The French made the world happy with their many dishes and some culinary traditions. One of them can be considered the so-called continental breakfasts. And let many of our tourists frown, if the hotel offers them, but many do not refuse to eat a warm croissant in the morning, even when they are at home. Over time, people began to modernize this dish, invent new fillings for it and experiment with other types of dough. Now you can find such a recipe for croissants (at home, of course), which the French could not even dream of.
How to just bake puff croissants
A glass of milk is taken for a pound of flour, half a glass of vegetable oil, 5 g of dried yeast (10 if they are fresh), 1 egg, 2 teaspoons of sugar and salt and 80 g of butter (it will need to be melted). Milk is heated to 40 degrees, yeast and sugar dissolve in it and left for five minutes. Then the liquid is poured into the sifted (necessary!) Flour, vegetable oil, salt and neatly separated protein are introduced there. To cook croissants deliciously, the dough is well kneaded and left for an hour and a half in the heat, covered with a clean towel or napkin. During this time, it will become two times more. The table is sprinkled with flour, the dough on it is cut into 8 approximately equal parts, each rolls into a ball, is again set and "fits" for another quarter hour. One of the lumps of dough is rolled out, greased with ghee, covered with the same cake on top - a stack of “pancakes” is obtained, separated by an oil layer. Before making a croissant, the resulting stack is rolled with a rolling pin into a not thick, but not too flat cake - not less than 3, not more than 5 mm. We must try to make it as regular as possible (round) in shape - this way the baking will turn out as a result of almost the same size. The rolled dough is cut into 16 equal sectors, which are beautifully curled from the wide edge. The question of the filling is at your discretion; you can do without it.
French yeast puff pastry in a different way
In principle, all methods of making a croissant come down to puff pastry, in which yeast is necessarily present. Another thing is that there can be many such methods! It is not known which one you like, so we offer one more option. It will require 10 g of yeast (and dry, the author does not recommend fresh), an egg, butter - this time as much as 200 g, 3 and a half glasses of flour and one teaspoon of sugar and salt. Additionally, from 2 eggs will have to remove the yolks. Then, in principle, the usual beginning: a glass of warmed milk, yeast dissolved in it, waiting - similar to the previous method. The extracted and slightly whipped yolks are added to the flour, the rest of the milk, salt and swollen yeast are poured there. The kneaded dough is formed into a ball, cut from above in the form of a cross and placed covered in the cold (at least 12 hours). After the ball is rolled into a thin cake. This recipe for croissants at home differs from the previous one: you do not need to melt the oil - it rolls to a centimeter thickness with a rolling pin wrapped in food-grade polyethylene. Then such a “thin” oil, extracted from the film, is laid out on the dough, which is folded inside the type of envelope. And this envelope rolls out, folds up three times and again for half an hour retracts into the refrigerator. This must be done twice. For the third time, the layered dough is rolled, cut, folded in the right form and put in the heat for an hour. After “raising”, each croissant is smeared with a beaten egg and baked for half an hour at 200 degrees. They say that such a recipe for croissants from puff pastry gives a very airy baking, although, without a doubt, it takes a lot of time and labor.
Dough Croissants
For those who have little time (for example, is associated with young children or an uncomfortable work schedule), there is a good way to make a croissant from a purchase basis. Choose either yeast or puff pastry, or better, find an option that combines both attributes, it is quite available in supermarkets. A pound of dough is enough for you. You still have to buy food foil. Hold the dough out of the refrigerator from a quarter to half an hour - the time depends on the degree of freezing. But in no case do not defrost in the microwave! When the semi-finished product becomes soft, it is deployed and rolled. In order not to stick to the rolling pin, it is better not to sprinkle the dough with flour, but lightly grease the instrument itself with vegetable (any) oil. Further, according to the scheme: cut into triangles - twist - make croissants - put them in the oven. Note: from the finished dough, they should be baked at a lower temperature (not higher than 180) and less long (20-25 minutes).
Top lubrication options and rules
How to make a croissant, we already figured out. But even if everything is done purely by the rules, some pale (albeit very appetizing-smelling) products may come out. And why? Because voluntarily the dough in the oven will not become rosy. The classic way to achieve a delicious blush on buns is to grease them with a beaten egg. But keep in mind: at the same time, the film pulls together the baking surface; the croissant, meanwhile, has a very tender dough, so the crust is not very aesthetic. Improved option: grease your goodies with whipped yolks. They will allow the croissant to simply brown, without making ugly wrinkles on the surface. However, there is a true French way of decorating homemade croissants. The recipe is simple: a small amount of milk is whipped in a froth with a large spoonful of sugar. With this composition, baking is also lubricated.
Consider the nuances. If you cover your “buns” with an egg or yolk, you must do this about ten minutes before the end of baking. If you prefer milk with sugar - lubricate them even before installing the baking sheet in the oven.
Stuffing Rules
Of course, the recipe for croissants from puff pastry (as well as from any other) will surely provide you with a delicious product. But you can indulge yourself even more by diversifying the “internal content” of French pastries. However, in order to please the result, certain rules must be observed.
So, how to make stuffed croissants? Before baking in the oven, all the preliminary steps are similar to the usual way of cooking them. However, when the “bagels” are already folded and bent with a sickle, an incision is made from their round side. Moreover, the knife should not make a hole in the opposite side of our product. The filling is embedded in the incision; if its components are quite liquid (for example, jam), it is better to pinch the gap carefully. And in the case of safety with respect to leakage, an even barrel will look better.
Another subtlety: the “wet” filling makes the dough more moist, so you will have to bake bagels with it at a lower temperature and a little longer.
Curd Filling
One of the simplest (and most dietary) can be curd. For her, a pack of cottage cheese (it is better to take fatter, otherwise it will leak when baked) should take 3 tablespoons of sugar, add vanillin or cinnamon (if you like them); A good addition will be raisins, dried apricots or prunes. Combining all these components, we get a mixture that you need to stuff the croissant before baking. Many prefer to take sweet curd cheese; however, experience suggests that they in the oven become almost liquid, and often absorbed into the dough. So cast your vote for coarse-grained cottage cheese: it is both more natural and “healthier”, and if you want something sweeter, you can add more sugar.
Almond Baking
Yeast dough croissants will be especially tasty when combined with almond cream. For him, you need to buy half a glass of almonds, take an almost full (3/4) glass of sugar, a tablespoon of cream - fatter - butter, the same amount of flour and a raw egg. To begin with, the nuts are chopped finely and then passed through a blender along with the flour and butter toasted in an egg. It turns out a dense dense mass, which is easy to stuff with croissants.
Chocolate fantasy
Most people believe that chocolate cream should be specially prepared, including a lot of additional ingredients. General misconception! Here's how to make croissants with chocolate: a favorite sort of tile breaks into small pieces and is embedded in a “shell”. By the way, the taste will be much more piquant if you combine the popular sweetness with an orange. For this, the slices do not fit, they are too juicy, and your bagel will be loose and may creep out. Peel is removed from citrus without the slightest trace of “little white”; you can carefully remove it on a grater. The zest is added to the chocolate and the croissants are placed in the oven. There, the chocolate will melt evenly - and you will get just a divine treat.
Strawberry croissants
Berry fillings are attractive in any baking. Of course, you can take just jam, jam or jam, but you definitely won’t get such a taste as with a natural berry. So at the height of summer it is better to take fresh garden gifts - for example, strawberries. Since the fruits themselves without sugar (like in jam) are not sweet enough, it is better to combine them with chocolate, and white. The same strawberries are taken in half with a sweet additive, the berries are cut in half (if not too large, but large can be smaller). Chocolate is either drowned in a water bath and poured into a croissant (which is not very convenient), or it is rubbed on a grater and poured into a cut.
Unsweetened toppings
Who said cherished bagels must be sweet? Not everyone loves sweets, some prefer something without sugar for breakfast. As an option - stuff the croissants with arugula (a handful of it is enough), combined with a couple of chopped radishes, two tablespoons of cottage cheese and tea - vegetable oil. Salt, pepper and bake.
A good option with mushrooms. Mushrooms are cut into slices, onion into cubes, all fried together. Boiled meat - chicken, pork, beef - what is - is chopped, mixed with the vegetable component and seasoned with mayonnaise. You can put such a filling before baking croissants, you can - in ready-made ones.
How to make croissants without filling more tasty
The question is which bagels do you prefer - sweet or not. In the first case, you can pour them on top with melted chocolate or fondant according to any of the recipes that you are familiar with. There is also a good option in which nuts are crushed finely - in the simplest case, walnuts, but you can also chop the mix from different types. Topping with strawberry, cherry, cream or any other wonderfully combined with nuts. You can decorate croissants on top with sugar icing and sprinkle with candied fruit.
But if your preference is unsweetened modification, then there are only additives that are often used when baking bread - caraway seeds, sesame seeds, various seeds. Alternatively, you can directly introduce some attractive additions to the dough. Some highly recommend the same crushed pumpkin seeds: they say the taste is unique. The classic raisins, introduced into the dough, are also traditionally not bad.
However, if you managed to cook croissants correctly, they will be tasty without additional decorations.