So, this is part of the new Christmas tradition around here. At least I've made these 2 Christmas's in a row now. I finally got them to look like croissants so I'm posting the recipe now!!
Christmas Morning Croissants1 ounce fresh yeast
3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/4 cup white or packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup milk, or more
1 pound unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour, for dusting
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
Use your dough hook, place the yeast, flour, sugar, and the milk and mix for 2 or 3 minutes until a soft moist dough forms on the hook. Add your salt. If the flour isn't moistened with a cup of milk, add more, a tablespoon at a time until it is moistened and smooth, I think I used 4 or 5 tablespoons extra. Crank your mixer on high and let it go for another 4-5 minutes until it's very smooth and elastic.
Turn the dough out onto a floured board, cover with a damp towel and let it rest for 15-20 minutes. This will relax the glutens, you know, to keep the croissants light and flaky. Now, remove the towel and, using a rolling pin, roll it out into a 10 by 9-inch rectangle 1/2 inch thick, or so. One thing to note here, you need to get it close to this size and shape, but this is not surgery and if your rectangle has rounded corners, that's perfectly fine.
Now, wrap that up in plastic then chill for 1 hour or 2, if you need to you can leave it overnight.
10-15 minutes before the dough is "done" resting in the refrigerator, prepare the butter. I bought a big discount block of butter so it was fairly soft and just took some manual manipulation to get it workable. But if you have sticks you'll want to beat up the butter with your rolling pin. Do this on a floured surface and form it up to a rough rectangle 6 by 8 or so.
Place it between 2 pieces of parchment paper or plastic wrap and set aside.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it on a floured work surface into a 10 by 15-inch and 1/4-inch thick rectangle. Now, if you want to CAREFULLY trim an edge to get that perfect rectangle, you can do it here.
Make sure and brush any excess flour off the dough through out the process. Place the shorter side of the dough parallel to the front of your body on the work surface. Drop your butter sculpture in the middle, long-ways. Fold the bottom up over the butter and brush off any excess flour and then fold the top down over the butter to overlap. Now take the encased butter and press down lightly with your rolling pin to push all the layers together and make sure they have contact. They won't necessarily stick so just be aware some slippage may occur, you've been warned.
Continue rolling the layered dough to form a new 10 by 15-inch rectangle.
Here's a tip that it'd never heard before: patch any holes in the rolled rectangle with a dusting of flour where butter may have popped through!!
Ok, now fold into thirds, like a letter, brush off any excess flour. Wrap well in plastic and chill for 30 minutes to an 1 hour and up to overnight.
Now here's the easy part, just do this same fold roll, fold, wrap, chill, 3 more times!
After the fourth time, you can let the dough chill overnight or for 1 hour or just roll it out to a 13 by 24-inch square that is a little less than 1/4-inch thick and cut out your croissants and shape them. Now, you will want to trim all your edges to be "cut" edges, this will give you that crispy croissant.
I rolled out my dough and cut it into 6-inch strips. I cut these into triangles, about 4 inches wide at the base of the triangle. Now smash and stretch and pull these till they are about 1 1/2 times the size. Use some flour to keep things from sticking to the counter or board. You'll want to place a piece of scrap dough in the center of the wide end to enclose, this will give you that plump center. Roll the triangles up towards you starting at the wide end and place them 2 inches apart on a parchment lined sheet pan with the tip tucked under and the ends slightly curved in to make a crescent shape. You can freeze the croissants at this point or in a small bowl whisk up your egg wash using the egg and milk and gently brush the croissants.
Here's the step that I missed the first time I made these, so this is the important part!
Proof the croissants! So, place them in an oven that is warm but not turned on, with a pan of hot water in the bottom to create a moist environment like a proof box. Set aside to proof for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours until puffed up and spongy to the touch. Now, you'll see them release some of the butter, that's ok. I leave this melted butter, but you can pour it off if you like.
Take 'em out and heat the oven to 425°.
I take a shallow dish and fill with it boiling water from the kettle put that on the bottom shelf of the oven and close the door. Now, after a minute or two place the croissants in the middle of the oven and spritz with a spray bottle of water. Please make sure you don't hit the oven light, if might shatter and that's a whole lot of work wasted. Close the door and turn the oven down to 400°F. After 10 minutes, rotate your pan and turn the oven down to 375°F. Bake another 5 to 8 minutes until golden brown.
Serve warm with a little honey and nuttella.
