Oooh La La Croissants!

For some strange reason I became obsessed with France in the last month. It is kinda already taking over my house decor and now my kitchen :) I always thought croissants were difficult to make, however, they were super simple! The hardest part was wait for the dough to be ready.

Ingredients

4 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 1/4 cups of butter @ room temperature
1 teaspoon quick-rise active yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cups of lukewarm water
2/3 cups of lukewarm milk
oil for greasing
1 egg for glazing

preheat over to 425

First you sift all flour into a large bowl, add 4 tablespoons of butter and use fingers to mix together. The flour should look like fine breadcrumbs. Then stir in the yeast and sugar.

make a well and add all milk and water into the center. Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth. My arms started hurting after 2 mins so I ended up throwing the dough into my mixer with dough hooks :) It took only a minute for the dough to form. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours. I know 2 hours is sooo long! but it is worth the wait believe me.



Roll a sheet of parchment paper. I used plastic wrap beacuse I ran out of parchment paper and it worked just a well. Place remaining butter on plastic wrap and cover with another sheet on top. Roll the butter in a rectangle shape and let set in the fridge until the dough is ready


~kinda rectangle looking :)~

After waiting two long hours roll out dough into rectangle and place butter in the center. wrap the dough around the butter and roll over the bundle until 7 x 14 inches.Fold again, rewrap in plastic and chill for another 30 mins repeat this more times after this. So in all you have to wait 1 1/2 hour more and roll it out 3 times.




Roll out dough one last time and cut into triangles. Now here is where you change change the recipe to however you want. I decided to add Black forest ham and Swiss cheese to some croissants and semi-sweet chocolates to the rest. You dont have to add anything if you dont want to but the are really delish if there is a little surprise inside :)





~black forrest ham and swiss cheese~

~semi-sweet chocolate makes it super delish~

~just roll up, coat with egg and bake for 10-12 mins and Voila! Croissants




The croissants where perfect! they were light, fluffy, buttery, flakey, oh wow they were wonderful. My hubby ate four of them! So they dont look like they have a chance in our house :) I cant believe how easy they were to make. The hardest part was waiting :) So now when I eat my croissant I can close my eyes and wish we would get pcs'd to Germany so I can go to Paris :)


~Hey can't a girl dream!~
Bon Apetit!