Croissants - classic French cuisine

Croissants - this is probably the most famous French pastries, hardly a person who does not know what it is. Everything tasted properly cooked croissants forever remember this rosy crisp and delightful combination with delicate filling - chocolate, cheese, cream, etc. Learn how to cook real croissants, meanwhile, is not as difficult as it seems.

Today croissants are considered one of the symbols of France, but for the first time, according to the historical version, cook them at all in this country, as in Austria, where the prescription of these delicious rolls brought to the capital of world fashion and cooking Marie Antoinette.

During the siege of Vienna by the Turks is one of the bakers, pastry cooking, he heard a strange sound and turned to the military, it turned out - not in vain: the Turks did mine, trying to get into the city. As a result, after such a glorious developments Viennese bakers baked buns special puff pastry, making them in the shape of a crescent - the symbol of Islam, ridiculing thus not carry out his plan of the Turks. This is the story of the invention croissant.

Today croissants cooked in a variety of countries around the world, it's really delicious! A cup of coffee or hot chocolate and fragrant freshly baked croissant - a classic French breakfast, well prepared muffin can with any filling or no.

How to cook a real croissants at home

Classic croissants are prepared only from flaky dough - if you want to buns were soft and crunchy, other tests will not work. Of course, kneading puff pastry - this is the most difficult stage in the preparation of croissants, so we describe it as detailed as possible in order to cope with the problem could any hostess.

Stages of cooking croissants

Croissant dough recipe: 350 g of butter is not less than 82% fat, 500 g flour 200 ml of milk, 40 grams of fresh yeast and 13 g of dry 30 g of vegetable oil and powdered sugar, 8 g of salt, 2 g of baking powder 2 eggs medium-sized meal for powders and 1 tbsp milk 1 egg yolk and products for smearing.

• The first stage - preparation of oil.

Still tight, but unsteady oil put on powdered flour plastic wrap, cover it, and powdered with flour top, fight off the oil, molded rectangle measuring about 10 by 12.5 cm, remove the oil in the freezer for 10 minutes before further use.

• The second stage - kneading dough.

Dissolve the yeast in the milk and flour mixed with baking powder, sift, to drive the egg, add the powdered sugar, add the vegetable oil, salt the. Pour the yeast with the milk, knead the dough for 2-3 minutes.

• The third stage - preparation of puff pastry.

Molded dough rectangle 12.5 by 20 cm, wrap it with tape, remove half an hour in the refrigerator and kept at a temperature of 4-6 degrees (if the temperature of the refrigerator compartment above, remove the dough in the freezer). Take the dough rectangle, put on a powdered flour a work surface, lay on the half butter, mash it with the three outer sides and cover the dough, wrapping the edges of butter, cover with other half of dough and zaschipnut edge. Carefully start to stretch the dough from the middle of the rectangle back and forth in one direction and thus roll 1 cm thick layer (at least the need for rolling out to powder rolling pin and the dough with flour). Roll out the long rectangle folded 3 times, visually dividing it into 3 equal parts across, wrapped, remove for 15 minutes in the freezer, and then for 15 minutes in the refrigerator. Likewise, roll dough once more in a long rectangle, again just folded away at the same time, first in a freezer, and then in the cold. Repeat the rolling and cold soak for at least another five times and then remove the dough in a refrigerator for a half hour or overnight.

Roll out the dough every time you need in a perpendicular direction relative to the previous rolling, rolling pin should only move back and forth, not rolling the dough diagonally, etc.

• The fourth stage - molding croissants.

Ready to roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle 3-5 mm thick, cut into isosceles triangle, the base of which is to be half the size of the other two equal sides (eg, base 10 cm and 20 cm side). At the base of each triangle in the middle, make an incision of 1-2 cm, and from the base to the tip of a roll the dough into a croissant, bend your product, giving it the shape of a crescent.

• The fifth stage - cooking croissants.

Post croissants rasstoyatsya at 26-28 degrees for half an hour, the oven heated to 190-200 degrees. Cover the baking sheet with parchment or simply powdered with flour, coat with egg yolk, beaten with milk and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

In addition to the precision of all the above steps for the preparation of delicious croissants also need to comply with the following recommendations:

• Butter is necessary to take a third of the weight of flour or more - up to an equal amount of flour, but not less than one third;
• Good chill all ingredients before cooking dough;
• Use only meal of durum wheat;
• Better use of live yeast;
• When connecting the butter and batter should be about the same consistency;
• Prepare the dough into a room with a temperature of about 15 degrees - this is the optimal temperature for its preparation.

In the preparation of croissants most importantly - patience and desire to make a really delicious buns. But if the opportunity to harvest your own puff pastry you do not have, and bake croissants like, try using ready puff pastry.

Recipe for making croissants from the dough

You will need: 225 g of finished puff pastry, 170 g of cheese, 4 slices of ham.

How to cook a ham croissants. Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Frozen and thawed dough roll out the layer of 0.5-0.8 cm thick, powder with flour work surface, cut into 4 triangles formation. Incision in the base of the triangles in the middle, 1-2 cm and put it strips of cheese and ham, roll in the direction from the base to the hot corner, tucked down corner, as the product can be developed. Edge croissants slightly stretch and bend to form crescents rolls purchased. Bake 15 minutes in preheated oven.

In the same manner may be prepared croissants with any filling. But there is another option - croissants are baked without toppings, then finished products are cut in half lengthwise, spread the filling on the bottom of croissants in the oven heated 2-5 minutes and serve, cover the top half of bun.

Chocolate or any other filling a consumable is placed on the dough in the form of unmelted: ie when minimized product just put on the base a few slices of chocolate croissant and wrap.

Cooking delicious, fragrant, crispy French croissants at home - it is difficult, but possible, and any diligent cook necessarily achieve the result, for which he received a lot of compliments from friends. As the saying goes: "The eyes of fear, but the hands are doing!". Good Luck!