Coffee and croissants - a true French breakfast. This is the kind of association that arises when thinking about this baked goods. However, you can taste real croissants not only in France, but also at home. To do this, you will have to bake them yourself.
Gourmets love croissants not only for the tender dough, but also for the abundance of different fillings. They can be sweet, cheesy, meaty, curd.
To prepare the cheese filling, grate the cheese on a coarse grater, add the egg and soft butter. You can use mozzarella, feta, and cheese mixtures. A croissant with such a filling will turn out to be very satisfying.
If you add finely chopped ham to the cheese grated on a coarse grater, you get another option for a hearty filling.
To obtain a fruit and berry filling, fresh or canned fruits are used, cut into small pieces.
If you add an egg, butter and vanillin to the grated cottage cheese, you get a delicious cottage cheese filling. You can also add nuts, fruits or dried fruits to it to taste.
Suitable for filling and sweet curd mass.
Jam, preserves, boiled or classic condensed milk are also great options for filling croissants. But the classic filling option for this type of baking is, of course, chocolate.
Croissant puff pastry can be easily found at the store or made by yourself.
Real croissants are made only from puff yeast dough.
To prepare it you will need:
- wheat flour - 310 g
- dry fast-acting yeast - 7 g
- sugar - 30 g
- salt - half a teaspoon
- milk - 120 ml
- butter - 250 g
- chicken egg - 1 pc.
The dough is prepared in several stages.
In the first stage, all ingredients are used except for butter. You also need to leave 10 grams of flour for the second stage.
First you need to sift the flour with yeast. Add salt, sugar and milk. Mix. Next, you need a mixer with dough attachments. It takes several minutes to knead the resulting mass at a slow speed. Then increase the speed to maximum and knead until the dough is elastic. Usually, it takes about 4 minutes. Then the dough must be wrapped in plastic and left for 30 minutes. Then put it in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours.
In the second step, you will need butter and some flour. Chop the butter into large pieces and add flour to it. Mix with a mixer at high speed for several minutes. It should be soft and smooth, but the butter shouldn't start to melt. From the resulting mass, form a cake with your hands, wrap it in foil and put in the refrigerator for 8 hours.
At the third stage, you can start rolling the dough. It needs to be taken out of the refrigerator and rolled into a rectangle. The recommended thickness is 6-7 mm. Remove the oil from the refrigerator and place it in the middle of the resulting rectangle. It is important that both the butter and dough are cold. Then cover the butter with dough, first on one side, then on the other. Gently pull the edges together and press the ends with your fingers. As a result, the oil should be in a sealed "package".
Next, you need to beat off the oil with a rolling pin from the center to the edges, first one, then the other. The butter should be evenly distributed throughout the dough. You will get a rectangle about 3 cm high. Roll it with a rolling pin a couple of times, put on a flat baking sheet, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for several hours.
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and place it on the table with the long side facing you. Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Its height should be about 6 mm. If the dough sticks, then you can sprinkle it with a little flour. Then fold it again from the edges to the center, roll it with a rolling pin and refrigerate for several hours.
Then repeat the last manipulations again and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator. As before, roll out into a rectangle, fold from the edges to the center, but leave a little space between them. Close the dough like a book and put it back in the refrigerator for a few hours.
Take out the prepared dough and cut it across into two parts. When working with one of them, keep the other cold.
The further process for making croissants from store-bought or self-mixed dough is the same.
Roll out the dough, sprinkle with flour first. Cut it into narrow triangles. Sprinkle sugar over each triangle. You need to start folding from the wide side. Put the resulting bagels on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a cooking brush, brush the bagels with a beaten egg that will brown the croissants. Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees in a preheated oven.
Freshly made dough packed in a tight bag can be stored in the freezer for up to 5 months.
Instead of sugar, you can put any of the fillings you like inside the croissants or pour them with icing on top, decorate with powdered sugar, cinnamon. Rolls with savory filling can be sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds on top.
Croissants are perfect for tea or coffee, and not only for breakfast!
