Being a mother myself, I love Mother's Day. It's the one day a year where I (try to) sleep in and am brought breakfast in bed. Breakfast usually consists of a latte, a croissant, and maybe some juice or fruit. The bed tray also has some homemade cards and a small vase with flowers from the yard. Yes, my kids usually end up "sharing" the croissant, and despite my husband's every effort to the alternative, I even let them have the first bite, but it's a morning moment of pure happiness, and I soak in every second.
Now this year, Spring of 2020, was posing a bit of a problem. Typically my husband runs out to pick up said fresh croissants, but that wasn't really an option... so, what else do you do? You attempt to conquer Mt. Kilimanjaro - how hard can it be to make homemade croissants? (insert nervous face emoji)
Using a Bon Appetit dough recipe and this technique, try it I did, and conquer it, did I? For sure! To be honest, there may be no going back... Albeit, it is slightly time consuming, but not really that difficult. But these days we've got nothing but time.
INGREDIENTS:
2 Tablespoons of Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of Salt
2 1/2 cups of Flour
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) of Butter, chilled
Ice Water
1. Blend together the Flour, Salt, and Sugar.
2. Grate one stick of butter on the large holes of a grater and blend together with the dry ingredients using your hands.
3. Using a vegetable peeler, thinly slice one stick of butter into the mixture and blend.
4. Take the remaining half stick of butter and cut into tiny pieces. Add to the mixture and work it all together in your hands, ensuring to coat every piece of butter with the dry mix.
5. Slowly add some of the ice cold water to the mixture, combining and adding little by little until the mixture all comes together.
6. Form the dough into a square-like shape and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
7. Using flour and a rolling pin, place the dough on a clean, floured surface, and roll it out into a rectangular shape. Then fold over into thirds, as if folding an 8.5x11 piece of paper to fit inside an envelope - bottom up 2/3, then top down to cover. Wrap in plastic wrap again and chill for an hour.
8. Repeat step 7 multiple times for multiple layers in your croissant (I believe I did it 5x - roll, fold, chill, roll, fold, chill...).
9. Take the dough out for a final roll, this time rolling the dough flatter, wider, and longer. Cut the dough into rectangular pieces, as big or small as you would like.
10. Place any desired filling (chocolate, almond paste, jelly) on top of the dough, then fold over in thirds, as before.
11. Chill each individual croissant in plastic wrap until cooking. Can stay for up to 2 days.
12. Remove the croissant(s) from the refrigerator. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.
ENJOY!