As it is only Monday I understand if you are not ready to talk about the weekend. It went by too fast, right? Seems like forever til the next one. Sigh.
I worked the whole weekend and have today off. It is a little bit of a novelty to have a Monday off knowing that most people are in work. After a busy week and weekend in work I was in need of some proper sleep. So at 11 am I woke up this morning feeling like a whole new person.
A few chores and errands out of the way and the whole day to myself. Kitchen is calling. I need to bake. But trying to be good and healthy does not go very well with my sudden urge to whip up something chocolaty. I am sure we have all been there.
The solution; Start planning for the weekend. Make the freezer your best friend. It might sound crazy, even forbidden to think of food 5 days ahead. It is not. It is totally allowed.
My latest project has been involving a lot of layers of dough, plenty of butter and clearing space out in the freezer. I have been making croissants. Who can resist the buttery flakiness of a freshly baked croissant?
The idea is to spend some time in the kitchen early in the week, preparing for an easy, quick way to present a beautiful weekend breakfast.
Making croissants from scratch is a bit of a project and might scare some people off. It took me 27 years and a course at Cordon Bleu, Paris to master it. But I am pretty sure you are all faster than me so go ahead and give it a try at least. I will give you a good tutorial for how to get that dough right. I would still go ahead with the recipe below though. It is straight from France after all…
- 600g flour, plain
- 70g caster sugar
- 8g salt
- 360ml milk
- 24g fresh yeast
- 60 melted butter, unsalted
- 280g butter, unsalted
- Dissolve yeast in milk.
- Whisk in butter and sugar.
- Add flour and salt, mix lightly til it comes together.
- Let the dough rest for 10 minutes in room temperature, covered in clingfilm.
- Knead the dough by hand for a couple of minutes.
- Cover the dough in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge over night.
- Roll out the dough to a large rectangle. Place butter on one half and fold the other half of dough on top.
- Roll again to a long rectangle. Fold in thirds by bringing the bottom up and the top down over it.
- Repeat previous step twice.
- Chill dough again.
- Roll the dough to a long rectangle, about ½ cm thin.
- Cut out triangles and roll together to croissant shapes.
- Freeze the croissants on a tray.
- When frozen place the croissants in plastic bags and keep in the freezer til the day before you want to cook them.
- Place croissants on a tray lined with baking parchment. Cling film and keep in the fridge over night. In the morning take the croissants out and let proof in room temperature for about 2 hours.
- Bake on 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until dark golden brown.
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