Baking by Hand (20 page)

CROISSANTS, STICKY BUNS AND BREAD PUDDING

Bakers’ schedules, as we’ve mentioned, are very much laid out before their shift even starts. Bread-centric employees know they’ll be bouncing from corner to corner of the room, with longish pauses at the shaping bench or in front of the oven, and then back again to the bench, and so on. It’s like pinball in slow motion. The AM pastry bakers, on the other hand, are generally more static than their counterparts. Upon their arrival at the bakery, they’re presented with one or two large racks of croissants, sticky buns and Danish. These racks are rolled in front of the ovens, the pastry baker formulates the weapons of the trade (egg wash and a pastry brush), and so begins the morning. Pull a tray, apply egg wash, open oven doors, insert trays, garnish pastries, hear buzzer, remove trays, apply egg wash, insert more trays …

If the bread baker slowly bounces all morning, the pastry baker does the Twist. Oh, and they duck, too; our bread oven and pastry ovens are fairly snug with each other, and getting burnt by touching a hot tray or catching an 8-foot/2.5-m baker’s peel in the forehead is not a great way to start your day. Jackie wore a strapless wedding dress on the day we tied the knot, and the multiple marks on her elbows and biceps were the source of much pride (from the groom) as well as a fair amount of consternation (from the mother of the bride).

While the baking of the croissants happens in the morning, that’s just the end point of a process that began 36 hours previously. Dough is mixed and rested overnight, butter is rolled in (a process called “lamination”), the croissants are shaped, then rested a second night, and then baked the next morning. Similar to other products in the bakery, this dough may pass through three or four different baker’s hands before they’re put out to sell. They’re the ultimate expression of technique, patience and teamwork, and we truly feel that there is no better expression of the bakery working in top form than a perfect batch of croissants. It’s a wonderful skill to master.

• Yield: 5 lbs/2.2 kg laminated croissant dough for croissants or sticky buns

• Desired Dough Temperature: 85°F/30°C

• Mixing Time: 5 minutes

• Bulk Fermentation: 2+ hours

• Refrigeration Time: At least 8 hours

• Lamination Time: 3+ hours

• Resting time before shaping: At least 2 hours

2 lb 12 oz/1.2 kg all-purpose flour

1.5 oz/40 g unsalted butter, softened, plus 1.25 lbs/570 g unsalted butter, chilled to 40°F/4°C in the fridge

4 oz/113 g granulated sugar

0.8 oz/25 g sea salt

1 lb 11 oz/765 ml 95°F/35°C water

2.2 oz/63 g milk powder

0.5 oz/15 g instant yeast

Put the flour, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. Put the water, milk powder, yeast and butter into another large bowl, swishing it around with your fingers to dissolve the milk powder. Next, dump your dry ingredients on top of the liquid ingredients, and mix by hand for about 30 seconds, until it comes together in a shaggy mass. Once it’s come together, keep mixing for another 30 seconds. No real perceptible dough development will occur, and you don’t want to build too much strength here. This dough will be rolled and folded and rolled many more times before it’s baked.

Oil a large, rectangular container. A fish tub works best (see
here
), but a deep roasting pan can be just as good. Failing all else, put it in a 9-inch × 13-inch/23 × 33-cm pan and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Let sit in a very warm place for about 2 hours.

Dust the surface with a bit of flour, and push the dough down into the corners of your container, deflating it as much as possible. You want the shape of the dough to be an even rectangle. Refrigerate until ready to laminate, up to 24 hours.

Making the beurrage: whack, whack, whack.
Take the chilled butter straight from the refrigerator. Put it on the bottom half of a piece of parchment paper measuring 13 inches × 18 inches/33 × 45 cm. Vigorously hit the block of butter with a rolling pin. It will be loud, so warn bystanders. As the butter flattens, fold it over itself and pound it some more. You want to start to form a rectangle that will fill the bottom half of the parchment. The butter should be cold but pliable. It should not break when bent, and it should also not be mushy. Fold the other half of the parchment over the butter and roll the butter packet into a neat rectangle within the confines of the parchment. The temperature of the butter should be 55°F/13°C before laminating. If it is still too cold after rolling, just allow
it to sit there and warm up. Test it with an instant-read thermometer, and if it gets too warm, pop it in the fridge.

The roll-in: making a book of butter.
Take the chilled croissant dough out of the refrigerator. Flour your table generously and tip the dough out onto the table, maintaining the rectangular shape and dimension of the dough, roughly 13 inches × 18 inches/33 × 45 cm. The shorter dimension should be oriented closest to you. Lay the butter on the bottom half of the rectangle of dough, peeling away the parchment paper. Make sure none of the butter is hanging over the edge. If it is, reposition it, and then smooth it out. Next, take the top of the dough and fold it over the top of the butter, pinching the edges of dough together to completely encase the butter. You now have a book of butter. Gently but firmly, with an open hand, press down on the whole book, to make the dough a bit thinner and to press the dough and butter together a bit before rolling it out with the pin.

The first roll-out should be relatively easy, as the dough is still weak. You need to roll it out to 18 inches × 30 inches/45 × 76 cm. Sprinkle the top as well as underneath the dough with flour as needed to prevent sticking, and roll in alternating strokes top to bottom and side to side. Keep the thickness and lines of the rectangle as even as possible. After you have reached your dimensions, brush off all the excess flour with a pastry brush. This is important, because if you do not, the excess flour will gum up the layers during baking when it encounters the steam. This will affect the texture of the final croissant.

Next, perform your first envelope fold by taking the right side of the dough and folding it one-third of the way across. Brush off excess flour on this piece before bringing the left side over on top of it. You can now sprinkle the top lightly with flour. You have your first fold. Place on a parchment-lined sheet pan, dust it with flour, wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes (not longer, or the butter will get too hard and affect the lamination).

Next it is time for the second fold or turn. Sprinkle some flour down and position the sheet pan so that the seam of the envelope is closest to you and the open part is farthest away. Flip the dough out onto the table. Flip the whole piece over so that that the top becomes the bottom again. Now, roll the dough out to 18 inches × 30 inches/45 × 76 cm again, rolling top to bottom and side to side to stretch the gluten in many different directions. Brush all the surfaces and fold the dough the same way that you did for the first fold. This time the dough will be a bit more resistant, now that the gluten is forming and the dough is cooler. Refrigerate for 45 minutes. Now it’s time for the last turn. Perform the steps just as you did for the second fold, but you will notice again that it’s a bit harder still to roll it out. Be persistent and roll it out to 18 inches × 30 inches/45 cm × 76 cm. Brush the dough, fold it up and place it back on the sheet pan. This time, rest and chill the dough for a minimum of 2 hours, or as long as overnight. This has the advantage of breaking up the process into 2 days, as well as allowing you to shape and proof the croissants the next morning in time for a breakfast or brunch. (You will probably have to get up early to get them shaped and leave them time to proof and bake, but I guarantee that your guests will appreciate it.) Proceed with one of the recipes that follow. And don’t forget to check out the tips on
here
.

5 lbs/2.2 kg laminated Croissant Dough (see
here
), excess flour brushed off

Egg wash, consisting of 1 beaten egg and a splash of water

Take the laminated dough out of the refrigerator. The dough will be quite cold and stiff, and if it rested overnight, it might be a bit proofed or filled with gas bubbles. This is fine; it means the yeast went into action before the dough cooled back down after all that rolling during the lamination process. Gently pop the bubbles with a sharp object and push the gas out gently. It will be easier to roll if you do this.

Lightly dust your work surface, and flip your dough out onto the table. Dust the surface with just enough flour to prevent your pin from sticking. When you start to roll the dough, do so gently. Don’t use lots of force right off the bat, but gently start to nudge the dough with the rolling pin until it starts to give way as it warms and stretches a bit. Once you start to make some purchase, you can start to stretch it a bit more vigorously. Doing so before it’s ready could cause the dough to rip and the layers to compact. Roll the dough out to 21 inches × 25 inches/53 × 63 cm. Then, cut that whole rectangle in half at around the 10 ½-inch/26-cm mark. This will leave you with two 10-inch × 25-inch/25 × 63-cm pieces. Gently relax the dough with your hands by lifting it slightly off the table and allowing it to shrink back a little bit. You are now ready to cut and shape the plain croissants.

Starting on the left side of each dough strip and using a bench knife or pizza wheel, trim the edge of the dough by about ½ inch/1 cm. The dough at the very end is somewhat unevenly laminated and doesn’t make a nice croissant. Then, working with one strip at a time and starting at the bottom left corner of the strip, make a straight cut upward at about a 30-degree angle to the top of the strip. This means you will have a scrap piece at the left end. Make another cut to meet back down at the bottom of the strip so that the base of the triangle you are creating is about 3 inches/7 cm wide. You have cut your first croissant. You will now make your next identical shape starting back at the base of the first croissant, and you will go back and forth like this until you reach the end of the strip. You should get 12 croissants from each dough strip.