I’ve been on a mission to try some new things in the kitchen. One of those recipes that has always intimidated me is Croissants. I usually buy a package of 12 and pay a premium price because I just don’t know how to make them. Well, that has changed!
I did some research online and found several recipes for croissants. After a couple of trial and error batches, I’ve found one that works quite well for me.
Croissants
2 cups of warm water
2/3 cup dry milk powder
2 Tablespoons active dry yeast (2 packets)
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 c butter (1 stick, softened)
1 egg
4 1/2 to 5 cups all purpose flour
Using a stand mixer, add the water and milk to the bowl and allow it to dissolve. I used the whip attachment on my kitchenaid and mixed it on low for about a minute.
Add yeast, sugar, salt, butter, egg, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on low until everything is wet, then mix on medium for about 2 minutes.
Switch to the dough hook, add two more cups of flour, mix on low until everything is wet, then mix on medium for 2 more minutes.
Add 1/2 cup of flour, mix on low until everything is wet, then mix on medium for 2 minutes. Continue to add flour as needed, 1/2 cup at a time.
Scrape the dough off the sides of your bowl, add about a tablespoon of oil to the sides of the bowl, cover with a piece of oiled plastic wrap and let the dough rise for about an hour. I only let mine rise for about 30 minutes for this batch and it had already doubled in size.
Once doubled, turn the dough out onto a floured counter. Cut the dough in half, set one half aside for now. Roll the other half into a circle. Mine was about 12 inches. Cut the circle into 16 pieces with a pizza cutter or pastry cutter. Starting at the wide end of each piece, roll the dough into a croissant shape and place it on a parchment paper lined pan. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Allow to rise for 1 hour.
After the dough has doubled, bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. I did mine at 15 minutes and they were perfect. You may want to brush the croissants with butter when you remove them from the oven. I did not brush mine because I froze most of my batch for later use.
Of course, we tried these! They are good directly out of the oven and once they cooled off, hubby said they were even better!
