Pre-fermented croissants
Binging with Babish · ♥ 32K likes · 1M views · 30 min video
Read about croissants and Danish in the BrightCulinary Book
Timestamp
Ingredients
Method
Techniques
- pre-ferment
- 160 g milk
- 1½ tsp instant yeast
Mix the sticky pre-ferment with the warmed milk and the yeast first, which also distributes the yeast.
- 170 g pastry flour
- 110 g bread flour
- 36 g unsalted butter
- 40 g sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
Add the pastry flour, bread flour, room temperature butter, sugar and salt and mix to a homogeneous dough.
Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and proof at room temperature; checked at half an hour, left about two hours.
- 200 g butter
- 30 g bread flour
Butter block: cube the butter, add the bread flour and work it with the paddle on low until pliable - cold but bendable - with most of it down around the sides of the bowl.
Turn the butter onto a parchment sheet, fold the parchment over itself to make a square and roll it out to a rectangle half an inch thick, then chill to firm up.
Pre-shape the dough by hand and with a bench scraper to about the same half inch thickness and chill 20 to 30 minutes, until dough and butter poke the same.
Brush off all excess flour, line the butter up on one half of the dough, roll a dent down the middle so it folds over easily and gently close the edges; a wet fingertip helps if there is stray flour.
After the book fold, give it three letter folds, each time rolling with the spine to one side and in the opposite direction to the last fold, squishing before rolling and keeping the edges the same thickness.
Letter folds with Babish
Roll out about 11 to 12 inches wide and as long as it comes; the cook corrects herself on air that a quarter to an eighth of an inch is the right thickness, not the half inch she first said.
Rolling out the classic dough
Cut a leg slit about three quarters to an inch deep in the middle of each short side, massage the triangle to elongate it, separate the legs and roll up, tucking the edge underneath; avoid touching the cut sides so the layers do not melt.
Trim all the edges and cut four and a half inch rectangles, then cut on the diagonal into triangles.
- 1 whole egg
- 1 whole egg yolk
- salt
- cream
Whisk the egg, egg yolk, a pinch of salt and a splash of cream and brush the croissants, keeping the wash off the cut sides so it does not impede the rise; a thicker coat gives a shinier finish.