Bowden Family Cookbook: Baking Croissants in Paris

BAKING CROISSANTS IN PARIS

What a wonderful way to kick off our summer in Europe! We were a little nervous about flights being rearranged so much, but ultimately ended up with an extra day in Paris making time for the croissant baking class Bruce had been asking to do. I love how passionate our kids are about the things they love. Haha. The kids all really had a wonderful time and were so excited to enjoy their croissants after their hours of hard work. Recipe below with some more detail pictures I took after arriving back home.

PARISIAN CROISSANTS

We had the incredible opportunity while we were in Europe for the summer to learn how to bake croissants with the Maison Fleuret school in Paris.

INGREDIENTS:

250g flour

16g FRESH yeast

8g honey

125g milk

32g sugar

33g butter (kneading)

150g butter (laminating)

7g salt

UTENSILS:

Stand mixer

Mixing bowl

Scale

Small bowl

Pastry brush

Rolling pin

Knife

Baking paper

Baking tray

METHOD:

Prepare and weigh all the ingredients. Sieve the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer, then add sugar, yeast honey and salt (making sure salt and yeast do not come into contact).
Add the butter (33g) and milk.
Use mixer fitted with dough hook to knead the dough for 5 minutes on speed 1 and then for 10 minutes on speed 2. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for one hour.
In the meantime, prepare the butter (150g) for laminating. Place the chilled butter in baking paper and roll out with rolling pin until it is about 5mm(1/4in) thick.
To get a perfect square, fold the baking paper over the butter into a square “envelope”. Roll the butter through the baking paper until it takes up all the space inside.
Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out lengthwise using a rolling pin.
The dough needs to be the same width as the butter and twice as long.
Place the square butter in the center of the dough, and gently peel off the baking paper.
Fold the two ends of the dough over the top of the butter, making sure the dough covers all the butter.
Fold no. 1: keeping the seam perpendicular to you, roll out the dough/butter sandwich lengthways until it is approximately 3x as long as it is wide.
In your mind, divide the dough into three equal parts lengthways, fold up one third of the dough, and then fold down the other third.
Looking at it sideways, it should fold up like a ‘G’
Wrap dough in cling wrap and rest in refrigerator for 2-3 hours to chill.
Fold no. 2: with the seam perpendicular to you, roll out the dough lengthways again until it is even longer than last time.
Fold the two sides over until they meet, but not in the middle. One short side fold and one long side fold. Then fold the long side fold over the rest of the dough. This is now laminated croissant dough.
Wrap dough in cling wrap and rest in refrigerator for another 2-3 hours to chill.
Roll the dough out into a rectangle, but not too thin. If it’s too thin the croissants will not end up big and puffy.
Divide the dough in half down the long edge (hotdog style). One half will be for croissants and the other half for pain au chocolat.

CROISSANT:

Cut the dough into equal triangles. (Size depending on how big you want the croissants).
Cut a small slit in the bottom of the triangle to give it more width.
Roll the croissant: pull the base of the triangle apart with your hands a bit where you cut the slit, fold the base of the dough over slightly then roll the whole triangle tightly to the tip.
Proofing: place your croissants on baking paper on an oven tray, leaving enough space between each one for them to rise. Leave tray in a warm place (or lightly preheated oven making sure max temp is no higher than 30C/85F). Let them rise for approximately one hour until they double in size and become all puffy.
Prepare egg wash: whisk a whole egg (or just egg yolk with a bit of milk) then lightly brush over croissants once risen.
After one hour of rising (once doubled in size) move to preheated oven (180C/350F).
Bake about 15 minutes until golden crispy. Enjoy!

PAIN AU CHOCOLAT:

Cut a bar of chocolate into sticks, using length of sticks as a measure, cut he other half of the dough into rectangles.
Each pain au chocolat will contain two sticks of chocolate.
Make your pain au chocolats by putting the first stick of chocolate slightly below the top of the rectangle and folding the dough over it. Next add the second stick of chocolate and roll up the whole rectangle.
Proofing: place your pain au chocolats seam side down on baking paper on an oven tray, leaving enough space between them for them to rise.
Leave tray in a warm place (or lightly preheated oven making sure max temp is no higher than 30C/85F). Let them rise for approximately one hour until they double in size and become all puffy.
After one hour of rising, if using the oven, take the tray out and preheat the oven (180C/350F). In the meantime, prepare egg wash: whisk a whole egg (or just egg yolk with a bit of milk) then lightly brush over pain au chocolats.
Bake about 15 minutes until golden crispy. Enjoy!