Last week we made homemade croissants for the first time! And it was not any croissants, it was puff pastry croissants and we had coconut sugar to the dough to add that sweetened flavour. We wanted to adapt a recipe she saw on a food blog that had the peculiarity of only taking 15 minutes to prepare the dough for the croissants (you can look here for the original recipe).
Why make your own puff pastry? Because it tastes much better than the commercial you usually shop (you don't even know ingredients that are used in the puff pastry), it's super simple to make, you don't need complex kitchenware and you can use not only into croissants but also into pies, quiche or other type of pastry (such as our Portuguese famous cream pastries). And they can be reserved in the freezer for weeks ;)
Going back to the last Saturday ... The dough preparation actually takes 15 minutes, however, you will have to let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then just knead, cut the dough into triangles and roll up to create the shape of the croissants .. nothing more! And then the smell of the kitchen while the croissants cook in the oven immediately send you to the streets of Paris!
Let's get our hands on the dough?
Bonne semaine!
Ingredients
- 1 cup of wheat flour - 1/4 cup coconut sugar (optional) - 140 g unsalted butter (very cold) - 1/3 cup of cold water - pinch of salt - 1 egg (for brushing, some people use water instead)
Preparation
Begin by cutting the butter into squares and place in the refrigerator while weighing and mixing the flour, coconut sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Add the squares of cold butter to the flour mixture and with your hands undo the cubes and mix the ingredients. Do not worry if the dough has bits of butter, they will melt when you stretch the dough. Make a hole in the center of the dough, and pour the cold water. With a wooden spoon, stir well until a homogeneous mass is obtained. Do not overdo it. If you still have an irregular and slightly flourless dough, that's okay. Sprinkle a surface (preferably the freshest you have) with flour, place the dough and quickly form a square with your hands. Try not to handle the dough very much with your hands, because we do not want to overheat it. Sprinkle your rolling pin and role out the dough into a rectangle. Sprinkle with flour whenever you notice the dough sticking. Fold the dough into 1/3, like a letter, and with the aid of a brush, remove the excess flour between the layers. Fold the remaining batter and turn 90º. Re-wrap in a rectangle and repeat all over again for about 5 times. Arriving at the last step, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and take to the refrigerator for half an hour. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and put it back on the same surface sprinkled with flour and strain the dough into a rectangle. Note that it should have a certain thickness in the dough, otherwise the croissants will be tiny. Place the dough horizontally to you and cut into triangles. Create a mini-cut at the base of the triangle and go curl it from the base. Place the croissants in a tray and brush with a beaten egg (or water) and bake in the preheated oven at 180ºC for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown on the outside.
As soon as they come out of the oven, cut in half and sweep with butter and cranberries and blueberries's jam (you can find it here)!
Bon Appétit tout le monde :)
