Croissants

This is my second and much anticipated attempt at laminated dough after the vol-au-vent challenge but still not quite successful in terms of volume and flakiness (probably short proofing time in high room temperature). However the flavor was excactly what someone could ask from a buttery, sweet-savory, crispy crusted and soft centered croissant and goes perfectly well with the apricot-chocolate filling recipe given bellow.

           Croissants

           450gr                                                             bread flour

           260gr                                                             milk

           75gr                                                               sugar

           10gr                                                               salt

           10gr                                                               instant yeast

           300gr                                                             butter

           1                                                                    egg

           Apricot cream filling

           240gr                                                             dried apricots

           480ml                                                            orange juice

           130gr                                                             sugar

           60gr                                                               butter

           100-150gr                                                       chocolate chunks

I suggest that you make the apricot cream one day before filling so that it's completely cool and set when need to be used. For start, simmer the dried apricots and juice for about 25min, melt in the butter, add the sugar and set aside at room temperature. As soon as it gets lukewarm, mash it in a blender and refrigerate for a few hours. Then proceed with the dough and warm the milk to  approximately 32C. Dissolve in the yeast, mix the dry ingredients together and combine the two mixtures into a dough. Knead the dough for about 10min and let it rest for 1h until doubled in size.  Meanwhile prepare the butter by cutting 1cm thick slices from your butter pack and placing them on a silicone mat (or a piece of parchment paper) in the form of a 13x18cm rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap and when the butter has quite soften, roll it into a homogenous piece of slightly smaller thickness and chill. 

When the dough is ready, punch it down and roll it on a floured surface into a rectangle with length double of the butter block's small dimension and width equal to it's bigger one. Place the unwrapped butter on top in a way that it can be covered completely by the dough and enclose it, sealing the sides. Roll the dough block into a 12cm thick, long rectangle and fold it creating one layer with each one of the block's thirds. At this point, wrap well in plastic and chill for about 30min. Then roll the folded dough to combine its layers, fold in thirds again and refrigerate. After another 30min repeat the same process and when the waiting time ends, make a final roll and leave the dough overnight in fridge and wrapped well in plastic.

This portion makes about 15 croissants. To shape them, cut the dough into thirds and roll them to 6mm thick rectangles. Cut each of them into 5 triangles and roll them from base to top into crescents spreading some apricot filling on their inner surface. Complete the filling with the chocolate chunks, roll and proof in room temperature until doubled or for at least 5hours in fridge. I guess that the melted butter as a result of the warm proofing environment that I worked in is something you'd want to avoid for better volume and flakiness. Finally bake at a preheated oven to 190C for 15-20min and optionally brush with some simple syrup made as described in previous posts such as ''Kirsch torte''.