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I love pain au chocolat (Chocolate criossants) but the ones you get in supermarkets always taste a bit bland and mass produced, nothing like the ones i've tried in france. I also love baking so I thought I'd see if puff pastry really is as time consuming and difficult as they say. After trying several different recipes and methods I found a recipe I like with a fairly simple method that doesn't require days..
A friend requested a guide so I put one together, complete with photos, and thought i'd post it here so at the very least you can see the process for making puff pastry which is rarely made my hand these days and always bought frozen.
Requires a tiny bit or pre-planning: you need 10 minutes to make the dough the day before you actually want to make the croissants/pastries.
Here it is.
========================================
All-butter puff pastry
Ingredients:
Enough for around 20 croissants or ~15 pain au chocolat
- 450g Plain flour
- 75g Caster sugar
- 340ml milk
- ½ tbsp (7g) dry yeast
- large pinch of salt
- 250g Butter (leave this in the fridge until needed)
Add to yeast to the milk in a pouring jug. Milk needs to be a room temperature for yeast to dissolve (3-4 mins on low/medium in the microwave will do the job for milk straight out of the fridge)
Sieve flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl.
Give the milk + yeast mixture a bit of a whisk to make sure the yeast is dissolved then pour into the dry ingredients.
Use a spatula to thoroughly combine the ingredients, making sure to scrape the edges down and there are no floury lumps. At this point the dough will be very wet, sticky and not very dough like – that’s fine. Sprinkle flour over the dough, cover bowl with cling film then stick it in the fridge for a few hours – preferably over night.
Once raised the dough should be roughly double in size and a bit dryer (but still sticky).
Using floured hands, turn dough out onto a floured surface. Lots of flour! Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, mainly to knock the air out, and form it into a rough rectangle shape. The dough will become less stick and very stretchy. Roll out into a large rectangle around 24” long.
Now the interesting bit... making the layers of butter and pastry or ‘Lamination’. Throughout this process make sure the dough isn’t sticking to the work surface by lifting the edges of the dough up and flicking some flour underneath every now and then.
There are several different ways of doing this but the method I came up with uses a cheese slicer and ensures an even spread of butter. Mentally divide the pastry into thirds across the width (you can lightly score the pastry as a guide line but DO NOT cut it). Using half the butter evenly cover the middle third of the dough with thin slices of butter.
Seems like a lot of butter when it’s laid out like this but it’s worth it - it’s all about the flavour! Fold one of the outer thirds over the middle third so the butter is totally covered. Slice the second half of the butter into thin strips as before and spread evenly over the top of the third you just folded over.
Fold over the last third to cover the butter. Press down around the edges making sure the butter is sealed in. Gently roll the dough out (lengthways) into a long rectangle.
Now for two “book folds”. Fold in the two outer edges so they meet in the middle (1) then fold in half (2). Roll out again lengthways (3) and repeat but do not roll out again after second book fold.
Wrap pastry tightly in 3-4 layers of cling film (don’t leave any pastry exposed or it will go dry and crusty) and bung it in the fridge for an hour or two. This is to firm up the butter and make the pastry easier to roll. You can freeze the pastry at this point for later use but make sure it’s thoroughly defrosted before using.
Pre heat oven to 180°c (fan oven) and grease two baking trays with butter or vegetable oil.
Roll out your pastry into a large square or rectangle (as close as you can get) about 3-4 mm thick.
Croissants:
Trim off the edges of the pastry to make the edges straight and square - keep the scraps.
Use your hand as a guide for the triangle shape. Cut out triangles using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter. Cut an inch long slit in the middle of the shortest edge of each triangle. Ball up a small scrap of pastry and place it on the triangle next to the slit. Roll into a croissant shape using one hand to hold the ‘sharp’ point of the triangle down and gently stretching and rolling with the other hand.
Pain au chocolat:
simple enough – Rectangle of pastry, strip of choc at one end, roll. Ensure the end of the pastry is underneath the roll. I recommend sweetened dark chocolate like Cadburys Bournville.
Instructions on how to shape various Danish pastries can be found here: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-Danish-Pastries includes custard recipe. You can be creative and make all sorts of pastries – experiment!
Allow the pastries to rise for 10 min on the baking tray then brush liberally with egg wash (whisk 1 egg with a small splash of milk)
Not my best work... I pricked the middle of the square danishes with a fork to stop them bubbling up in the middle so I can fill them after but you can also fill them with mincemeat or another filling that doesn’t mind being baked.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. My oven isn’t heating evenly anymore so I need to rotate the trays mid way for an even bake.
Once cool you can decorate danish pastries with confectioner’s custard and fruit and glaze with icing and apricot jam. Criossants are much nicer to eat when warm so heat in oven before munching with coffee.
Nom.
A friend requested a guide so I put one together, complete with photos, and thought i'd post it here so at the very least you can see the process for making puff pastry which is rarely made my hand these days and always bought frozen.
Requires a tiny bit or pre-planning: you need 10 minutes to make the dough the day before you actually want to make the croissants/pastries.
Here it is.
========================================
All-butter puff pastry
Ingredients:
Enough for around 20 croissants or ~15 pain au chocolat
- 450g Plain flour
- 75g Caster sugar
- 340ml milk
- ½ tbsp (7g) dry yeast
- large pinch of salt
- 250g Butter (leave this in the fridge until needed)
Add to yeast to the milk in a pouring jug. Milk needs to be a room temperature for yeast to dissolve (3-4 mins on low/medium in the microwave will do the job for milk straight out of the fridge)
Sieve flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl.
Give the milk + yeast mixture a bit of a whisk to make sure the yeast is dissolved then pour into the dry ingredients.
Use a spatula to thoroughly combine the ingredients, making sure to scrape the edges down and there are no floury lumps. At this point the dough will be very wet, sticky and not very dough like – that’s fine. Sprinkle flour over the dough, cover bowl with cling film then stick it in the fridge for a few hours – preferably over night.
Once raised the dough should be roughly double in size and a bit dryer (but still sticky).
Using floured hands, turn dough out onto a floured surface. Lots of flour! Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, mainly to knock the air out, and form it into a rough rectangle shape. The dough will become less stick and very stretchy. Roll out into a large rectangle around 24” long.
Now the interesting bit... making the layers of butter and pastry or ‘Lamination’. Throughout this process make sure the dough isn’t sticking to the work surface by lifting the edges of the dough up and flicking some flour underneath every now and then.
There are several different ways of doing this but the method I came up with uses a cheese slicer and ensures an even spread of butter. Mentally divide the pastry into thirds across the width (you can lightly score the pastry as a guide line but DO NOT cut it). Using half the butter evenly cover the middle third of the dough with thin slices of butter.
Seems like a lot of butter when it’s laid out like this but it’s worth it - it’s all about the flavour! Fold one of the outer thirds over the middle third so the butter is totally covered. Slice the second half of the butter into thin strips as before and spread evenly over the top of the third you just folded over.
Fold over the last third to cover the butter. Press down around the edges making sure the butter is sealed in. Gently roll the dough out (lengthways) into a long rectangle.
Now for two “book folds”. Fold in the two outer edges so they meet in the middle (1) then fold in half (2). Roll out again lengthways (3) and repeat but do not roll out again after second book fold.
Wrap pastry tightly in 3-4 layers of cling film (don’t leave any pastry exposed or it will go dry and crusty) and bung it in the fridge for an hour or two. This is to firm up the butter and make the pastry easier to roll. You can freeze the pastry at this point for later use but make sure it’s thoroughly defrosted before using.
Pre heat oven to 180°c (fan oven) and grease two baking trays with butter or vegetable oil.
Roll out your pastry into a large square or rectangle (as close as you can get) about 3-4 mm thick.
Croissants:
Trim off the edges of the pastry to make the edges straight and square - keep the scraps.
Use your hand as a guide for the triangle shape. Cut out triangles using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter. Cut an inch long slit in the middle of the shortest edge of each triangle. Ball up a small scrap of pastry and place it on the triangle next to the slit. Roll into a croissant shape using one hand to hold the ‘sharp’ point of the triangle down and gently stretching and rolling with the other hand.
Pain au chocolat:
simple enough – Rectangle of pastry, strip of choc at one end, roll. Ensure the end of the pastry is underneath the roll. I recommend sweetened dark chocolate like Cadburys Bournville.
Instructions on how to shape various Danish pastries can be found here: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-Danish-Pastries includes custard recipe. You can be creative and make all sorts of pastries – experiment!
Allow the pastries to rise for 10 min on the baking tray then brush liberally with egg wash (whisk 1 egg with a small splash of milk)
Not my best work... I pricked the middle of the square danishes with a fork to stop them bubbling up in the middle so I can fill them after but you can also fill them with mincemeat or another filling that doesn’t mind being baked.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. My oven isn’t heating evenly anymore so I need to rotate the trays mid way for an even bake.
Once cool you can decorate danish pastries with confectioner’s custard and fruit and glaze with icing and apricot jam. Criossants are much nicer to eat when warm so heat in oven before munching with coffee.
Nom.
Look really nice.
