Buttery and Flaky French Croissants

Submitted by amisp.amisp

"When I long for a taste from home, this is what I indulge in. It reminds me of Paris."

 

• Ready In: 4hrs 20mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Yields: 10-12 Croissants
• Serves: 10-12

ingredients

• 500 g of t45 wheat flour
• 10 g fine salt or 10 g kala namak
• 50 g granulated sugar
• 20 g of baking yeast
• 300 g of vegetable milk (e.g., soy, cashew, rice, oat)
• 300 g margarine
• 3 table spoons of vegetable milk (e.g., soy, cashew, rice, oat)
• 1 table spoon agave syrup

directions

1. With a mixer (or by hand), mix together the flour, salt, sugar, yeast and milk. Don’t let the yeast touch beforehand the sugar or salt.
2. · Knead until the dough is well bounced and no longer sticks. If after having kneaded well you still feel the dough is wet or sticky, add a little flour (lightly). You must knead well because this is what will give softness to your croissants.
3. · Make a beautiful ball of the dough and leave it on a corner of your work surface while you prep the margarine. Later, when you marry the margarine and the dough, both should be at the same temperature.
4. · Take a piece of parchment paper. Place your 300g (1.1 lb) of firm margarine in the center and beat/loosen it with your roller. Next, fold tightly the parchment paper into a squared envelope (leave space between the margarine and the 4 edges of the envelope because the margarine is about to be spread further). With your roller, spread the margarine within the parchment envelope. Shape it into a square of homogenous thickness.
5. · Make a (large) cross incision with a sharp knife on top of the ball of dough and open up the ball from its center outward. As you open up the ball, try to reform it into a square of dough and leave greater thickness in the center of the dough.
6. · Lay the margarine square onto the dough square (the dough square should be larger) and close back up the dough square over the margarine square into an envelope with 4 flaps overlapping one another tightly.
7. · With your roller, roll out the dough square lengthwise into a rectangle. Fold said rectangle tightly in 3 folds so as to reform a square of dough. Keep the top opening to the right.
8. · Repeat previous step (i.e., roll out the dough square lengthwise into a rectangle, etc).
9. · Wrap the square of dough into kitchen wrapping paper (to keep moisture) and refrigerate for 2 hours.
10. · Take square of dough and unfold its 3 flaps into a 60cm*40cm (24 inches*16 inches) rectangle. Use roller to even out the shape if need be.
11. · With a long knife, cut this rectangle into a series of 40cm*12cm (16 inches*5 inches) triangles. This should give you about 12 croissants.
12. · Taking the 12cm (5 inch) side as your base, make a 1-inch incision in the middle of said base before rolling up the triangle dough from the base upward to its top. Do not crush the dough as you roll it up.
13. · Arrange raw croissants onto a baking sheet before brushing them with the golding mixture (i.e., 3 table spoons of vegetable milk + 1 table spoon of agave syrup).
14. · Let the croissants “push up” (i.e., grow) for an hour. The best is to let them sit in the closed oven at about 30 degrees Celsius (90° Fahrenheit).
15. · After about an hour, brush again the croissants with the golding mixture while you preheat your oven at 180° Celsius (350° Fahrenheit).
16. · When ready, bake your croissants at 180° Celsius (350° Fahrenheit) for 15-20 minutes, depending on the color.