Croissants are definitely a guilty pleasure for me. I used to buy them all the time from the supermarket and gorge on the mini ones. There's just something about them...the flakiness, the buttery-ness...mmm.
Making croissants at home however, are a little tricky, time-consuming, and messy, unless you're using a pre-made kind that is. I have to admit the Pillsbury brand crescents aren't half bad. If I'm feeling lazy, these are great. Since I've finally bought myself a half-decent rolling pin though (It's actually not that great. It looks good and is heavy enough, but not quite sturdy. It is however a big improvement to my previous one which was very...what's the word...dinky.) making croissants from scratch aren't that much a problem if you have the time.
Here's the recipe I have for them:
Croissant: yield:6 large
250 g all purpose flour
9 g fresh yeast
5 g salt
15 g sugar
37 g water
120 g milk
150 g salted butter for the tourage
For the dough: dissolve the yeast in the water and add the milk. Add the rest of the ingredients except the salt and mix till slightly combined. Add the salt and mix on low speed for 4 mins. Turn up the speed and mix for another minute. This is the detrempe. Wrap up dough and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours before rolling in butter.
Here's where it gets tricky. The time-consuming part deals with the different "turns" you need to give the dough. You start out with the "detrempe" which is essentially just the dough. Then you have the "tourage" which is the butter. You roll the detrempe into a square and fit the tourage in and fold it like a parcel. Roll it out in one direction. Fold in thirds and repeat the process 2 more times giving the dough a rest in between each time. This is to relax the gluten that form in the dough when you roll the dough.
Once you have all that, have fun shaping as you please and fill with whatever you desire, whether it's cheese and ham, or Nutella, like I've done with mines. Really try out the Nutella one, it's absolutely heavenly. Let the dough rise till it feels less firm and egg-wash. Bake at 400 degrees fahrenheit till completely golden.
Here is a mini one that I made with Nutella:
