This recipe is adapted from John Baricelli’s recipe in the Sono Baking Company Cookbook. His recipe is for 24 croissants, and that is more than I could ever consume in time, so this recipe is half that big. Making croissants is generally a 3-day affair, but most of it is waiting for the dough to chill again. The third day, when you cut and assemble the croissants is the only one that is time consuming.

It takes some experience to make really good croissants, but after you have made them a couple of times, you will be really pleased with the results. In our first recipe here, we are going to make twelve 5” croissants.

Ingredients

• ½ cup milk
• 2 tsp active dry yeast
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (plus more for rolling the dough and butter)
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 ½  Tb coarse salt
• ½ cup water (about)
• 12 oz (2 ½ sticks) cold, unsalted butter
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten for the egg wash
• A ruler or tape measure and a drawing triangle, and wheel cutter if you have one

First day

1. In a microwave, heat the milk in a pitcher or small bowl until it is  about 110˚ F. This will only take 15-20 seconds. Add the yeast to the pitcher and let it proof for 5 minutes.
2. Mix the flour, sugar and salt, the yeast/milk mixture and the water to the bowl of an electric mixer and the paddle attachment. Beat it until the dough just comes together, about 2 minutes. The dough can be a little sticky, as long as when you knead it on a floured board, it becomes smooth.
3. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface and form it into a smooth ball. To help you roll this inro a rectangle later, cut a cross halfway down the dough ball
4.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or a gallon freezer bag and chill for 6 hours or  overnight.

Second Day

1. Cut the butter into 5 half-sticks and arrange them on a sheet of baking parchment. Avoid using grass-fed butter like Kerrygold just yet, as it melts more easily.*
2. Wrap the butter in the parchment, and pound it with a rolling pin, on a pastry marble if you have one.
3. When the butter is workable, but not too soft, wrap it in a new sheet of parchment and make it into a a package about 4” x 8” and force the butter into a flat 4×8 sheet. Refrigerate the butter while you prepare the flour.
4. Flour the work surface and roll out the dough to an 8 ½ by 10” rectangle, about ½ inch thick. Trim it to have straight edges and square corners, using a wheel cutter or sharp knife.
5. Lay the butter on center of the dough and fold the two sides over top of it, Pinch to close the dough package. If the butter is too wide, cut a little off before sealing.
6. Roll the dough to an 8” x 10” rectangle. Square the corners and then fold the left half of the dough towards the center, and then fold the right half to meet in the center. This is called one “turn.” Wrap in plastic or a gallon freezer bag and refrigerate for one hour.
7. Repeat the rolling and folding and refrigerate in a bag for another hour. This is the second turn.
8. Repeat the rolling and folding and refrigerate in a bag for 6 hours or overnight. This is the third turn.

Third day

1. Borrowing an idea from Claire Saffitz’s recipe, we first created a proofing chamber. Fill a large frying pan with water and bring it to a boil, Put the pan on the bottom rack of your oven, and close the door. Don’t turn on the oven. The steam it generates is an ideal proofing environment for the croissants to rise in. You don’t have to use a lot of water. You want the steam, but the oven should soon be cool enough that the butter won’t melt.
2. Roll the dough out on a floured board to about 14 ½ “ by 17”. Chill as needed if the dough seems too warm. Chill on a baking sheet for 30 minutes. You will probably have to fold the dough in half to fit it on the sheet.
3. Roll the dough to around 14” x 16”. Square the corners using a drawing triangle if you have one. Cut the edges to be straight and as square as you make them.
4. Cut the dough in half lengthwise, so you have two 14” x 8” rectangles. Brush off any excess flour and lay one rectangle on top of the other. The rectangle may not exactly match, since the dough is quite flexible. Trim and roll them a bit until they match. Save scraps in a bowl to make Monkey Bread, or an additional croissant, later.

Forming the triangles

1. Now we are going to mark the dough so we can cut the triangles. Start at the top left edge, and using a ruler or tape measure, measure over 2” and make a little nick in the dough. Then measure from that 2” mark, every 4 inches over to the right side, making a nick at each point. On the bottom edge, measure over 4” and repeat nicking every 4” to the right side.
2. Using a ruler or straight edge, make a cut through both layers from the top 2” mark to the bottom corner.
3. Then make a cut from that 2” mark over to the first 4” mark on the bottom. That makes first (two) triangles. Put the little leftover scraps in the scrap bowl.
4. To make the rest of the triangles, cut a line from the bottom right of the first triangle up to the second 4” mark at the top. You now have made 4 more triangles.  Repeat across the rest of the dough.
5. Lay out all of the single triangles (from both layers) and cut a 1” slit in the bottom center of each triangle. Pull it apart and fold one piece from the center to the left and the other from center to the right.
6. Roll each triangle from the base up to the point, and pull the ends towards each other to form a crescent. Place each rolled croissant on baking sheet covered with parchment, with the tip on the bottom.
7. Put the baking sheet into your proofing oven and let them rise until they have increased in size by about 50%. This will take 2 to 2 ½ hours. Be sure that the proofing oven is no longer warm, just steamy. It should be about 75˚F in there. If warmer, the butter will melt out.  If it is still warm, cover the croissants with loose plastic wrap for half an hour or so, until the temperature falls.
8. When they have risen enough, remove the baking pan and frying pan from the oven and set it to 375˚ F, and set a rack in the center of the oven.
9. When the croissants have risen, make an egg wash by beating the large egg, perhaps with a tsp of water, and then brush the wash onto each croissant. In Saffitz’s recipe, she adds a 1 Tb of heavy cream to the beaten egg yolk. This would make the croissants a bit darker when they bake.
10. Place the baking sheet in the oven.
11. Bake the croissants for 20 minutes, rotate the pan, and then bake further until they are golden brown.
12. Remove the croissants when baked and move them to a wire rack to cool.  Serve warm.

You can actually do this in 2 days by mixing the dough in the morning and chilling it for 6 hours. Then in the afternoon or evening, you add the butter and fold the dough and chill it 3 times. It is also possible to have croissants in the morning, if you get up 4 hours before you need them.

Since you will probably end up with croissants in the afternoon or evening, you can warm them again in the morning in a 350˚ F oven for about 5 minutes. Don’t use a microwave, as it will melt the butter inside your croissants.

* When you get some experience, you can indeed use grass-fed butter, but you will need to freeze the dough for 20 minutes before letting it rest between turns.

• Food science