have too much dough to make 12 bialys; I think I should have made 14 or 16 and made them smaller. They baked up nicely, although I left mine in the oven at 450 for a little longer than 5 minutes. Most of mine were puffy all around, rather than flatter in the middle and puffy on the sides. I guess you really have to prick the dough a lot to keep them from being puffy. I liked these, which was a little surprising because I don’t like onion bagels and I wasn’t sure if these would be the same. The onion is nice, but not too strong, which is what I find to be the case with onion bagels. I’m glad I tried these.

Recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan, pages 90-92.