Lam-nation! Where we put butter into brioche because.

Laminating brioche? Why would you feel the need to do such a thing? Did I not just do a post about how lovely it is in and of itself?

Objectively that was a really good loaf, good for eating out of hand or sliced. But gilding the lily has its merits, especially if they look like this: 

So pretty right? Laminated brioche is just a little different from Danish, but they are very similar. I wanted to create a handheld pastry that was tall rather than flat, and maximized the baked flavors of orange and almond paste within the pretty layers.

This is based on Ciril Hitz' formula, but in a more manageable quantity and a few tweeks.

Laminated Brioche with Candied Orange and Almond - makes 24 small pastries

brioche dough:

35 g. milk

100 g. eggyolks

60 g. sugar

7.5 g active dry yeast

220 g. sourdough starter

360 g. bread flour

10 g. salt

grated zest from half an orange, optional 

75 g. butter, cubed and cool but not cold

Mix the liquids, sugar and yeast together in a mixer bowl. Add the flour and mix on low speed with the hook until the flour is moistened. Add the salt and orange zest, and mix on medium speed until the dough comes up off the sides of the bowl. (It will have a gluten window, but just barely.) Add the butter and mix on medium speed until it is smooth and elastic -- this will take a good 5-8 minutes.

Cover the bowl and let the brioche dough rise about an hour at room temperature.  

Put a bit of butter or spray on the inside of a gallon-size zip-close bag, and scrub it around to coat the inside. Cuff the opening over and stand the bag upright. Gather the sides of the risen brioche dough into the middle to de-gas, then ease it into the prepared bag. Press the air out, lay the bag on its side, then press the dough inside the bag to the corners into a flat square. Seal the bag and ferment in the fridge 4 hours to overnight. 

roll-in:

175 g. butter

Slice the butter into two or three pieces and place them on a silicone baking mat. With a rolling pin, smash and roll the cold butter to a flat square about 9 inches wide. (so much fun!)

Take the chilled brioche dough from the fridge and slit the bag down the side. Flour a surface lightly. Peel the bag open and, without folding the dough, flip the rectangle of brioche dough onto the surface. Press it with your fingertips into an even rectangle about 1/4 inch thick, 18 inches by 9 inches.

Use the mat to center the roll-in on the dough rectangle. 

 and fold the two edges to meet in the center. Seal the edges. 

 Use the rolling pin to press and roll the dough back out to a 9x18 inch rectangle, the short sides being 9 inches. Make the first 3-fold. 

Wrap the dough in plastic (or cover with the cut-open bag, tucking the ends under). Chill the dough for 30 minutes to an hour, then do another 2 3-folds back to back. Chill the completely laminated brioche dough for two hours, or up to three days, before shaping.

candied orange-almond filling:

280 g. almond paste

60 g. softened butter

pinch of salt

enough orange juice to bring it to a spreading consistency, about 30 g.

   Beat these together until they are light and smooth. Add 30-40 g. diced candied orange peel.

Roll the cold dough out to a rectangle 12x24 inches. Spread the filling on all the way to the short sides, trying to distribute the orange dice evenly top to bottom and side to side. 

fold one third down and one third up to form a 4x24 inch layered rectangle. Cut the rectangle crosswise into 1-inch strips. Place each strip in the cups of a small muffin pan (this is a flexible silicone one), giving the strip a half twist before putting the ends toward the bottom. I tried a few arrangements to show off the layers here. 

cover the filled pan with plastic wrap and let the pastries rise at room temperature about an hour, or in the fridge overnight. 

The brioche itself should feel light and airy when you press with a fingertip. Sprinkle a few almond slices on each one, attaching them to the moist almond filling. Bake the pastries at 360F about 12-15 minutes, until the filling is set and the pastry is nicely browned.

When they are just warm, gently ease them out of the pan to cool the bottoms and keep them from getting soggy. They are nice just dusted with confectioner's sugar,

 but I like to brush them with some melted orange marmalade to add some shine and tartness.

So delicious, just barely crispy/flaky and moist and tangy... and just a little different from the usual breakfast pastries.

Sourdough starter -- starter pack! And pizza dough.

Crap I'm embarrassed. I've been saying that you can find a lot of info about sourdough starter on my blog, but there's no actual starter-sitting/maintenance info!! I swear I did a massive post several years ago, but suffice to say that I don't know where it went. Did I post it on another blog? Facebook or tumblr maybe? who knows.

So forthwith, a getting-there-without-tears sourdough starter post. The French call it a levain, and it's a batch of happy yeast cells in a liquid medium that is used by itself or in combo with commercial yeast to make doughs rise. 

There are many tutorials out there about how to begin a sourdough starter from scratch, such as Rose Levy Beranbaum's Bread Bible (she makes a stiff starter, double the flour to water, but the principle is the same) and the King Arthur Flour blog, and several videos as well. (I started mine about 20 years ago from organic rye flour, organic grapes and bottled water.)

If I've given you some of mine, or someone else has, then you just have to feed the starter and it will live on indefinitely. Every time you use it, just feed the remainder and the cells will remain active and the starter is ready to use whenever. If you don't plan on using it more than once a week, the starter can live in your fridge, where the cell activity will slow down from the cold enough so it stays alive, but not exhausting its food supply.

To feed the starter, weigh what you have and feed it half its weight in flour and half in water. For example, if the starter weighs 150 grams, you will stir in 75 g. flour and 75 g. water. You will then have 300 g. of starter, that will be most active if you give it about 6 hours at room temperature. It should rise to about double its size in about 4 hours. If you don't plan on using it soon, leave the fed starter at room temperature for an hour, then refrigerate it.

If you don't plan on using 300 g. and you want to keep less, you can discard some before you feed it, as long as you keep at least 60 g., to be fed 30 g each of flour and water. This amount fits in a pint container or 12-ounce jar with room to rise.

When you do want to use the refrigerated starter, leave it out at room temperature for an hour or two and watch for it to rise slightly. Then use however much your recipe calls for. Weigh the remainder and feed it as before, half water and half flour by weight. 

If you won't be using your starter for a bit, it will be okay in the freezer -- the longest I have frozen mine was two weeks. When you want to maintain it again, leave the frozen starter out at room temperature until it thaws out completely. Feed it as above and leave until you see bubbles and it has that fruity, slightly beer-y smell -- it may not rise to fully double, but it will be fine.

If you forget to feed your starter in the fridge for a week or two, and there is clear or greyish liquid on top, it is still okay. Stir that liquid back in, discard half of the starter, and feed it. Leave it at room temperature until it rises, then either use or refrigerate. If it takes a long time to rise (more than 6 hours with no activity), feed it again. Usually the most neglected starter will bounce back after two or three feedings 12 hours or so apart.

⇒⇒⇒If you ever see pinkish or orangey spots or liquid, or black mold, do not hesitate to throw the starter out. This is a sign of potentially harmful bacteria. Contact me to give you some more 😁, don't feel that you have to save it.

Here as an act of good starter faith is the pizza dough recipe I use: (even though at the moment my home oven is not conducive to pizza-making -- i will live through you all.)

Sourdough Pizza Dough

220 g. room-temp water

10 g. (2 tsp.) active dry yeast

165 g. all-purpose flour

300 g. bread flour

15 g. (1 tbsp) salt

15 g. (1 tbsp) sugar (optional -- it makes it brown better and rise a bit faster)

200 g. sourdough starter, fed about 6-10 hours before 

50 g. olive oil

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix together the dry ingredients. Form a well, and add the wet ingredients and yeast water. Combine with your fingers, sweeping the flour into the well to form a shaggy dough. Knead it until it is smooth and elastic, and you get a gluten window. (in the mixer, go 3 minutes on low, then 6-8 minutes on medium). Turn the dough out of the bowl and knead a few times just to bring any wet parts and dry parts together. Put a little olive oil in the bowl and drop the dough back in, turning it over to coat. Cover with plastic wrap.

Let the dough rise til it doubles (about 40 minutes) then knock it down and divide into pieces -- I usually make two 14" or three 10-12" from this size batch, or about 240 g. each for 4 individual pizzas depending on how thin you want to stretch it. 

Shape each piece into a ball, return them to the oiled bowl, cover, then rest in the fridge til you're ready to stretch. (Or freeze on an oiled pan until solid, then place in a freezer bag.)

I prep all my toppings first, then stretch and top and right into the 475 oven. If you want it puffier/more foccacia-like, let the pizza rise about 10-15 minutes with the toppings on.   

Rise, and shine! 

Fluffy, tender sandwich bread, by request

UPDATED with shaping videos -- see below!👇

I like making bread (no duh!) and my daughter likes eating bread. But not my bread, usually. "No offense Mom, but your bread is usually hard." I disagree! Crusty, because it's sourdough, but not hard. Unless it's been around for a little bit because it hasn't been eaten. Because it's not squishy white bread.

So, of course, I was compelled to make the tender, creamy-crumbed, slightly sweet Japanese-style milk bread you see here -- in a loaf shape that is perfect for toast, grilled cheese, and other sandwiches. 

Incorporating sourdough gives sandwich bread a boost in flavor and keeping qualities, and using tangzhong gives it that moist, soft interior and delicate crust, that stays that way on the counter for a bit. So of course to maximize my oven usage, I made two loaves -- the oven stays on the same amount of time anyway, and I have two loaf pans of equal size. I may try 3 loaves at once next time, but that might be pushing the capacity of my mixer. 
Update: since this bread has won my family over, i got two 12-inch long loaf pans and now make approximately 1 1/4 times the original quantity (shaping in 6 logs per pan). It does fit in my 5 qt mixer, but needs a larger bowl to rise in. Surprisingly, the two loaves still only take 30 minutes to bake. New quantities are in red. 

You do want to use a mixer for tangzhong doughs -- until the gluten is developed properly, they are very sticky like brioche, almost gluey. But when the dough is properly mixed, it rises nicely.
Debt of gratitude to Christine Ho's english-language blog, which is where I first encountered the tangzhong method. This recipe is very similar to hers, but with my tweaks and quantities.

Japanese-style Milk Bread Sandwich Loaves

Tangzhong:

50 g. all-purpose or bread flour 66 g
125 g. milk 166 ml
125 g. water 166 ml

In a small saucepan, whisk the flour into the liquids until smooth. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking all the time, until the mixture thickens and the whisk starts to leave a track. It will just start to stick to the bottom and may come to a bit of a simmer, but it is done when it still drips in a trail from the whisk. Turn the tangzhong out of the saucepan to cool, right into your mixer bowl.
EDIT: You can also microwave the tangzhong, stirring every 20 seconds with a small whisk or a fork to get out the lumps.

Final dough:
100 g. milk or heavy cream 133 g
112 g. eggyolks (or two large eggs and a yolk) 150 g
300 g. sourdough starter, fed 6-15 hours before  400 g
110 g. sugar 146 g
10 g. instant or active dry yeast (if your starter is very active, 7 g. should be enough) 12 g

550 g. bread flour (or part whole wheat flour and part bread flour) 715 g
37 g. dry milk powder 50 g
10 g. (2 tsp) salt 13 g

60 g. butter, cool and cubed 80 g

Add the milk or cream, eggs or eggyolks, sugar, starter, and yeast to the room-temperature tangzhong. Mix with the paddle until it is smooth and the yeast is dispersed. Add the flour, milk powder and salt, switch to the hook, and mix on low speed for a few minutes until the flour is evenly moistened. 

(I now let this sit to autolyse for about 10-15 minutes, especially for the larger batch). Turn the speed up to medium and let the dough develop -- it will look very messy for a bit, then come together into a few sticky clumps. Scrape down the sides if needed. Add the butter, and mix again on medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic -- it will take a total of 7-10 minutes. Check for a gluten window.
Clean off the hook, pull the bowl off the mixer, and go through with a bench scraper or spatula to make sure everything is evenly mixed -- there may be some butter bits or egg hanging about in the divot of the bowl, and you want to get those in cleanly.  
Coat the top of the dough with cooking spray or butter, just enough so it doesn't form a skin. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let the dough rise until doubled... it should take about an hour, depending on how healthy your starter is and if the room is warm. 

Have two 9x5 loaf pans ready... mine are a dark nonstick, so they don't need much prep, but if they are not nonstick, a quick spray or parchment liner will help get the bread out prettily. 

When the dough has doubled, gently fold the edges into the middle to de-gas.

Shaping:

Turn it out onto the counter and divide in half, then each half into 4 pieces for the traditional Hokkaido-loaf shape. Take one piece, flatten it into an oval, and bring the two short ends to meet in the middle. Roll this up from an open end into a snug 4-inch long cylinder and place it crosswise in a loaf pan, seam side down. Repeat to have four cylinders for each loaf. It doesn't matter if they touch or not, but try to have the tops be relatively even.

Update: Alternate shaping -- twist: Divide the dough into only two pieces and shape each into a cylinder about twice as long as the pan. Twist together, tuck in the ends, and place in the pan.

Cover with plastic wrap or bags, and let the breads rise until they come to the top edge of the loaf pan. This will take about half the time of your first rise. *

Bake the breads at 350 F -- they should take about 25-30 minutes. The tops will sound hollow when you tap, and they will feel crusty with a nice golden color. Remove them from the oven and let cool a bit, then turn the loaves out of the pans onto a rack. If the bottoms lack color, you can put them back in the oven (out of the pans) to brown the rest of the way around for a few minutes, then remove and let cool completely.
As they cool and the moisture distributes evenly, the outside will soften and stay that way, so don't be sad that the crust is very firm when they come out of the oven. 

Do let the loaves cool completely before slicing -- the inside is very tender while hot and it will squash if you cut too soon. 

The sandwich loaves will live happily on your countertop, each in a gallon-size zip-close bag or something like it, for a good week. Or less, if someone keeps creeping up and slicing pieces off! 👀😋

* I didn't find it necessary to brush the loaves with anything before baking, but a little milk or cream will give them a darker, semi-glossy finish. Beaten egg gives them a much darker, shiny crust, but i find that that peels off after a few hours. You can brush them with melted butter as they come out of the oven, but again, the crust softens nicely even without.

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.

❧❧

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.

❧❧ 

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.)

❦❦

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.