Croissants and Kouign-amann
All the butter in this recipe is unsalted high fat european butter (plugra is the most commonly available brand in the US).
Makes 10 croissants or kouign-amann
Adopted from: The Art of French Pastry Book by Jacquy Pfeiffer amzn.to/35lNWm5
Dough:
30g egg + 45g room temp water
100g room temp water
5g (1.5 tsp) SAF red label instant yeast (or 6.25g [2tsp] active dry yeast)
100g unbleached all-purpose flour
200g bread flour
38g sugar
15g unsalted butter at room temp
7.5g salt (2.75tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher or 1.25tsp Table salt)
Whisk 1 egg. In a small bowl, weigh out 30g of it and add 45g water. Save the rest of the egg for the egg wash.
In a bowl of a mixer, whisk 100g of water and yeast. When the yeast is dissolved, add both flours, sugar, butter, egg/water mixture and salt. Mix on low speed until the dough comes together, scrape down, mix on speed 4 for 30 sec. Form into a ball, place into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic, let rise in a warm place for 1.5-2 hours. Deflate and fold like a letter to form into a rectangle. Don’t knead. Flour and wrap in plastic, freezer 20 min, then fridge overnight.
Butter block:
150g unsalted butter at room temp
Place the butter into a quart-size zip lock bag and shape into a 7” by 5.5” (18cm by 14cm) rectangle. Refrigerate overnight. If you want to make the butter block with parchment paper, here is how to do it: • How To Make Proper Cro...
Day 2:
Roll out the dough into 14” by 5.5” (36cm by 14cm) rectangle. Enclose the butter. Roll out to 20” (51cm). Do 3 letter turns chilling for 1 hour between each letter turn (see the video). Roll out to 20” by 7” (51cm by 18cm). Cut into triangles (4 inches/10cm on the short side). Stretch and roll up applying a lot of pressure in the beginning and lightening up by the end.
Line 2 half sheets with parchment. Place 5 croissants per sheet and cover. Proof in a very warm place (77-80F/25-27C) for 2-2.5 hours. They need to get very puffy.
20 min before baking, preheat the oven to 350F/175C with convection (375F/190C if you don’t have convection). Place the rack slightly higher than the middle of the oven. Add 1 Tbsp of milk to the leftover egg and whisk well. Egg wash the croissants.
Baking:
350F/175C with convection for 4 min
325F/160C with convection for 4 min
Slide a rimless cookie sheet under the pan of croissants and continue at 325F for 6-7 min or until brown. Repeat with the second baking sheet. Cool on a rack at least 20 min.
Kouign-Amann variation:
Mix 70g granulated sugar with 2g salt (¾ tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt or a heaping ¼ tsp fine grain sea salt). Butter and sugar 10 rings (2.75inch/7cm in diameter). Place the rings on 2 baking sheets lined with parchment, butter and sugar inside the rings.
Sprinkle the sugar under and over the rolled out dough and roll gently to attach the sugar to the dough. Cut into 10 squares. Shape as shown in the video and place into rings. Cover with plastic. Proof and bake just like croissants. As soon as they are done, remove them from the rings using tongs and cool for 20 min.
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