Its amazing how you can transfer layers of dough and butter into hundreds of delicious savoury and sweet pastry combinations.
Its advisable to make the pastry overnight and keep in the fridge. Essentially you are laminating the fat inside the dough and folding either double (book fold) or single to ensure you multiply the layers. The higher fat content of your butter the better, to ensure the layers of puff rise and give you that flaky, crispy pastry. Croissants are basically sweet, yeasted bread rolls with laminations of butter inside to give you a crunchy flaky coating which is soft and light inside.
Croissant recipe
Croissant flour / strong white flour 250g
Sugar 20g
Salt 5g
Yeast (fresh) 10g
Water 125g
Mix above and keep in fridge overnight. When laminating the next day, 400g dough to 150g butter. We gave this 3 single turns every 20 mins and then rested for 1hr.
Puff pastry recipe:
Croissant flour / strong white flour 250g
Salt 5g
Water 125g
Mix above keep in fridge overnight. When laminating the next day use 200g butter. We gave this 3 book turns every 20 mins and then rested for 1hr.
Here are some piccies from this week's pastry class.
Across the courtyard, the butchery students have been making chorizo, bacon, pate terrine, biltong and pies - let the trading commence !
Pain aux raisin |
Matt's apple & custard lattice |
Pin wheels with pear & stilton and danish twists with apple, custard & cinnamon sugar |
Palmiers |
Croissants and Pain au chocolat with handmade chocolate batons |
Danish with apricot and toasted almonds |
Sausage rolls in puff pastry |
Hi Vanessa, I was given your blog detail by Joe Piliero last time I was at the SAF, I think you were at Hovis on that day! I've been avidly following it since then and am really enjoying reading about your experiences. I thought I would try and establish comms as I will be following in your footsteps in September as like you I will be giving up a career to study baking on course number 2. It would be great to be able to chat at some stage, though you do look mighty busy. Wishing you all the best, take care. Jim Bishop bishopjim@hotmail.co.uk
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