I finally made croissants

I'm not doing anything crafty that I can take photos of yet so to fill in the space I'm giving you photos of the croissants I made this weekend! I've been talking about doing this for ages and ages and finally took the plunge. I was motivated by my essential cheapness that forbids me from buying them very often because they're so expensive and the feeling that "I could do that" for much cheaper.

I made them on Saturday night and the recipe said I could put them in the fridge to prove overnight. When I took them out in the morning not only had they not risen, they'd dried out on top. So I brushed them with milk to soften them and put them in a slightly warmed oven where they did their thing slowly and came out looking slightly dodgy from expanding while being slightly dry on the surface. Still, they look like croissants don't they!


(I salvaged the extra bits of dough and made little rolls with them which is why some don't look particularly croissanty.)

The oven was supposed to be at 200C which proved to be much too hot and I almost burned them, luckily I realised in time, turned it down, and they only came out moderately brown.



They were perfectly acceptable croissants and with a few adjustments in the recipe and technique I think I might achieve pretty damn good croissants. It's labour-intensive but instead of paying $2.50 a croissant I'm guessing these cost at most 20 cents. My plan is to make a couple of batches and freeze them prior to the second rising, then just pull them out as needed. Imagine having a freezer-ful of pain au chocolate or almond croissants as well as plain ones!

ETA: The recipe I used comes from Alison and Simon Holst's Bread Book but there are lots of recipes online too. I'd be a bit reluctant to post the recipe up anyways, but you need all the diagrams to show you how to fold everything and there is no way I'm drawing all those out!

Hot Cross Bun recipe

I'm a cooking blog now too!

Hot Cross Buns

Makes 12

1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup caster (superfine) sugar
1 1/2 cups (12 fl oz) lukewarm milk
4 1/2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
2 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp cinnamon
50g (1 1/2 oz) butter, melted
1 egg
1 1/2 cups sultanas (white raisins would be closest if you can't find sultanas)
1/3 cup candied mixed peel
1/2 cup flour extra
1/3 cup water

1. Place yeast, 2 tsp of the sugar and all of the milk in a bowl and set aside for 5 minutes. The mixture will start to foam, indicating that the yeast is still active.
2. Add the flour, mixed spice, cinnamon, butter, egg, sultanas, mixed peel and remaining sugar to the yeast mixture and mix until a sticky dough forms. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 8 minutes or until if feels elastic. Place in a greased bowl, cover with a tea towel and allow to stand in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
3. Grease a 23cm (9 inch) square cake tin and line with non-stick baking paper.
   
4. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll into balls. Place the balls in the tin, cover with a clean tea towel and set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until they rise.
   
5. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F).
6. Combine the extra flour and water, place in a piping bag and pipe crosses on the buns.
7. Bake for 35 minutes or until well browned and springy to touch.

Notes from me:

1. I used bread flour without thinking and the buns were quite dense, plain flour would probably make softer buns.
2. I baked mine on a baking tray because I didn't have a cake tin deep enough (slice tins are too shallow), they cooked faster this way.
   
3. I left in the instructions for the flour-paste crosses, but I strongly suggest you use icing!
4. These make a medium-fruity bun, increase the peel and sultanas if you like them heavy on the fruit (like me).
   
5. Chocolate chips are also really nice in these kinds of buns. I was going to say it was totally untraditional but what's more traditional at Easter than chocolate? Ok so most of it's more traditional but I do like the chocolate.
6. Like most egg breads they go stale very quickly so they're not much good after 24 hours.