A bagel-shaped bun - the pride of French confectioners, is a puff pastry baked in which the filling is wrapped.
All the legends about French croissants are nothing more than a beautiful fairy tale.
It does not matter who and when invented the croissants.
The fact is that this type of baking has existed for a long time and not only in France, but also in other cuisines of the world.
Croissant base puff pastry - sophisticated semi-finished product, but certainly worthy of attention. This type of dough was known even to the ancient Assyrian women: so the French confectioners most likely got a long-forgotten recipe, which they tried to catch the legend. As you know, everything new is well forgotten old.
A variety of ways to prepare French croissants at home can significantly expand the assortment of these "morning rolls" for coffee precisely by making various types of dough, not to mention the fillings. By the way, the technology of the no less famous phillo test has some similarities with the preparation of puff pastry, and, as you know, oriental culture, like oriental cuisine in general, has a more ancient history, rooted in the origins and death of the Assyrian state.
You can buy pastries in a bakery or choose ready-made puff pastry at a nearby supermarket and cook croissants with your favorite filling yourself, reducing the time and effort involved in cooking. Well, for those who are interested in the process itself, interesting and experimental options for puffs, we dwell in detail on the technological aspects of puff pastry.
How to cook French croissants at home - basic technological principles
Puff pastry requires some skills in its preparation, due to the features of its technology. Therefore, the housewives either avoid it, or prefer to buy ready-to-cook foods. But having mastered the rolling technology, who dared to try to prepare this type of test on their own, housewives once and for all refuse the services of the culinary departments in favor of home quality and an amazing variety of recipes.
The main technological aspects of puff pastry are the use of ingredients and a special method for its preparation. Puff pastry is called precisely because it is kneaded in a special way: the dough is not just mixed in containers, but rolled out and rolled up, as if rubbing fat into flour. When baking between layers of dough, an air layer forms, due to the interaction of fat with gluten flour. Plastic gluten traps air inside the dough, providing the product with splendor and layering. This method of dough preparation requires certain practical skills.
Dough for croissants is prepared in two ways: "like in a bakery" and "like in a bakery". In the first case - puff yeast dough, and in the second version it is prepared without the use of yeast. But both types are mixed in the same way - by rolling.
By the way, the phyllo dough is prepared without yeast, but not by rolling, but by way of extension. This type of dough, considered a classic in the Middle East, contains less fat and has a drier and more fragile structure.
Directly for the preparation of croissants, three methods of preparing the dough are applicable:
French way: the dough is wrapped in fat;
German way: fat wrapped in dough;
Dutch way: pieces of fat are laid out on the dough.
All three methods, frankly, have a purely technical difference, with the presence of elements of a competitive spirit between bakers and pastry chefs of the respective European cuisines. From a practical point of view, the Dutch method is most convenient, with some reservations: it is very difficult to roll out pieces of fat evenly to get a uniform dough structure. Therefore, it is better to freeze fat and grate it first. Without waiting for the fat to melt, sprinkle it with a little flour and freeze it again. It is better to get the fat prepared in such a way in parts, so as to prevent it from melting, and use for each layer, as necessary.
What is difficult to disagree with competing professionals in European cuisine is that the fat for puff pastry should be only the highest grade: it is better if not margarine, but butter with a fat content of 82.5%. By the way, the French, Germans and Dutch on this point are rare unanimity. The same unanimity is also manifested in the requirements for the quality of flour, yeast, when it comes to bakery products.
In industrial production, in order to save and maximize profits for puff pastry and, in particular, croissants, margarine or vegetable fats are used. This is not to say that this ingredient is not valid, because each method and formulation has its fans. The use of margarine is possible, but it must be borne in mind that when it is used in a specific recipe, the dough turns out to be different from the same that was made using extra oil.
There is a huge variety of puff pastry recipes where, along with butter, or instead of it, lighter milk fats are used: sour cream, yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese. Interesting pastries are made using various cooked cheeses.
In addition to fats, other muffins can be added to puff pastry: eggs, all kinds of flavoring additives, alcohol-containing drinks.
Into a yeast-free dough, for lifting add soda, slaked with vinegar or juice of acidic fruits, ammonium powder, baking powder, which is a mixture of soda and citric acid. In yeast puff pastry, yeast improves its lamination, which, when proofed and baked, emit carbon dioxide, ensuring the splendor of the product. The use of fermented milk products in both yeast and yeast-free puff pastry improves the taste of the products.
1. How to cook French croissants at home: yeast-free puff pastry stuffed with boiled condensed milk and nuts
Ingredients:
Sour cream 20% 100 ml
Extra oil 250 g (including 50% per layer)
Powdered sugar, sifted (for powder)
Syrup (for lubrication)
Flour (premium) 750 g (+ 20% for rolling)
Ammonium 20 g
Salt
Cognac or rum 30 ml
Boiled milk, condensed (8.5%) 200 g
Crushed nuts, walnuts (fried kernels) 150 g
Cooking:
Sift flour onto a table or cutting board. Combine it with ammonium and fine salt. Chop the frozen butter with flour into small crumbs. Put half the crumbs in the freezer, and collect the rest on a table with a slide, making a recess in the center. Pour sour cream and flavor in the form of cognac or rum. Other flavorings may be used. Knead the dough and, giving it a rectangular or square shape, begin to roll. The thickness of each layer should be no more than 0.5 cm. After rolling out the layer, sprinkle it with the prepared crumbs from the refrigerator. Press the crumb lightly so that it does not move to the center of the layer when you fold the dough with an envelope. Roll the envelope back into a thin layer and sprinkle with the fat mixed with the flour again. An ideal homemade puff pastry should consist of at least 16 layers. Repeat this operation. Try to work quickly so that the fat does not melt. The dough should be constantly cold. Stand the finished product at a temperature of -2Ϲ to 5 от, at least 2 hours.
Getting to the formation of bagels, take a small portion, and keep the rest of the dough in the cold.
Roll the dough into a circle, just as thinly as with the lamination; divide it into 6-8 identical parts. The cut lines must intersect in the center to get isosceles triangles. In the middle of the base of each triangle, put 15-20 g of the filling: combine the condensed milk with nuts and mix the mass or put pieces of kernels on top of the filling.
Turn each triangle into a tube, from the base (with the filling) to the center of the circle. Bend each semi-finished product with an arc, in the form of a crescent, lay on a baking sheet, sprinkled with flour. Preheat the oven to 180ºϹ and bake. Lubricate hot items with syrup and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
2. How to cook French croissants at home: cottage cheese puff pastry stuffed with dried apricots and raisins
Ingredients:
Cottage cheese 15% 250 g
Oil 82.5% 200 g
Flour 1.3 kg (+ 20% for powder)
Salt, Indian Saffron, Vanilla
Dough baking powder 40 g
Yolks 3 pcs.
Sesame (for powder)
Raisins and dried apricots 400 g
Squirrels 3 pcs. (for lubrication of semi-finished products)
Cooking:
Dried fruits, washing, pour over boiling water and soak in hot water until swelling. Cut dried apricots into small cubes, combine with raisins. Add honey or sugar if desired. The filling for the croissants is ready.
Add the dry ingredients to the sifted flour. Combine the yolks with the cottage cheese and grind it through a sieve.
Prepare the dough, as described in the first recipe, but as a powder, instead of crumbs of butter and flour, use the cottage cheese grated with yolks. Place the formed bagels on a baking sheet, brush with whipped protein, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake.
3. How to cook French croissants at home: puff pastry with poppy seeds
Ingredients:
Milk 3.2% 250 ml
Eggs: 2 yolks and 1 pc. (whole)
Margarine 100 g
Sugar 50 g
Oil 82.5% 150 g
Pressed Yeast 75 g
Vanilla 4-5 g
Salt 3 g
Poppy, pastry 150 g
Honey 120 g
Flour 800 g
Cooking:
Dissolve sugar, salt, yeast in warm milk (20-25ºϹ); add 100 g flour to the yeast mixture. Yeast should be fresh, but do not need to let them work until the croissants are proofed, before baking. Chop 200 g of flour with frozen butter into small crumbs and put it in the cold for a while. Add vanilla, beaten egg and 1 yolk, softened margarine and the rest of the sifted flour to the liquid part of the dough. Knead the dough, not letting it heat up. To do this, periodically move it to the refrigerator. Roll out the finished dough into a layer and, using frozen crumbs, begin to make layers, as described in the first recipe. Take the dough in the refrigerator and start cooking poppy seed filling. Steam poppy: boil 50-70 ml of water and add poppy to it to steam it. After that, put it in a mortar and knead with a pestle, gradually adding honey. Prepare 20-30 g of dry poppy seeds for sprinkling and decorating croissants.
Form bagels by putting the poppy seed filling inside. Place the semi-finished products on the prepared pan and leave to proof. When the items rise and increase in volume, bake as usual small items made from yeast dough. 5 minutes before the end of baking, take out a baking sheet, grease the surface of the baking with beaten yolk, sprinkle with poppy seeds and fry, placing them again in the oven.
4. How to cook French croissants at home: a yeast-free puff pastry with chocolate filling
Ingredients:
Puff pastry (prefabricated) 0.7 kg
Milk Chocolate 350 g
Egg Liqueur 100 ml
Almond shavings (for dusting)
Cooking:
Prepare a thick egg liqueur: 2 yolks mash until white with 50 g of sugar, combine the yolk with 50 ml of any brandy, rum or Amaretto. Heat the mixture in a water bath by adding grated chocolate mixed with a spoonful of flour. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring continuously, and then cool. Form the confectionery as described in the first recipe and bake. Ready, cooled pastries, one product at a time, dunk in melted chocolate, sprinkle with almonds and put on a dish lined with a napkin.
5. How to cook French croissants at home: puff pastry for croissants with cherries
Ingredients:
Puff pastry, yeast 0.5 kg
Powdered sugar (for dusting products) 100 g
Seedless Cherry 250 g
Cooking:
From the finished dough, form semi-finished croissants with cherries. Use recipe number 3 to prepare the dough. Remove the seeds from the cherries and put 1-2 berries inside each croissant, forming a confectionery, as described in the recipes above. Chilled to 20-30ºϹ, sprinkle the prepared baking powder.
How to cook French croissants at home - useful tips and tricks
High-quality croissants from yeast dough should not have a sour taste.
Puff pastry really does not like melted fat. Work quickly and as soon as you feel that the fat begins to exfoliate profusely in the dough, immediately cool the dough, and then start working with it again.
