Presenting Chocolate Croissant (and Pains au Chocolat) ! (part 2)

Welcome back! For the second half of the tutorial, it's rolling out, cutting, shaping into the actual croissant and filled-rectangle shapes, baking and finishing. You'll need a ruler or tape measure to get the best-looking shapes, and a sharp knife with a blade at least 8 inches long.

The batch size we made before yields 24 full-sized pastries -- croissants approximately 6 inches wide, or pains about 5 inches long. Croissants are shaped from a triangle, rolled up from the wide end to the tip, then curved to form the familiar shape -- 4 inches at the base and 8 inches high.


Or you can make them half-size, about 4 inches wide, from a triangle 3 inches by 6 inches. This means 48 pastries, 24 from each half of the dough.

 The finished dough softens relatively fast when it's rolled thin, and sticking happens. I find it easiest to work with half of the batch at a time because of this, plus it is easier to maneuver a shorter length when rolling. For this reason, the measurements here are for half the batch.

To start, flour the counter well and take the finished and rested dough and roll from the open ends (crosswise to the last folds) to make the square into a rectangle about 18 inches long by 9 inches tall -- it will be about 1/2 inch thick. With a sharp knife, cut the dough in half to make 2 9 inch squares. Wrap and refrigerate one half, or put it in a gallon-size freezer bag and freeze it for another time. 

Your 9 inch square needs to be rolled out to about 3-4 mm thick -- a rectangle approximately 16 inches by 12 inches for full-sized croissants. Don't worry if it is a little too long or wide, but make sure that the 16-inch side is a folded edge (as versus an open end). It will be much easier to get the dough to a 16 inch length than a 12 inch width, but just keep at it, maintaining the even thickness by rolling from the center out. Try not to roll over the edges too much or they'll get too thin. Lift the dough from the counter often to make sure it's not sticking. As it gets thinner, it will start to become elastic and pull back. If it seems too soft, slide the whole thing onto a cutting board or pan and refrigerate the dough about 10-15 minutes. It might shrink -- wait to measure until it's cool.

Once you have the right sized rectangle, fold the 16-inch length in half so you have a double thickness rectangle 8 inches tall and 12 inches wide.

Now mark 4 inch segments across the bottom edge. Across the top, mark 2 inches, then 4 inches and another 4 inches -- the last bit will be 2 inches. Mark a diagonal line connecting the bottom right corner with the 2 inch mark at the top. From this mark, make another line to the first 4 inch mark at the bottom for your first triangle. Then go up to the second top point, down to the second bottom point, then up again twice more. You should have 3 triangles pointing up and two whole triangles pointing down, with a half-triangle on each side. 

Cut with a sharp knife along the marks, then unfold and cut the two middle triangles apart crosswise, as well as the four half-triangles.   Press the long (straight) sides of the two half-triangles together for the first croissant, stretching it out long for the maximum layers. Brush off the excess flour -- too much flour on the outside makes for crunchy (not crispy-tender) flakes.

Make two 1/2 inch cuts in the 4-inch base and spread it apart a bit. 

Now roll from the 4-inch base, stretching, to the tip. (Make sure the tip stays on the bottom... if it isn't weighted down, it will flip up and might burn, or your croissant might unroll.) Curve the ends into the familiar moon shape.

Repeat for the rest of the triangles, then the other half of the dough. As you shape them, put the croissants on a parchment- or nonstick mat-lined pan, spaced well apart. You can fit 6- 8 full-sized croissants on a 12x18 (half-sheet) pan -- don't crowd them or they will stick together once they rise and bake.

For half-sized croissants, the rectangle should be 12x18 inches, then folded so it is 6 inches tall. 

You can fit 12- 15 of this size on a pan.

Once all the croissants are formed, cover them with plastic wrap or another sheet pan and let them rise at room temperature until they double in size and feel very wobbly and light when you touch them -- it will take awhile, about two hours, but let the yeast do its thing.

Alternatively, freeze the shaped but not risen croissants until they are firm, then put them in a freezer bag to rise and bake as you please.

For pains au chocolat, roll the half-batch to a rectangle 12 x18 inches, and cut into 12 rectangles. Brush off the excess flour.

Put a few pieces of chocolate (we like milk chocolate) down the middle and roll up in thirds the long way, placing the end in the bottom center -- if the opening is on the side, it will tip over. Still delicious, but not as even-looking.

For half-sized pains au chocolat, start with the rectangle the same size, 12x18, and cut it into 2 x 4.5 inch rectangles.

As with the croissant, set the formed pains au chocolat on a lined pan, and cover to rise. (Or freeze, as above.)
 They will tend not to take as long as the croissant, so check them in 1 hr 20 minutes. (I didn't slash mine, but you definitely can, to get those beautiful markings you see on Instagram that show off the layers. Next time, I'll do some with slashes and update this post.)

When the shaped croissant and pains are almost fully risen, put a metal pan (like a pie or cake pan) on the floor of the oven (you will use this to create steam later, which will help the pastries rise), set the racks evenly spaced and preheat the oven to 370 degrees. 

When they are fully risen -- wobbly and light when nudged with a fingertip -- quickly toss about a cup of hot water in the pan on the bottom of the oven and place the pans with the croissants or pains on the racks. Close the door quickly to trap the steam, and bake about 12-15 minutes without peeking. Smells amazing!

At the 12-minute point, they should have risen nicely and started to brown -- it's harder to tell with the chocolate dough, but they should feel set and just firm. Rotate the pans top and bottom and front to back, and bake another 5-8 minutes. 

For half-sized pastries, check and rotate after 8-10 minutes -- they will go quickly!

I don't like to egg-wash the chocolate dough because it doesn't really make a nice color. Instead, after baking I brush them with a syrup that makes them shiny as the water evaporates. 

100 g sugar

50 g hot water

30 g corn syrup or honey (to prevent crystallization)

When they are fully baked, let the croissant and pains cool a bit before brushing the syrup on, gently so the delicate flakes don't come off. Let them cool completely on a rack so condensation doesn't make the bottoms soggy.

And there you have it! Beautiful, delectable and oh-so-satisfyingly handmade croissants et pains au chocolat, chocolate through and through. 

Thank you for sticking it out through this tutorial!! I'm really proud of these, and hope you will be too when you make your own. Let me know what you think!!!

Presenting the Chocolate Croissant!! (part 1)

Yes, these are chocolate croissants. Not just pains au chocolat, but croissants, shaped like crescents, made out of yeasted and laminated chocolate dough. As far as Google can find, this is the first English* tutorial on how to make them to ever exist on the interwebs. Like, ever. I'm not sure why.

*EDIT as of 3/8: Pinterest has informed me that tutorials for similar chocolate croissants exist in Chinese and Italian -- I don't know how close they are to these (I can't read either language well enough) but it doesn't look like they are the same from the pictures... just putting out this disclaimer. Shoutout to the international lamination nation. :D

First off, I am indebted to my cousin Angela's Instagram post about chocolate croissants in a random HK mall stall, pleading for anyone to make them in the Philippines, or for a class on croissants. I have taught many a croissant class at ICE and Monroe College (hi, students!!), but she's not in the same city.

Plus, chocolate ones! Here I have to point you to the stunning pix on Francois Brunet's Instagram -- he has the most riveting chocolate pains au chocolat photos (as well as myriad other absolutely stunning bread and pastry work. Seriously it's awe-inspiring.)

But no recipes, let alone tutorials. Sure, there are many that are filled with chocolate, some that have a layer of chocolate dough so they are striped, or even leopard patterned. But none like these.

So on to the figuring! 

My formula is based on one in Advanced Bread and Pastry: A Professional Approach by Michel Suas, but adjusted to yield a quantity manageable at home having a stand mixer and a rolling pin but no sheeter, but the dough is easily mixed by hand as well. I use bread flour because of the added cocoa.

I jump at any chance to use my sourdough starter, so it features here too. It tastes wonderful -- the cocoa's bitterness is tempered by the almost leafy tang, and a bit of salt and malt or sugar bump up the lush flavor of both the chocolate and the yeasted dough. 

It's a two-part process but can easily by divided into more 30-minute sets -- no need to block off your whole weekend to make croissants! This part is making the dough and putting in the layers, and the second part will be shaping and finishing.

If you don't have an active sourdough or levain (but really if you like to make bread you should!), or if this is the only yeasted recipe you will ever make (no judgement!) you can make an overnight poolish. 

220 g. all-purpose flour 

220 g room temp water

2.2 g (1/2 tsp) active dry yeast or instant yeast

Whisk together, cover, let rise 10-16 hours.

Chocolate Croissant and Pains au Chocolat 

yields 24 full-sized croissant or 12 each croissant and pains au chocolat, or 48 half-size croissant

Detrempe (dough part):

500 g. bread flour

60 g. unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Valrhona)

130 g. water 

140 g. milk 

7.5 g. (1 1/2 tsp) active dry or instant yeast 

440 g. sourdough starter, or the poolish from above 

93 g. sugar

15 g. (1 tbsp) salt

2 g. (1/2 tsp) powdered malt, 5 g.malt syrup, or 7 g. more sugar

29 g. butter, softened

With a mixer: Combine flour and cocoa in a mixer bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the water, then add that and the milk and starter or poolish to the cocoa and flour. Mix with the dough hook until no dry bits remain, then 1 minute on low speed. Add the sugar, salt, malt and butter, and mix on medium until the dough comes together and cleans off the bowl. 

to mix by hand: Dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix together flour, cocoa, salt, sugar, and malt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingers until it disappears. Make a well and add the yeast/water, milk, and starter or poolish. Mix with a wooden spoon, then your hands, until the dough comes together and no dry bits remain. Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead a few strokes until it is smooth and uniform.

Cover the dough in the bowl and let it rise at room temperature for 1 hour.

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Lightly butter or oil a large piece of plastic wrap. Press the dough (it will be a bit puffy but might not have doubled) into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick on the wrap, fold it over to enclose, and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour, or up to 6 hours.

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Buerrage (roll-in butter part):

340 g. unsalted butter, cold

20 g. unsweetened cocoa powder

The goal is to get the butter to the same malleable texture as the detrempe but still very cold -- softened manually, not by temperature. Place the butter (in two or three pieces) on a large piece of plastic wrap, or a nonstick mat. (A piece of heavy vinyl, like from a shower curtain or book cover, works well too.) Scatter the cocoa powder on. Roll the butter so it is coated all over, then fold the plastic on top and start to work the butter and cocoa together by hitting it with a rolling pin.

Use the plastic or mat to fold and shape the butter as you strike. So whack and fold until the cocoa is incorporated, trying to keep the butter pressed together and even. It is a messy process, but pretty satisfying and therapeutic! When all the cocoa is worked in, shape the buerrage into a 10 inch square on the mat, about 1/4 inch thick.

Enclosing (forming the Paton)

Clear off the counter and dust with flour. Unwrap the cold dough and flip it onto the floured surface, trying not to have it fold over on itself. Press the dough out with your hands into a rectangle, 12 inches by 18 inches. (my dough scraper is 6 inches wide - super handy!)

 Center the roll-in butter square at the bottom 2/3 of the rectangle, with 1 inch on 3 sides and the rest of the dough at the top.

fold the empty 1/3 of dough onto the buerrage and dust off the excess flour. 

Now fold the bottom 1/3 over the middle, making a 3-fold, like a letter to fit an envelope.  Press the edges together to seal in the buerrage. You now have 2 layers of butter roll-in between 3 layers of dough. 

Press in short up-down strokes with the pin to get the rectangle even and align the layers, then keep pressing until the folded dough is about 1/2 inch thick. I like to do so on the diagonals, so the corners stay true. 

When it is thin enough so your knuckles hit the counter, start to roll to a rectangle to make your first laminating fold. My counter doesn't allow me to get around its side, so I turn the dough parallel to the edge so i can leverage to roll the length. 

Don't be afraid to flour the surface well -- you don't want the dough to stick and rip to make the butter leak out. Use your scraper to make sure the dough is loose from the counter, moving it around to maintain the even thickness. Aim for a rectangle 3 times as long as it is wide -- in this case, about 9 inches by 27 inches.

Now fold one side over the middle, aligning the edges. 

Brush off the excess flour and fold the other side over, making 3 layers. 

That was your first fold! You will end up with a 9 inch square. Wrap the croissant dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.  This gives the butter roll-in a chance to chill and firm up, and the gluten developed to relax -- both make it easier for you to do the 2nd and 3rd folds. (Yeah, you can rest and chill too.)

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Flour the counter again and place the rested, cold dough square so the folded edges are parallel to the edge of the counter. You want to roll so the open edges become the short sides of the rectangle and the folds become the long edges, so press across with the rolling pin to 1/2 inch thickness, as before. 

Roll the dough back out to a 9x27 inch rectangle, then make the 2nd fold just like the first, brushing off any excess flour and aligning the edges. You'll notice that it gets more cohesive and manageable as the butter layers get thinner, but pay attention so you don't have sticking, and it stays an even thickness -- the tendency is for the edges to get thin and the middle to be thicker, so to prevent that, make sure to roll from the middle out, with consistent pressure.

Wrap and rest as before, then repeat one more time, for a total of 3 sets of folds. Yay, the lamination is complete! Wrap the finished dough and let it rest in the fridge at least 2 hours, or up to three days. 

This got long enough, so rolling, shaping, baking and finishing will be the next post! Thanks for your patience, see you back here soon for that.

Rainbow Chromatic/CMYK Croissants! Or, Ally baking.

I actually started these last Sunday after my croissant and brioche class (hi everyone who came from that!), the day of the New York Pride parade. But I didn't actually have time to finish them until this Saturday, the very last day of Pride Month -- skating in just under the wire to support the LGBTQIA+ community, and finally get an idea out of my head and into the world.

UPDATED with more pictures -- scroll down!

You've probably seen this London hotel's rainbow croissants, but I've never seen a recipe or technique that goes with it. And I wanted to make the colors run parallel to the croissant's sections, rather than perpendicular, so each one would be more likely to display all the colors side by side.

I started with a batch of croissant dough, made the usual way with 3 single folds. 

While that rested, I made a small batch (approximately 300 g of flour) of "dead dough" -- the detrempe without the yeast. I used all milk for extensibility, and all-purpose flour because I knew I'd be handling it a lot just to mix the colors in. I divided this dough into three pieces and colored one with egg yellow, one with sky blue, and one with rose pink/red red. (Gel colors rather then liquid, so the dough didn't get too soft.) I then took about a third from each and mixed them with each other to create green, orange and purple/violet doughs. Wrapped and chilled to relax the considerable gluten developed.

Cut to Saturday! Little 2 helped me -- actually she bugged me to make them even though I said it was too hot. I'm glad she did though, I would not have persevered if not for her!

 I figured out that my best bet for making the color strips very even was using a pasta machine. So each color was run through with a bit of flour to make a piece with consistent thickness.

I handcut strips and stacked them, slightly overlapping, to make the rainbow. (You'll see I tried a few different sequences of colors) 

Going through the pasta roller a few times to make the whole piece thinner. I stopped on setting 4. 

These went into the fridge.

Rolled out half of the plain dough, dabbed it with water to make the color panels stick.

Rolled over a few times to make sure they adhered well, then chilled a good while. I had to cut this piece in half to fit it in the fridge...

  
Rolled out again, to about 10 inches wide, then cut in triangles. Notice the different sequences...

 rolled into the familiar croissant shape, and set onto silpat-lined pans to proof.

I use a half sheet plastic cover to prevent them from drying out but also so nothing sticks to the soft dough and chances ripping the surface. 

 

I decided not to eggwash them so they retained more of their color instead of being yellow-tinged, but of course if it matters to you to be authentic you can eggwash them.. or brush them with glaze after baking.

Et voila -- Croissants arc en ciel! Happy Pride everyone... We are chuffed that these worked as well as they did. Next time I will try to make the orange truer in tone, make the color dough sheets thinner if I can, and pick a cooler/less humid day to do them!

UPDATE: We made them again ! 

This time I didn't use a pasta machine and just laid the colors out in wide panels striped parallel to the long sides of the rectangle -- i got a few that were each color, and a few i cut perpendicular to get as many colors on there as I could. It was much easier but each croissant was not as rainbow-y. I also used a much truer-toned blue color so it came out brighter in the baked finish. I think the happy medium is between the two tho!

Lamination Nation!

I love making laminate doughs... they're like the definition of pastry for me. The oooh! factor of seeing your literal effort in keeping those layers intact produce a spectacular rise and flake -- it's the stuff of wonder and internal fistpumping.

There's puff pastry -- old-school and lovely for sure, but kinda meh in terms of producing things to eat warm (with the exception of turnovers. but that involves filling-fiddling). No, I'm talking croissants. Yeasted, tangy with sourdough and wrapped around your heart-attack-inducer of choice, butter. It's the perfect combo of exacting geometric symmetry and "leave-it-to-the-powers-that-be" yeast mojo. Plus eating one is such a nice thing to do for yourself, with the fine buttery crispness and warm chew spreading its loveliness over your palate and fingers.
The dough I like (similar, but slightly tweeked, to this one from Karen Bornarth and Roger Gural) is made from milk, malt, mother and a combo of white whole wheat and bread flour, with some salt to keep the gluten in shape, and just a little butter and dry yeast. 

EDIT: Now with the actual recipe I use! Makes 24 pastries -- croissant, pains au chocolat, or a combination.

Dough (detrempe:)
400 g. bread flour
100 g. white whole wheat, regular whole wheat, or atta flour 
60 g. sugar

15 g. salt
2.5 g. (1/2 tsp) malt powder
30 g. butter
135 g. water
135 g. milk 
10 g. instant or active dry yeast 
440 g. sourdough starter, fed 6-10 hours before

Combine the flours, salt, sugar and malt. Rub in the butter until it disappears.
Whisk the yeast into the water. Add the milk, yeast water and starter to the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula or on low speed with the paddle just until the dough comes together. 
Spray or butter the inside of a gallon-sized zip-close bag, scrubbing the sides together to coat. Drop in the dough and flatten it out with your knuckles to the corners. Chill it nice and cold, preferably overnight, so it can rise low and slow, and helps keep the butter block cool as well.
Roll-in butter block: 
340 g. butter 
Basically, do this:

how much fun is it smacking the butter with a rolling pin? So much!! But this serves a purpose: the cold butter must stay cold but become malleable enough not to break apart when it's folded into the dough. Fold and roll with the help of the baking mat until the butter is a 10 inch square. Chill in the mat, flat.

The next day, slit the side and bottom of the zip-close bag and open it out flat. Dust the dough with flour, then flip it out onto the counter. With your fingers, press the cold dough out to a rectangle about 10x15 inches.

Flip the butter square level with one short side, leaving one-third uncovered.

Now fold the unbuttered third over the middle section, then the one buttered third on top of that... like folding a letter to put in an envelope. Seal the edges gently but firmly. 

Lift up the rectangle and dust the counter with flour. Press with up-and-down motions with the pin diagonally to flatten the rectangle, until it is about 1/ inch thick. Roll the dough back out as large as you can, keeping the edges even. Aim for something like 9x21 inches and about 1/4 inch thick. Fold again like a letter. Wrap and rest at least an hour, then repeat once more. Chill again at least 3 hours (or overnight) before shaping.

Yep, because of the layers... you want to keep the magic. So no, there are no scraps when I make croissant (both classic and filled with almonds or ham and cheese) and their cousins pains au chocolat, because every bit of dough and every opportunity for rise is precious. For Pains au chocolat, rectangles:

Be sure that the seam ends up on the center bottom, or else it will flip over from the rising and unroll.

For croissant, a trapezoid

 that is then triangulated and rolled, either around a filling or not: 

then a short stint to let the yeast beast do its thing, producing an almost-unimaginably light balloony wobble, before being washed and baked: 

 sprightly and beautiful emerging from the oven, shattering with a good amount of chew right in the middle. 

Oui, you betcha they're worth the effort. And needless to say, so are you.