Buttery, Flaky Croissants

Add a dusting of confectioners sugar and...chef's kiss! I have wanted to try my hand at croissants for the longest time but have been so afraid to give them a go. Real, as in bloomed yeast, kneaded dough, laminated layers with so much butter real. Well, this past weekend was the time. I set out to start them early Saturday afternoon, after my son's basketball game and lunch cleanup. I knew they would take some time, and I thought they would be a fun treat to have in the evening with a cup of coffee. Precious. They took me hours! When the dough had finished, along with all the steps to laminate, it then had to sit in the fridge for another 8 hours! That's fine. I'm fine. We will enjoy them at some point on Sunday. Through the making of said croissants, I kept saying to myself, these better knock my socks off. They were for sure a labor of love, but they were worth every flaky, buttery bite!

Ok, let's jump in. Plan out two days to give to these croissants. Overall, I didn't think they were particularly hard to make, but definitely a lot of work. If you do not have much experience in working with yeast breads, I suggest you start with just a simple loaf of yeast bread or rolls. It takes practice to work with yeast. I have failed so many times, it can absolutely make you want to lose it and throw in the towel. If, however, you can practice and build your confidence and skill, your world of baking blows wide open! I am by no means a baking expert. I have a long way to go myself, but with practice, baking with yeast dough no longer feels as daunting.

Start with warming your milk. You want it warm but not hot. Too hot and you can actually kill the yeast. In the bowl of your stand-up mixer, stir together the sugar and warmed milk until the sugar has dissolved. (I actually used brown sugar instead of white for a little razzle dazzle). Add in the active dry yeast and stir with a fork. If your yeast is good, it will start to foam up right away. Allow your yeast to feed off the sugar and activate. I like to cover my bowl with a plate as the yeast blooms and allow the moisture to retain and help with the growth. After 5 minutes, your yeast should look evenly foamy like pictured above. If it does not look like that...you may need to start over. This step is crucial.

Next, add the pastry flour and salt to the foamy yeast and mix on low for 5 minutes using the dough hook attachment. If you are thinking the use of the dough hook will keep you from hand-kneading, think again. Turn out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Set your timer for 5 minutes and knead. I promise you this is important and worth the effort. You can add extra dustings of flour as you knead, to keep the dough from sticking to your hands, but you still want to maintain a tackiness to your dough. Phase one is done! Put the formed dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover it in plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for an hour.

Use really good butter for the next part. I love Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter. It's just so delicious. In the words of Andrew, if there were ever a time to use bougie butter...croissants are it. I realize it's not French butter, but hey, the Irish also make croissants. Pound and roll out your butter into a slab, wrap in plastic and chill in the fridge along with your dough. After the hour, the dough is taken out and rolled out, like shown above. With the cold butter slab in the center, the dough is folded up around the butter like an envelope and then returned to the fridge for another hour.

Let's get into the head space that the next few hours just repeat themselves like groundhog's day. This is the laminating process and will be done four times. Bless. Each time the dough is rolled out into a rectangle, about 10 inches by 16 inches, and then folded into thirds like a letter. Wrap the "letter" in plastic wrap and return to the fridge for an hour. Again. And again. And again, but now the dough is wrapped and left in the fridge overnight. Day one is complete. Phew.

It's day two, and it's time to shape and bake. Cutting the dough into two pieces, you can see all the layers...that's the way lamination should look. Each piece of dough is rolled out into a long rectangle, maintaining a thickness of about a quarter inch. (This is where I realized I really hate my rolling pin. I need a heavy duty one. Like a beautiful ceramic one from Anthropologie. I'm just saying). Each rolled out piece is cut into triangles and rolled into the croissant shape. Imaged above is proof that I need to work on this skill the next time around. I will plan to stretch the dough as I roll, to wrap the dough more and make a better shape. Now the formed croissants sit out for...drumroll...another hour! Wash the tops with egg and bake at 400 degree F for about 8 minutes then drop the heat to 375 degree F, and finish the bake for another 8 to 10 minutes. They should be golden brown. Mine did come out a bit dark. I baked for 10 minutes at the 400 degree temp. I think 8 or even 7 minutes would have been much better.

Let cool a bit on wire racks and then dust with powdered sugar and ooh-la-la! I wish I could feed you one through the screen because they did knock our socks off! I will definitely do these again...but I need some space. I feel smothered in this relationship.

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