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Croissants
Croissants is a traditional French recipe for a butter-laden breakfast pastry using yeast that's wonderful served with jam or marmalade and coffee. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic French version of Croissants.
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
30 minutes
Total Time:
50 minutes
Additional Time:
(+1 hour chilling/raising)
Makes:
12
Rating: 
Tags : Bread RecipesBaking RecipesFrench Recipes
Croissants are a classic French breakfast roll and they should be in every cook's repertoire (or, at least in their recipe books).
Ingredients:
1 tsp active, dried, yeast
1 tsp granulated sugar
250ml warm water
500g strong white flour
25g lard
250g softened butter
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp salt
1 egg for glaze
Method:
Dissolve the sugar in the warm water and stir-in the yeast. Set aside for ten minutes, or until the yeast mixture begins to froth. Meanwhile place the flour and salt in a bowl, cut the lard into cubes and rub this in. Add the yeast mixture and the beaten egg and mix to form a smooth dough.
Tip the dough onto a floured board and knead until smooth then roll into a large, 50 by 20cm rectangle, keeping the edges as straight as possible.
Divide the softened butter into three equal portions. Take a third of the butter and dot onto 2/3 of the dough, leaving a narrow border around the edges. Fold the bottom 1/3 of the dough towards the middle and then do the same with the top 1/3 of the dough. Seal the edges with a rolling pin, give the dough a quarter turn and roll out into an oblong again. Repeat this process with the next portion of butter, turn and roll out again. Use the final 1/3 of the butter to dot the pastry again, fold into 1/3, cover with a tea towel and place in the fridge to chill for half an hour.
Once chilled, repeat the rolling and folding three more times (but do not add any more butter). Once again cover the dough and chill for a further half an hour.
Roll out the dough to a 50x30 cm rectangle on a lightly floured surface, constantly patting in the edges to keep the shape. with a sharp knife, trim the edges neatly, then cut the dough in half lengthways. Cut each strip of dough into 3 equal-sized squares and then cut each square in half diagonally to make 12 triangles.
Starting at the widest part, roll each triangle up into a Swiss-roll shape. Then gently twist the pastry into a crescent shape and place on an ungreased baking tray. Once you're done cover the croissants with a cloth and leave to raise for about half an hour until they have approximately doubled in size. Finally glaze with beaten egg and bake in an oven pre-heated to 220&00B0;C for about 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and serve with jam and coffee.
