Home Made Croissants

I finally did it! I made my own Croissants! I have been putting it off for a long time because the whole laminating dough process looked hard and time consuming. It was a bit of a long process, the dough has to rest for 6-8hrs first so I made them over two days, but it definitely wasn't hard. The results were amazing, especially for a home job. I am so proud of the outcome.

The dough ended up being quite large so I made half into croissants and half into Nutella spirals, just for something different. They were super delicious, the pastry was so light and flaky. On a winter morning these pastries were just as good as a big warm hug!

Home Made Croissants

Adapted from Ideasmag.co.za

What you will need

500g white flour, low protein
7g instant dried yeast
45g sugar
30g milk powder
300ml chilled water
280g butter
1 large egg
Nutella, optional

What you will need to do

Sift the flour into a bowl and add yeast. In a separate bowl, dissolve the sugar, a pinch of salt and milk powder in a third of the water. Add the rest of the water. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the liquid ingredients. Stir to mix in the flour gradually. Once it is mixed, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size and stops growing. This can take anywhere from 30minutes to 2 hours. After it has stopped growing, take out and knead it lightly to make it smooth then cover in cling wrap and place in the fridge for 6 - 8 hours (or overnight).

Take butter and place between two pieces of baking paper. Use a rolling pin and flatten the butter into a square shape about 1cm thick. Place back into fridge. Remove dough from fridge and knead lightly. Roll into a ball then cut a cross in the top.

Roll out to flatten and make into a square shape, bigger than the square of butter. Place the butter in the centre of the dough and fold in dough edges to cover the butter.

Roll out pastry into a rectangle shape then fold over three times.

Wrap in plastic and place in the fridge for 20 minutes. Repeat the rolling, folding and resting in fridge step two more times.

Divide the dough in half and cut out long triangle shapes.

Make a small cut in the short end then roll up to form the croissant shape. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and brush lightly with the beaten egg.

Leave to double in size then bake in a preheated oven at 200*C for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

To make the nutella scrolls, use the other half of the dough and roll into a rectangle shape. Spread nutella evenly over the dough then roll dough into a log. Cut it into slices about 2 inches wide and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Brush with egg then leave to double in size. Bake in a preheated oven at 200*C for 15 minutes or until golden.