Croissant adapted from Julia Child

Flour Options

Probably the most important step in the recipe is to use the r ight f lour type for this

type of pastry. Jul ia suggests using a low -gluten f lour so the dough can be easi ly

rol led without becoming rubbery, etc. You could f or instance use a mix of 1 part unbleached al l -purpose and 2 parts unbleached pastry f lour . She also adds

tasteless oi l to the mix, to help tenderize the dough.

Yeast Dough

Even if today’s dry yeast has a very small chance of fai l ing to do its job, I wil l give

it a chance to prove itself to be worthy of our croissant dough.

1 Tsp dry yeast 1/4 Tsp salt 1/2 Tb sugar 1/4 cup warm water (not more than 110 degrees, otherwise you’l l ki l l the yeast)

Start by mixing al l these ingredients with the warm water unti l dissolved, and let it

s it for 5 min. If the yeast is act ive (and it should) it wil l form a soft foamy mass on

its surface:

Croissant Dough Recipe

2 Cups of your flour mix (see Flour Options above). 1 Tb sugar 3/4 Tsp salt 1/3 to 1/2 cups tepid milk if using unbleached flour: 2 Tb vegetable oi l (I used Canola) if using bleached flour: 4 Tb vegetable oil

Blend al l the above in a mixing bowl (don’t forget the yeast mix ) with a spatula

into a st icky mass, then out on the board:

Time for some punching – works well when you are mad. Jul ia suggests the l ift -

and-throw motion and as she talks and demonstrates the moves, the dough gets

stuck to her pastry scraper and goes f ly ing as she exclaims “Whew!” and goes on

with her explanation without any trouble… Typical Julia Child ! Love it . Un-edited

fun!

Keep on being rough with your dough for about 3 minutes – i t ’ l l be somewhat

st icky at f irst but after a good rapid fold and knead with the heels of your hands it

wil l become elast ic, smooth and wil l not st ick to your hands anymore:

Time to r ise. Plop the dough into a bowl and do a cr iss -cross scissors snip on its

surface to help it r ise. Then cover it with a plast ic wrap, and let it r ise unti l it

becomes double in bulk:

Ris ing t ime depends on the room temperature. I found that if I do this in the

summer, r is ing is faster than in winter. About 1 to 1 -1/2 hours at say 75 degrees

wil l suff ice. Don’t keep it in temperatures higher than 85 degrees or longer that

needed (over-r ise) s ince that wll impart an unpleasant taste. At this point you can

retard the r is ing by placing the bowl in the refr igerator:

Then, punch it down into a f lat circle, wrap it in wax -paper and chil l it for about

20-30 minutes. The chil l ing is important as it makes working the dough much

easier:

Rolls, Turns and Chills

If the croissant recipe would be considered a somewhat complicated procedure,

than this part icular step would probably be the one that wil l need more attention.

What makes this basic yeast dough (good for bread, etc.) become a croissant

dough is a good old st ick of chilled butter. It is butter that makes the world turn.

And it is butter that wil l make the 82 dough layers for our croissants:

Time is now to beat the daylight out of this chi l led butter with your rolling pin .

The idea here, my fr iends, is to work the butter into a malleable consistency, free

of lumps and very fast, to keep the butter cold – working with melted butter is just

not fun:

Then fin ish this procedure by pushing the whacked butter bits by bits out with the

heel of your hand, so it is completely lump-free:

Lovely, huh? Having fun yet? Now, press your dough (I rol l it) into an approximate

9″ diameter circle, then form the butter into a 5″ square (square - ish in my case)

and place it on the top of your dough (centered):

Now gently f l ip the dough edges (without r ipping it!) over the butter and seal in

the butter by pinching the dough:

Voila! now you have a nice package of dough with a st ick of butter in side, ready to

be massaged into many layers. For that, flour your rol l ing pin and both sides of

your dough, place it on your board with the seal s ide up and start gently rol l ing

back and forth from the center towards the edges to form a rectangle of about 15″

long and 5″ wide. It doesn’t HAVE to be exact, but try to at least get close to that

dimension. If there are butter bits that poke through, just pinch the dough over

that spot to re-seal it . Also, if the dough became too rubbery (read warm), chi l l it

again for about 20 minutes and continue from where you’ve left it . What you want

here is to evenly spread the butter between the two dough layers (this gets you

ready for your next step):

Turns #1 and #2

Okay. What’s a turn in cul inary l ingo? Julia Child defines it as having the dough

folded l ike a business letter in 3 even layers. And really, that ’s exact ly what it is.

Gently fold the bottom of your rectangl e to the center of the dough then fold the

top f lap over it the same way. That ’s defined as turn #1:

Then once again, rol l out the dough to the in it ial 15″ long and 5″ wide rectangle to

prepare it for turn #2 just as before. Keep the edges as straight as possible (I re -

al ign them with the rol l ing pin). You wil l see that it wil l look more l ike a rectangle

than before. Rinse and repeat – you got it right?

By this t ime (after turn#2) your dough needs some chil l ing to be able to rol l it

another 2 turns. Leave it folded as a business letter, f lour it l ight ly, wrap it in wax

paper and place it in the fr idge for about 1-2 hours:

Turns #3 and #4

After the t ime spent in the fr idge (1 to 2 hours) the dough is relaxed and ready

forturn #3 and turn #4 . Really nothing special here. Just repeat the same process

as for the previous two turns – two rol l ings into the 15″ long and 5″ wide rectangle

and two business let ter style folding. You wil l end up with 81 layers of butter

between 82 layers of dough. Again, by this t ime the dough is probably gett ing to

rubbery to work with, so back in the fr idge it goes for a 2 hours chil l .

Croissants Shaping

After the 2 hour chil l , out of the fr idge the croissant dough comes and onto a

l ight ly f loured board. This t ime rol l it into a 20″ long by 5″ wide rectangle. Try to

keep the edges as straight as possible:

Next, make a middle crosswise cut and chil l one half:

Now, rol l the one half of the croissants dough into a 12″ long by 5″ wide rectangle

and cut it in thirds and chil l two of the thirds:

Now take one of the thirds and rol l it into a 5 -1/2″ square and cut it on the bias.

Mine here doesn’t look terr ibly square-ish but you get the idea:

Roll the triangles out to extend to about 7″ long and shape it as much as you can

into a isosceles tr iangle (where two sides are equ al in length). Now start ing at the

base, rol l up the dough towards the t ip of the tr iangle, then bend it into a crescent

moon form, and place it on a buttered 12″ x 14″ baking sheet (not too close to

each other so they don’t fuse together while r is ing and baking) with the t ip of the

tr iangle on the bottom so that it wouldn’t unwrap during baking. Form the rest of

the dough the same way into a total of 12 croissants , and let it rest for an hour

covered with a plast ic wrap. This might be a good t ime to get yo ur oven going –

set it to 475 degrees (mine takes about 45 minutes to heat up). You can freeze

the r isen croissants for later baking and pop them in the oven while frozen:

Glazing and Baking

Again, no rocket science here. Simple egg-wash. Paint the r isen croissants with one

egg beater mixed with 1/2 Tsp water:

Then pop them in the pre-heated 475 degree oven and really – keep an eye on

them because they bake very fast. Usually something between 10 to 15 minutes

depending on how dark brown you wan t them to look. Don’t do any other act ivit ies

during this fast bake – you wil l forgot about the oven l ike I did so many t imes. I

tend to leave them in unti l they turn dark -brown. Let them cool on a rack for about

10 minutes and resist the temptat ion of eat ing – they are HOT!:

Voila!

Jul ia mentions in the episode that she could eat Croissants in the morning, for

lunch, for dinner, mid-morning or mid-night snack and so on. And I don’t blame

her. These evi lCroissants are so wicked delicious that can be enjoyed throughout

the day. I tend to l ike them in the morning and for lunch, as a sandwich, or s imply

with any sort of jam or marmalade. Too bad we don’t have Le Figaro, the French

news paper that Jul ia grabs at the end of the show while s itt ing down and enjoying

her caffé au lait , and freshly bakedcroissant.