Making Croissants
Making croissants is considered to be difficult because of the time that it takes. Many people prefer to buy the flaky pastries at a bakery, rather than learning how to make croissants themselves. However, while making croissants can take a couple of days, learning how to make croissants is not difficult. In fact, the average croissant recipe is fairly simple and only requires a few ingredients.
• Making croissants starts with getting the ingredients that are necessary to make the special dough. The ingredients are flour, milk, eggs, chilled butter, salt, sugar and yeast. These things are also used to make regular bread. Anyone who is learning how to make croissants should know that the real difference between regular bread dough and croissant dough is the flaky, buttery texture. Croissant dough is made of layered dough, which is dough that has been covered in butter, folded and turned until layers of butter are in between every sheet of dough. The reason that the recipe takes such a long time is because of the fact that the dough must be chilled between mixing. Making croissants begins with separating the ingredients properly.
• An individual learning how to make croissants should mix the milk, sugar and yeast in one bowl. The flour and salt should be sifted together into a different bowl; the ingredients in each bowl can be combined when these tasks are completed. Next, the individual making croissants should cover the dough and put it into the refrigerator in order to allow it to chill. During that time, the dough should double in size because of the rising yeast. The butter block that is necessary when making croissants can be prepared next. In order to make the butter block that makes the croissant dough, the cold butter should be mixed with flour. One should then roll the dough into a ball and put it in the refrigerator to chill. After it chills, the dough can be brought out and refolded; one should refold the dough at least three times before covering it again to be refrigerated.
• After the dough has chilled, one should roll it flat in flour, stretching out the corners while rolling. The butter block should be placed in the center of the croissant dough; one should now fold the dough over the butter block. After the butter block is sealed inside the croissant dough, it should be shaped into a rectangle, with all ends of the croissant dough folded over the butter block. When making croissants, the dough should then be rolled flat again and placed in the refrigerator to chill. After the dough has chilled, one can cut it into triangles, and then formed into the shape of a crescent, the typical shape for croissants. Before baking, one should cover the croissant dough in the egg mixture that was prepared earlier. The crescent shaped dough should be baked for 30 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees F.
Learning how to make croissants can be frustrating because of the time involved in the process. However, the actual preparation that goes into making croissants does not have to be difficult as long as one follows the recipe properly and allows the dough adequate time to chill. The biggest mistake one can make when making croissants is to use the dough before it has chilled properly.
