Le Croissant!

Le Croissant!

I love a good croissant, not that supermarket, processed, previously frozen rubbish they try to palm off as a croissant… No. I love the traditional, French patisserie, flaky, buttery, crisp with a soft fluffy middle style croissant. Yes, the one that makes you salivate just looking at it!

Of course, you can't find the ultimate croissant just anywhere, no my friend, one has to search out these beautiful little pieces of art. One has to hunt high and low for the best damn patisserie or bakers around to enjoy these gorgeous morsels of love. Obviously, if you go to France then normally (but not always) you can be guaranteed to be in croissant heaven in any number of bakers dotted about the towns and villages. However, if you are in England, then my advice would be one of two things:

1. Eat your way through most of your local bakeries and patisseries until you get the best.
2. Make it yourself.

Seeing as the first option will normally lead to some kind of obesity (possibly worth it?) and cholesterol levels through the roof (maybe not such a good idea), you might be better off making them yourself.

The advantage is, with making croissants by hand, you're unlikely to make them too often due to their slightly labour intensive construction. Although, the joy of making them yourself is that you know exactly what went in and you get to enjoy them (unless of course you've got kids like moi, in which case you may be lucky to get one).

So, on to the humble croissant. First a little piece of history:

Apparently, back in 1686, in Budapest, a local baker whilst working at night, raised the alarm when Turkish invaders attempted to dig into the city. What's this got to do with croissants? Well, later on he and other bakers were to create the crescent shaped croissants as a way of mocking the Turkish flag.

It all sounds a little far fetched for my liking but I'm willing to buy the story if only to pay homage to the croissant and thank those steely Turks for helping to create such a glorious delicacy.

OK, now for the making bit! Don't panic, as long as you follow my method you should have no problem.

A few rules though:

• Keep the dough cool in between procedures, so if it says refrigerate for 15 mins then that's what you should do!

• Make sure that when using the dough, to keep any bits and extras covered otherwise you'll end up with a crusty like skin forming!

• Make sure to have all your ingredients to hand before you start making the dough and try to work it all on a cool surface, marble is normally first choice.

• Make sure to use a sharp knife to cut the dough into the triangular shapes before forming a crescent.

• Make sure to brush the croissants with egg wash before baking otherwise you wont have that lovely golden and crispy look when they're cooked.

• Finally, try not to eat them as soon as they're out of the oven, place on a cooling rack and allow to cool a little……Oh, who am I kidding, eat away! You may not get a look in once the rest of the family appear!

You will need:

480g strong flour

1 tsp salt

20g fresh yeast (or use the live active dried yeast but follow the instructions on the pack)

10g caster sugar

Approx. 250ml cold water

225g butter

2 eggs, beaten to use as an egg wash prior to baking

Preparation:

1. Dissolve the salt and sugar in the water

2. Sieve the flour into a bowl, make a well in the centre (like a hole)

3. Soften the yeast with a little water and pour into the flour

4. Add most of the rest of the water (reserving a little)

5. Mix well to form a soft, smooth dough. Wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for 15 minutes

6. Take the butter and wrap in some clingfilm. Hit with a rolling pin to form a square that is about a centimetere thick.

7. Roll out the dough to a square of a similar size to the butter and then place the butter in a diamond shape over the square of the butter. Fold in the four corners so it forms an envelope over the butter. (this is called the french method by the way!)

8. Wrap and rest in the fridge for 15 minutes. You might want to wash up at this point!

9. Roll the dough out in a rectangle that is three times as long then fold in the top and bottom sections of the dough. A bit like 3 equal size squares and you are folding the top and bottom square over the middle square, one on top of the other! Do this twice (2 times). Wrap and refrigerate again for 30 minutes.

10. Give one more roll and fold and rest in the fridge again for 15 minutes.

11. Cut the dough in half (leave one half wrapped in the fridge) and roll to a long rectangle approximately 7 inches wide. Cut the dough into triangles approximately 7 inches long with a base of 5 inches. Technique: use the knife and simply cut in diagonals along the rectangle to get the triangles.

12. Roll the triangles up, starting from the thick end (5 inch base) and form into a crescent shape by gently bending. Place on a lightly greased baking tray and leave to "prove" (rise) until doubled in size.

13. Repeat the process with the other half of the dough.

14. Once risen, carefully brush the croissants with egg wash (1 or 2 eggs beaten) and bake in the oven at gas mark 6/200*C until golden, well risen and crisp.

15. Place on a cooling rack and leave to cool if you can resist the temptation!